Blue try to keep hype down to dull roar

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This article was published 02/09/2016 (3324 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan who doesn’t put more emphasis on winning the Labour Day Classic than any other game of the year.

It’s only natural given a rivalry that’s seen everything from risqué print and billboard adds to provincial premiers making friendly bets with one another.

It adds to the allure of what Blue Bombers-Saskatchewan Roughriders means to all involved on the biggest weekend in the CFL. But what you might find surprising is the players view it, as they say they should, as just another game in their 18-game season.

“At the end of the day, you have to approach it like that,” said veteran receiver Clarence Denmark.

He will play in his sixth consecutive LDC Sunday and has seen it all during his tenure. For him, the fans and the media make a big deal out of the game, causing players to take note.

“The players go in thinking like that. I’ve known some players to really buy into it,” Denmark said. “They’re hearing it all week, they’re watching TV and seeing everybody talk about it, the coaches are talking about it.

“Everybody wants to hype this game up, but we need to bring it down to it just being a regular game. We’re playing with confidence right now and we expect to win it.”

Winning in Regina on this particular weekend on the CFL schedule has eluded the Bombers for more than a decade. Not since 2004 have the Bombers come home with a check in the win column. They’ve lost 11 straight and 34 of 51 total meetings over the years.

A win Sunday would mark the end to another tough streak in the club’s recent history in what will be the last LDC at the current Mosaic Stadium.

Head coach Mike O’Shea has been through the rigmarole before, as a player in another LDC between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and as a field general with the Bombers.

“It’s been a theme for as long as I can remember,” he said. “If you emphasize one week, are you deemphasizing another? The preparation has to have some sort of consistency to allow you to play consistently out there.”

O’Shea still recognizes the implications the game has for the fans, including the hundreds, if not thousands, of Bomber fans who will make the 600-kilometre trek west to Regina.

“It’s huge,” he said, admitting the support in the Argos-Ticats LDC perhaps wasn’t at a level it should be. “I don’t think that’s lacking in this game. The fans are rabid.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @scottbilleck

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

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