How to explain 19 years of championship- lessness?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/11/2009 (5866 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There I was, speaking with Steve Lyons, sports editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, in the locker-room on Sunday just after we had lost by 22 points at home to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

I had just spent the last few minutes trying to summarize for the media what it felt like to finish the season at 7-11 and blow a perfect opportunity to not only make the playoffs but host a playoff game at home and slowly erase the negative connotations that had followed this 2009 season.

Agonizing stuff.

I then realized I still had to face the music with a radio show the next night, and a column today with a circulation of a few hundred thousand copies or so, sure to be read by a number of frustrated fans eagerly awaiting to exact a measure of revenge with venom on their tongues and poison on their fingertips.

"Good luck with that," Steve said as he left my stall and wandered into the dark recesses of the locker-room. A good sports editor he is — guidance counselor and shoulder to cry on — not so much.

So where do we go from here? A 700-word apology on behalf of the players?

An insight into what happens when you suddenly run out of work for the next seven months?

My take on the defensive side of the game?

I suppose a little bit of everything will probably suffice.

When the season finishes abruptly and unexpectedly it happens real fast. One day you have visions of sugar plums and home playoff games dancing in your head and the next minute you are asked to take an end-of-year physical, weigh out, have final meetings with all your coaches, clean out your locker, pick up your game check, turn in your sweats, go to the season-ending luncheon, and hand over your pass card which grants you entry to the facility. Oh, and don’t let the door hit you in the @$$ on the way out.

It’s swift, merciless, and not personal. It’s just the way the business of football works.

Of course, before we even began the walk of shame procession on Maroons Road, we got to get up in the morning and be greeted by several varying accounts of how we managed, yet again, to contribute to the streak of 19 years of championshiplessness. I made that word up myself.

Accurate

Some I thought were accurate accounts of what transpired on Sunday afternoon, like when Gary Lawless interviewed Khari Jones, and old KJ remarked that Kevin "… played pretty well overall. He fought through adversity… Winnipeg has a good defence and they showed it."

I didn’t like Randy Turner’s account near as much though as he concluded, "… the Bombers never really got to see if Glenn does, indeed, start hearing footsteps because he spent the entire afternoon virtually untouched — throwing for 316 yards in the process."

Sure we only sacked him twice and he completed 66 per cent of his passes for just over 300 yards. But this was actually the first time in the last four games Kevin had been sacked at all, and the man had the ball in his little hands for 70 plays and 40 minutes in the game. You better throw for 300 yards with that kind of time of possession.

He threw one touchdown, ran in another, but was also intercepted twice — one which was returned for a quick six and had five two-and-outs.

And he got hit, hurried, and flushed out of the pocket when we rushed more than three players.

Sure he was bothered by one of his own former offensive linemen calling him a "bit fragile" and myself regurgitating what he always admitted when he was here about not liking getting hit — like 99 per cent of all quarterbacks.

But don’t tell me Kevin didn’t know he was in a game on Sunday and was just out for a leisurely stroll, having his way with us as he saw fit.

Oh, and the apology.

I got carried away there for a bit and almost forgot the most important part.

It speaks volumes that this community was able to rally behind a 7-11 team and sell out the final contest of the regular season in an attempt to support our desperation bid for the playoffs. Hopefully, circumstances will never dictate that necessity again, and more importantly, one of these years, your loyalty and faith to the franchise will be rewarded in kind.

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