The deck may be stacked but history says…

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/11/2011 (5397 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — It’s all stacked up against the Blue Bombers, right?

The Lions are seven-point favourites and have won 11 out of their last 12 games. They have more all-stars than any other team in the CFL. The 2011 Most Outstanding Player (quarterback Travis Lulay) leads their offence.

To make matters worse for Winnipeg, the Grey Cup is in Vancouver. The sold-out home crowd, expected to be north 54,000, will mostly be clad in orange.

Expectations for a B.C. win are through the roof, so to speak.

Doom and gloom for Blue and Gold?

Bombers assistant coach Markus Howell is one of a handful of players and staff on the Winnipeg side with a Grey Cup ring (won with Calgary in 2008). The Stamps had to play against the Alouettes in Montreal in that game and Howell recalls a pre-game speech Calgary coach John Hufnagel gave the team prior to taking the field.

The back end of that speech is inscribed on his ring.

It’s a message he’s tried to impart to players this week.

“It says, ‘We’re on the road, it’s a home game for them, there’s 70,000 screaming fans in the Big O, and nobody is picking us to win. We got ’em right where we want ’em,’ ” Howell laughed.

Final score: Calgary 22, Montreal 14.

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Bombers receiver Aaron Hargreaves, 25, grew up in the Vancouver area (he was born in Ladner, B.C.) and went to school at Simon Fraser. Coming back home under the Grey Cup spotlight has been a little strange, he said.

“I was always a Lions fan, until I was drafted by Winnipeg (in 2008). From that point on, I’m a Bombers fan.”

Hargreaves’ roots to Lions fandom reach as far as naming Geroy Simon as his favourite player growing up. Of course, the 36-year-old former Bomber is still catching passes for the Leos.

Simon said hearing current members of the league talk like that make him feel, well…

“A little bit old, but it makes me feel good to know younger football players, guys are looking to me,” he said.

Hargreaves was just 14-years-old when Simon came to B.C. in 2001.

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Among the many interesting features of the refurbished BC Place Stadium is the field turf. It shares a similar feel to the old Astroturf, the popular carpet which replaced most grass baseball and football surfaces in the 1980s.

Winnipeg players say the BC Place turf is very quick.

“It’s really short, and it’s hard, too,” Bombers linebacker Pierre-Luc Labbe said, running his toe along the bristles.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca