Lamenting the lost Grey Cup weekend: 'Sad period in the history of the league'

In a normal year, grocery store snack aisles would be packed this weekend with people in jerseys, face paint and probably wild wigs and weird hats.

Canadian footballfans are a special, colourful breed, and this should have been their time to really let loose.

Theywould have been loading up on treats for Grey Cup Sunday a day most likely embedded in their brains like the logo pressed intothe leather of a CFL football.

"The league is a real piece of Canadiana.It's very unique and it brings together a unique group of people who love it," saidBob Irving, who has been CJOBRadio's play-by-play voice for Winnipeg Blue Bombers games since 1975.

"It's a real people's league. It's not like the Super Bowl, where you need thousands of dollars to get into any of the events," he said.

During Grey Cup week, "youcan get into the parties andmeet people from across the country, fans of all the other teams, and it's all in good fun and in good spirit," said Irving.

"It's a very special week indeed on the Canadian calendar never mind the Canadian sports calendar, but the Canadian calendar, period."

But there areno shenanigans this year.No steed being trotted into a hotel by Calgary Stampeders fans. No swapping of collector pins, orsteaming pancake breakfasts or late-night party tents.

COVID-19 obliterated it all. The season never even began.

For the first time in 101 years, the CFL's championship trophy will not be handed out.That hasn't happened since the 1919 game was nullified by a rules dispute between rugby organizations, and because the country was still recovering from both the 1918-19 Spanish fluepidemic and the First World War, which put the 1916-18 seasons on hold.

This year's big game, slated to be played in Regina's Mosaic Stadium on Nov. 22, would have been Irving's 48th consecutive Grey Cup as either a fan or broadcaster.

"Not being in the Grey Cupcity during Grey Cup week is very unusual and different. And I miss it," he said.

"In the last couple of Sundays I've been marking those days as what would have been the West [Division] semifinal,then the West final last Sunday, and then this Sunday, of course, the Grey Cup.

"To get to this time in the season and not have the great playoff games and the drama surrounding them it creates a void for sure.It's really a sad period in the history of the league."

The void comes after the Bomberswontheir first Grey Cup title in 29 years last season, defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Catsin Calgary.

Holding onto the title by default, though, doesn't make them champs for two straight years, Irving notedachuckle.

"A lot of people want to say that. They're the defending Grey Cup champions, we can say that," he said.

"We'll see if they can win two in a row when we get back to playing."

Theleagueon Friday expressed optimism fora 2021 season, announcing aschedulewith the first game beinga 2019 Grey Cup rematch between theBombers and Ticats.

Until then, memories from Winnipeg's3312 win will have to carry Bombers fans.

A season to remember

And there's much to reflect on, said Irving, starting with the fact that last season, the Bombers (11-7, third place in the West Division) were viewed as huge underdogs to the 15-3 Ticats, who held the CFL's best record and were on a seven-game win streak.

But the Bombers were riding a wave of confidence as well, knocking off Calgary in the semifinal their first win in that city intwo decades.

They then went intoSaskatchewan and dropped theWest's top team20-13, after a nail-gnawing end that had the Roughriders on goal linetwice in the final two minutes, pushingfor agame-tying touchdown, but theBombers defence was a wall.

With four seconds left,an end zonepass by Riders QB Cody Fajardo hit the crossbar of the uprights. Dead ball. Game over.

"The atmosphere, you couldcould cut the tension with a knife at the end of that game. It was just a spectacular ending," Irving said.

The Bombers did it withquarterback Zach Collaros, who Saskatchewan had tossed aside.Collaros started the season with the Riders but suffered a concussion in Game 1. Saskatchewan traded him to Toronto in late July, but Collaros didn't play a game there.

He was picked up by the Bombers in a trade deadline dealsix weeks before the Grey Cup, after injuries hobbled Winnipeg's QBs.Matt Nichols had season-ending surgery and ChrisStrevelersuffered an ankle injury in the second-last regular season game.

Collaroswent4-0, includingthree consecutive road wins to clinch the cup. The Bombers only won three on the road all season prior tothat.

As for Streveler, many assumed his season was done. But the QB built like a tankshowed up with a heavily taped ankle and went to work. In the Westsemi, he set a CFL playoff record by taking 23 snaps without attempting a pass, running in spite ofhis injury.

In the Grey Cup, he threw a touchdown pass, rushed 30 yards and caught a pass on a trick play.

The 2019 Bombers also featured four Winnipeg-born heroes in Andrew Harris, Nic Demski, Brady Oliveira and Geoff Gray.

Harris, who was threeyears old the last time the Bombers won the championship, became the first player in CFL history to be named the Grey Cup's top player and top Canadian.

And the team helped long-sufferingfan Chris Matthew to finally pull on his pants, while thousands of other diehard Blue and Gold faithful crowded downtown Winnipeg for a parade to The Forks.

Abeer-swilling, shirtless Strevelerdressed in afur coat and cowboy hat embodiedthe party mood.

"[The victory and parade] brought the fans out and the love for the Blue Bombers in a way that really underlined how important this organization, this team is to the fibre of this community," said Irving.

That's why the loss of the 2020 season stings so much, he said.

"They were bringing most of the championship team back, and most of us felt they would have another great chance to win it again," Irving said.

"The chance to take another run at it this yearboy, that's a lost opportunity that I know weighs heavily on the players."