Mark’s CFL Week Preview

It was a smorgasbord of events across five days that provided the perfect fix for news-starved Canadian Football League fans.

The inaugural CFL Week in Regina last March was a blitz on the senses, allowing fans to mingle with stars of the present and legends of the past, while getting an up-close look at the next wave of Canadian talent during the Western Regional and National Combines of draft prospects.

And now that Saskatchewan established the template, Winnipeg looks to build on it.

The league’s movers and shakers, both on and off the field, descend here this week beginning Wednesday and running through Sunday. The league has forever held rules and board of governors meetings in the offseason, and the combine for prospects has been around for years. But by combining those annual events with fan-friendly get-togethers, the CFL has already effectively created an offseason party that can help break up the monotonous, slow news cycle of the winter.

The decision to fly in 52 current CFL players – including Matt Nichols, Andrew Harris, Darvin Adams, Adarius Bowman, Weston Dressler, Taylor Loffler and Maurice Leggett of the Blue Bombers – was inspired, as it allows fans to interact with some of the league’s best when they are relaxed and have their guards down.

The week opens Wednesday night with the announcement of the 2018 Canadian Football Hall of Fame induction class at a ticketed VIP reception. Last year’s star-studded crew included players Anthony Calvillo, Geroy Simon, Kelvin Anderson and Mike O’Shea, and builders Stan Schwartz and Brian Towriss, and the 2018 class will be later formally inducted at the annual Hall of Fame Game during the season.

The Fan Fest begins Thursday with the opening of the Football Frenzy Field Skill Challenge at the RBC Convention Centre, where more than 105,000 square feet of space has been commissioned. The first Mark’s CFL Week Live Show – a highly-entertaining event hosted by the CFL’s Brodie Lawson – makes its debut Thursday while the Blue Bombers Flag Football event and an Girls CFL-NFL Flag Clinic are also scheduled. The first of many autograph sessions also get underway, beginning with the 2018 Hall of Fame Class and then current players.

Friday brings the Blue Bombers Tailgate party in the afternoon followed by a Riderville gathering, and on the weekend Bombers legends like Milt Stegall, Matt Dunigan, Doug Brown, Chris Walby, Rod Hill and Obby Khan will also be featured in autograph sessions. Live bands will also be performing.

A full schedule of the Fan Fest can be found here:

Diehard fans will be locked into results from the Western and National Combines, both here in town. The Western Combine goes Thursday at Subway Soccer South at the University of Manitoba, with the players there trying to earn the last invitations to the National Combine on the weekend.

The Western Regional combine invites is here and features six University of Manitoba Bisons – O-lineman Anthony Daley, defensive backs Tyler Fong and Jayden McKoy, wide receiver Stephen Ugbah and linebackers Houston Rennie and James Mau – and eight Manitobans in total. They are Rennie, McKoy, Daley and Ugbah of the Bisons along with Winnipegger Curtis Krahn (Calgary Dinos), St. Lazare product Brooks Falloon (Saskathewan Huskies) and Taylor Maloney (Minot State) and Dylan Minshull (Calgary Colts), both of Brandon.

They’ll be looking to join Alex Taylor, a St. Paul’s High School grad and the starting running back at Western, at the National Combine. Both the Western Regional and the final day of the National Combine are already sold out, but tickets are still available for Saturday’s bench press by registering through MarksCFLWeek.ca.

Those who do not have tickets or cannot attend the combine events can still track the results and watch some of the events on CFL.ca.