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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Lions gave us 'frontal moon' before game

Uncivilized act an embarrassment to Buono, league

By: Doug Brown

Posted: 08/25/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

It always feels like the last game before the bye week should be worth an extra point just because of how much impact it can have on your days off.

Had we lost to the Lions in B.C. and gone to 2-6 for the season, it would have felt like a number of players would be saying "bye" to Winnipeg in a much more permanent fashion.

The joke I shared with CJOB's Bob Irving in the lobby of the hotel the day before the game was that due to the state of affairs and possibility of dropping to 2-6, if we performed on Friday like we have in so many years past in Vancouver, then it was prudent and pro-active of the club to have us clean out our lockers for the AC/DC concert prior to the trip.

But the difference now between our 3-5 and B.C.'s 3-5 record couldn't be more pronounced.

To spend two weeks as the team that set the record as opposed to two weeks as the team that was victimized by the record makes us the Montreal Alouettes of 3-5 teams when it comes to our mindset entering the break.

When you have additional downtime, winning on your way out leaves you infinitely more optimistic about the promise and potential remaining in the year than the doubt and dark cloud that can't help but follow you after a one-sided loss.

Having stayed in Vancouver until Monday to visit with family and friends though, I feel there was a big part of the story missing in the post-game coverage. While Mike Beamish in the Vancouver Sun and others in the Province did their due diligence taking the Lions to task, specifically the defence that surrendered some 393 yards on the ground, they missed what happened before the game even started, and what we, the Bombers, were subjected to on the sideline.

After the Lions were introduced and they had their standard huddle at centre field, a group of some 20-odd players broke off from the pack and advanced about 10 yards towards our sideline and did something I have never witnessed in the 13 years I have been involved in professional football in both the CFL and NFL.

For you pro wrestling fans out there, the visual will be automatic, but bear with me as I paint the picture to the rest of the readers.

We were issued what is commonly seen as the finishing-move salute by some wrestlers formerly known as "De-generation X."

What this consisted of was a large number of Lions players raising their arms simultaneously in a judo-chop-like pose and with great group precision, bringing them quickly down in a V-shape manner ending and pointing at their groin region.

It's essentially how you moon somebody from the front and it is intended to show great disrespect and disdain for your opponent.

I saw it happen, coach Kelly saw it happen, Ike Charlton remarked "they just didn't really do that did they?" and judging from the way they played, Fred Reid and Yvenson Bernard and the offensive line must have seen it happen.

If memory serves me, the CFL outlawed all obscene and lewd gestures like the throat-slash and this fake wrestling B.S. many years ago, but that did not deter a number of these new, seemingly prepubescent Lions.

It certainly bothered a number of us but it was not the reason we were successful on that night.

In fact, I was more embarrassed for the soon-to-be-most-successful head coach in CFL history, Wally Buono, and the fact that his charges would represent the B.C. franchise and the CFL in such an infantile and disrespectful manner.

In the wake of the 37-10 Bombers win, in which Fred Reid set a new single-game Blue Bomber rushing record, defensive tackle Aaron Hunt exclaimed to Mike Beamish at the Sun that, "He made us look like a junior football team."

While Fred Reid had a whale of a day rushing over and around the Lions in that contest, with apologies to minor football organizations all over the Lower Mainland, the B.C. Lions behaved like a junior team before the game even started.

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 25, 2009 B7

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