If it’s a pick-six, an end-zone planking can break out

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/07/2011 (5243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BY now you’ve seen the Bombers’ touchdown celebration that occurred seconds after defensive back Alex Suber ran back the game-winning interception in Hamilton.

Players lying down face first, perfectly still, arms at the side with legs straight out.

Planking.

What?

Planking.

“I don’t really know what that is,” head coach Paul LaPolice said when asked what he thought of the latest Bombers touchdown celebration craze. “I had to look it up at one point. I did it with them one day on the field (at practice); I thought it was some sort of celebration. They all fell to the ground, so I fell to the ground (too). But I didn’t know what it was.”

Planking is simply the act of lying face down for a photograph. Its origins are believed to be in Australia and a Facebook planking page has nearly 440,000 fans of the pastime.

People have died trying to plank for photos. Seriously. It’s all fun and games until you end up in an eternal planking position inside a pine box.

So how did the planking phenomenon reach the Bombers?

First rule of planking: Don’t talk about planking.

“I don’t know who came up with planking — I know it’s real big on Twitter right now,” laughed linebacker Clint Kent, a frequent user of the popular online social connector. “I have no idea who started it.”

OK, but everyone seems to have a good idea who is going to end it in Bomberland.

LaPolice has quickly defused other touchdown celebrations in the past (remember when Terence Jeffers-Harris went behind the cannon after a score last season?) and the coach told reporters he’s talked to his players about the planking party.

So they won’t be doing it anymore, right?

The coach didn’t exactly say no, leaving the window open for the defence to lay down another liedown after another pick-six.

AFTER THE FACT: Bombers quarterback Buck Pierce says there were no aftershocks following the big hit he took from Hamilton’s Jamall Johnson on Canada Day.

No headaches, no soreness, no problems.

“I was fine, I felt great,” Pierce said Monday.

For the record, Pierce said the Johnson hit wasn’t the hardest he’s ever taken playing football. He couldn’t remember precisely who hit him harder or when that hit took place, but he figures it was sometime while playing at New Mexico State.

NOTES: The Bombers are over 24,000 tickets sold for Friday’s game with the Toronto Argonauts… Thanks to injuries to kicker Rob Maver and defensive lineman Corey Mace, the Calgary Stampeders signed kicker Rene Paredes and defensive lineman Shawn Mayne on Monday. The Bombers released both players after training camp… Ticats head coach Marcel Bellefeuille confirmed Monday that QB Kevin Glenn will start when the Tabbies take on the Eskimos in Edmonton later this week.

— Wazny