Don’t dream - it’s over*
Photo: Globe and Mail
By Flippy Dinwiddie
*with apologies to Crowded House
Abstract: Disgruntled casual Bomber fan posts pointless, semi-verbose stream-of-consciousness-ish tirade
Note: I’d better post this before the Monday media scrum starts - otherwise it will become a profanity-laced bit of anti-Kelly vitriol that I may live to regret.
First things first. I’m what you would maybe call a slightly-more-than-casual Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan. I don’t go to a lot of games, but watch on TV if/when I can and/or listen on the radio if I’m in my car. I could probably name half the roster (although the revolving door in and out of this football club definitely isn’t helping).
I attended one game this year – the shellacking the Bombers received at the hands of Anthony Calvillo and the Montreal Alouettes – and a few the year before that. You could say I’m coming back around to the team after some years away from watching football. As I sat in the upper deck on the east side of CanadInns Stadium nursing a beer, I was sure that I had witnessed what would surely be the worst outing by the Blue & Gold all season.
If only that were the case. Last week’s atrocious performance in the Banjo Bowl followed by this week’s decidedly more predictable walloping by the Montreal Alouettes were both exercises in futility - games so regrettable that one thinks change must be imminent after such a disgraceful performance. Legions of fans have been calling for the firing of one of (or both) head coach Mike Kelly and Lyle Bauer.
I heard the coach lamenting the quarterback position on the post-game radio show yesterday afternoon as I drove around running errands and I thought fleetingly that he had seen the errors of his ways.
By the time I got home, Arjei Franklin and Romby Bryant (both decidedly non-quarterbacks) have been traded to the Calgary Stampeders. That must have made for an awkward trip back to Winnipeg from Montreal for the two ex-Bombers. The team couldn’t have waited until they returned to an empty James A. Richardson airport?
Yes, I know, I’m what Coach Kelly would endearingly call a “fairweather fan” - not a Blue & Gold-blooded Bomber fan that lives and dies by the team. But that doesn’t mean I’m dumb as a post or totally devoid of how team (re)building/etc. works when it comes to professional sports. It also doesn’t mean that I can’t exercise my frustration with Kelly and the rest of the Blue Bomber organization with my wallet.
I know a bit about sticking with a team through the good times and the bad - I’ve done it for years with my favourite pro hockey team (who haven’t won the Stanley Cup in some years), I did it with the Winnipeg Jets and I’m willing to do it for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The problem is that Mike Kelly makes it so difficult to actually feel anything but spite and disgust for the organization as a whole.
When Kelly was brought in, I watched as he dismantled last year’s admittedly-mediocre team, retaining that same cautious optimism that he must know what he’s doing. But as his less-than-happy-go-lucky attitude started coming out in the media, I started to worry. Michael Bishop was brought in and apparently only throws footballs that usually only the opponent can catch. Seriously, buddy’s constantly throwing the ball about 5-10 yards too far - if only we could hire Usain Bolt as a receiver.
I think any inkling of an effective offense has leaked out Kelly’s freckled bald head, has floated up into space and is currently careening toward the sun. I don’t know.
Eleven games into the 2009 season and this train has left the tracks, careening ever more quickly towards a chasm from which it will take years to crawl out of. I know, don’t take any of it at any sort of face value - after all, I’m just a “fairweather fan”, right?
