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March 27, 2020

Column: From Brady to Roberts and everything in between

Winnipeg Blue Bombers runningback Charles Roberts (1) looks back at wide receiver Milt Stegall (85) during practice in Toronto Saturday, Nov. 24, 2007. The Saskatchewan Roughriders will play the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 95th Grey Cup on Sunday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Earlier this week – roundabout the same time as another photoshopped image of Tom Brady wearing a No. 12 Tampa Bay Buccaneers jersey flashed across the television screen – yours truly began reminiscing about Charles Roberts.

First thing’s first, there is no direct correlation between one of the greatest quarterbacks in National Football League history and the legendary running back of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

It’s just given more time to read and more time to think these days while in isolation, the brain – at least mine – does have a tendency to wander. And that’s how the visual of Brady in a Bucs uniform led to a trip down memory lane about Roberts.

Seeing Brady in colours other than the red, white and blue of the New England Patriots just seemed odd, to be honest. Just as it was during that short stint that saw Roberts in the orange and black of the B.C. Lions back in 2008 after he was traded by the Bombers.

Roberts, as Bombers fans know, began his career in Winnipeg and played all but seven of his 138 games in the Canadian Football League in blue and gold. But in 2008, just after the Labour Day Classic and increasingly frustrated by his tendency to operate on his own schedule, Roberts was shipped to B.C. for running back Joe Smith.

Roberts was still productive in his seven games with B.C., scoring five touchdowns, but it just looked and felt wrong to see the Bombers’ all-time leading rusher and a future Canadian Football and Winnipeg Football Club Hall of Famer in orange – just as it does seeing Brady photoshopped into a Bucs jersey.

If you allow me to riff on this a little further, I felt the same way seeing Tyrone Jones in Saskatchewan and B.C. colours after he left the Bombers. Ditto for another Bombers hall of famer in Greg Battle who, although he finished his career in Winnipeg, did have that stretch from 1994-96 where he collected jerseys from the Las Vegas Posse, Ottawa Rough Riders, Memphis Mad Dogs and Saskatchewan.

The same goes, by the way, whenever I see a photo of Bobby Orr in a Chicago Blackhawks jersey or Michael Jordan in a Washington Wizards uniform. There are a zillion other examples, too, where a star player with the Bombers or another team finishes his career with one last hurrah in a different uniform after making his name with his first club.

Maybe this is just waxing poetic or getting nostalgic about the good ol’ days when players stayed with their teams. And, yes, the explosion of free agency in pro sports in the 1970s and the CFL’s trend toward one-year contracts means it’s less likely a player spending his entire career with one club, as Ken Ploen, Leo Lewis, Milt Stegall and Doug Brown did here with the Bombers.

Anyway, one more on Brady, as he heads into another season at age 42…

It still baffles that of the six quarterbacks selected ahead of him in the 2000 NFL Draft, two – Tee Martin and Spergon Wynn – played for the Bombers. Brady was selected 199th overall, after Chad Pennington (18th to the New York Jets), Giovanni Carmazzi (65th to the San Francisco 49ers), Chris Redman (75th to the Baltimore Ravens), Martin (163rd to the Pittsburgh Steelers), Marc Bulger (168th to the New Orleans Saints) and Wynn (183rd to the Cleveland Browns).

Martin, FYI, backed up Kevin Glenn in 2004-5 and completed 40 of 95 passes with one TD and four interceptions; Wynn was also around for a stretch in 2005.

via ESPN

More musings this week from isolation…

HAD A NUMBER OF GOOD CHATS WITH BOMBER PLAYERS THIS WEEK… some of which morphed into a story about staying sharp during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was during a chat with offensive lineman Pat Neufeld that I asked if he had taken up any new hobbies during the isolation. Maybe a musical instrument or painting or woodworking or…

“It’s interesting you ask that,” said Neufeld from his offseason home in Saskatoon.

“Before this all happened my girlfriend and I took pottery classes and I really fell in love with it. It wasn’t very good at the start, but there was enough of it for me to really enjoy it. Right now I wish I could do more. Maybe I will when this is over.”

When it was suggested he could craft giant beer goblets for his compadres along the offensive line, Neufeld added:

“Funny you bring that up… my first year in the CFL my O-line coach was Steve Burratto. When we all broke camp and had made the team, he brought in personalized coffee cups for every single offensive lineman. It’s like the biggest mug I have.

“To me it was such a cool and unique gift… you never expect to get from an offensive line coach a hand thrown, hand-painted coffee mug. That always stuck in the back of my head as something I’d like to try. I always just pushed it off and finally got to do it. Maybe, deep down, that was the inspiration behind why I got into pottery.

“Hopefully at some point I can make some mugs for the guys.”

DID YOU KNOW, PART 1?… Brandon Alexander’s brother, Troy Blyden, is a member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

DID YOU KNOW, PART 2?… Former Bombers O-lineman Garrick Jones (2002, 2006) has launched a petition to become the next GM of the Houston Texans.

Jones is currently the Commissioner & CEO of the States Developmental Football League, the President of the Huddle Up Foundation of Houston, and treasurer of the NFLPA Houston Chapter. He felt the Texans trade of DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals represented “the sheer arrogance of upper management wanting to prove points while establishing the ‘It’s my way or the highway’ scenario not only hurts the team, but it hurts the chances of our city ever seeing a Super Bowl championship.

If interested in more details, click here.

AND, FINALLY, GOOD ON BOMBERS HEAD COACH MIKE O’SHEA… and CFL commissioner Randy Amrbosie for interacting with fans on Friday through social media. O’Shea held a Q&A with fans on Instagram, while the commish did the same on CFL.ca.

Many fans are wondering about when the 2020 season might start and how it might impact the playoffs.

Nobody asked me, but a thought… what happens if the season is delayed significantly, perhaps with a start as late as September?

The Grey Cup is scheduled for November 22nd in Regina, but could playoff games be pushed into mid-December? And at that point would the Grey Cup being moved to a dome like B.C. Place or Olympic Stadium be a consideration to take the weather conditions out of the equation?

That would mean some major scrambling, of course, and it would dramatically impact the host cities of Regina and Hamilton, both of whom will undoubtedly host spectacular Grey Cup weeks. But they could also still play host to the games in the years after this due to the current unprecedented circumstances.

Just throwing it out there. Discuss amongst yourselves.