Casting out the Cowtown curse

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/08/2009 (6250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — There is no clear-cut, answer, of course. Oh, there are theories as to why the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have lost six straight to the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium and have generally sucked here over the last 20 years, with an embarrassing 3-17 over that stretch.

Former Bomber Markus Howell, now with the Stamps, suggested — tongue firmly planted in cheek — that maybe the beds at the team’s hotel weren’t soft enough.

It’s been thought the altitude here at the base of the Rockies can leave any visiting squad gasping for air and hacking like a chain smoker.

And we mustn’t forget the Stamps’ quarterbacks over that span — Flutie, Garcia, Dickenson, Burris — who have all taken turns driving the tanks that have rolled over the Bombers.

Dave Ritchie’s last game as the Bomber head coach was here, back in 2004. It snowed during a mid-September loss in 2006.

And the Stamps’ average margin of butt-kicking over the six-game skid is a grotesque 16.8 points.

Those are the gory details. Question now is: How do the Bombers stop the nightmare from recurring all over again when the two meet tonight?

"I’ll tell you how," said middle linebacker Barrin Simpson after practice Friday at McMahon Stadium. "We’ve got to come in here and jump on them… hit them like, right now, and get all up in their face. That’s the only way we’re going to change things, by coming out here and be physical with them. Punish them. Not let them get jumping around and doing their little dances.

"They’re the champs. You’ve got to come into the ring and punch him right in the mouth right away. It’s like, DING! and then BANG! That’s what I’m saying we’ve got to do. The whistle blows and then on the opening kickoff we’ve got to punch them in the mouth right off the top. That’s the attitude you’ve got to have. You’ve got to be this close to cocky because the difference between cocky and confidence is this close (holds thumb and index finger close together). You can’t see through there, right?

"You’ve got to have that walk if you’re going to win in somebody else’s house."

You’ve got to have the walk or, perhaps, have absolutely no clue about the previous slaughters. And that’s where all the massive turnover this past season might work in the Bombers’ favour. After all, it’s not like a whole lot of this remade outfit has experienced every anguishing moment of that six-game skid.

But Doug Brown has. Actually, he’s experienced both ends of the spectrum.

His first game as a Bomber was here in 2001 and he scored a TD in a 48-20 Winnipeg win, breaking a nine-game losing streak in Calgary. And the Bombers won again here a year later.

"My first game, my sister was here and she had a big ‘Welcome back to Canada’ sign for me," Brown recalled. "I scored a touchdown in that game… me and Denny Fortney were tearing it up a little bit in that game against Joe Fleming and the big, bad Stampeders. But they had the last laugh at the end of the season (in Calgary’s Grey Cup win). I remember that game being a big win for us, although I remember having no idea why Milt Stegall was running up and down the sidelines like he was riding a horse every time we scored a touchdown.

"But I also remember Lyle Bauer standing over there in the corner for one loss just shaking his head. Wasn’t coach Ritchie’s last game here? I don’t know, man, this has been the place where Bomber teams have come to die. It’s a culture of losing that has been formulated in our trips here. You don’t have a readily available scapegoat like you do in Montreal, like Crescent Street and that kind of stuff. The culture develops, and it just snowballs.

"I think," Brown continued, ‘I’m the only guy on the team who remembers how much we’ve lost here, so it’s good we’ve gotten rid of everybody else so that that memory isn’t overwhelming. It’s a new regime. That’s the thing about this. We have a new track record, and we’re 0-and-0 at McMahon Stadium right now."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca