They call them ‘heels’ in wrestling, a term which captures every possible description of the bad guy – from villain to antagonist, rascal to brute and any other definition with evil connotations.
And given the chance, Kenny Lawler would absolutely love to come off the top rope with a massive elbow drop, smash a metal chair across the back of some unsuspecting sort or drive someone’s forehead into the turnbuckle in front of a sold-out crowd in Sunday’s annual Labour Day Classic.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Yes, we’ve officially reached that time in the Canadian Football League schedule when temperatures drop and the stakes rise in every game in the push for playoff spots in advance of the Grey Cup derby. And Lawler, just like all his Winnipeg Blue Bombers teammates, can’t wait for it.
“Man, if you’re not jacked up for this – maybe if you’re a rookie you might not understand what this truly means until you play in these games – but if you’ve played in the CFL you know what this rivalry is,” Lawler told bluebombers.com earlier this week. “It’s the biggest rivalry in the CFL. It’s the most anticipated games for the fans. And for us you can feel the energy during the week knowing we’re going to play our rival.
“I really think these are the second-best games to the Grey Cup, the Labour Day Classic and Banjo Bowl.”
Asked then about the idea of potentially playing the heel on Sunday smack dab in enemy territory, a grin opened up on Lawler’s face as wide as Lake Winnipeg.
“When I was at Cal, I used to love it,” he said. “I used to love going into enemy territory because one, you get to hush the crowd and I used to love silencing the crowd. But then two, I really feel it because when I was at Cal we’d get good turnouts – 20-30,000 – but we hold 60,000 and so we’d never get a sold-out crowd.
“So, when we went to the opposing teams’ stadiums the crowd was through the roof – a loud and crazy and hectic environment. I feed off that energy. I love it. I love the hostile environment… the crowd is going crazy… it’s like you’re in some forbidden land and then to go in there and dominate there’s no better feeling than that.”
The Blue Bombers have won the last two Labour Day Classics, ending a horrific run that saw them lose 14 of 15 in Regina on the long weekend over a stretch from 2005-19, including 11 straight defeats from ’04-16. Included among them was the 52-0 embarrassment in 2012 that veteran defensive tackle Jake Thomas mentioned in the latest ‘In My Words’.
“This is the week you wait for all year,” said Rasheed Bailey on Friday. “The Banjo Bowl-Labour Day Classic… two teams that don’t really like each other… the crowd into it… family back at home watching… get your popcorn ready. This is what it’s all about; this is what football is all about, man. I’m excited about this one. I can’t wait for it. I can’t wait to see the crowd. I can’t wait to see what it feels like to be back in that stadium, to hear their crowd… I’m excited.
“… This is Prairie football, right? That’s the Canadian lingo. This is what it’s all about. You build up for games like this. The first half of the season is done. Now you start fighting for playoff spots and things start getting real, real serious.”
And so, now that we’ve reached the Labour Day Classic-Banjo Bowl doubleheader coming up over the next few weeks, we asked a handful of players to speak about their heated football rivalries before they turned pro.
It turns out, that goes w-a-a-a-y back for Nic Demski.
“Rivalries? I know them off by heart,” he said. “With the Charleswood Broncos it was the Fort Garry Lions, that’s my atom-peewee days. At Oak Park we were always matching up with St. Paul’s. And at university it was the (Saskatchewan) Huskies or the (Calgary) Dinos… the Dinos in my early years because they would always knock us out of the playoffs, but then in my third and fourth year it was the Huskies. Whenever we went there, or they came here we knew it was going to be a big physical game and there were a lot of meaningful games against the Huskies as well.”
“In high school it was against the ‘Blue town’ – we don’t even say their name – but Elma, Washington was the ‘Blue town,’” added Adam Bighill, spitting out ‘Elma’ as if it was a curse word. “That was a huge rivalry. Huge. In college it was against Western Washington and then they folded their program, and we haven’t really had a rival since.”
Jermarcus Hardrick had been in some big-time games before he crossed the border into the CFL, first with the B.C. Lions and then the Roughriders before arriving in Winnipeg. As a two-year member of the famed Nebraska Cornhuskers, that program has rivals in two conferences.
“I only had two years there,” said Hardrick, who began his collegiate career at Fort Scott Community College before heading to Nebraska. “So, I had one year of Big 12, one year of Big 10. In Big 12, it was Oklahoma or Texas, and it was crazy – 100K people at the games. In the Big 10 it was Michigan or Iowa… Ohio State put it on us bad back then.
“Three or four of those rivalries they had played 100 times before and all of those games would have 100K at them. I don’t know how it is that 30-40K in the CFL sounds louder.”
Jackson Jeffcoat has seen this movie before, too, long before he came north to Canada. A star at the University of Texas, the rivals are many for the Longhorns program.
“This definitely reminds me of the Texas-A&M game or Texas-Oklahoma game,” Jeffcoat said this week. “Lots of rowdy fans… mostly the A&M game because you’re going into their territory and it’s loud. No one likes you, they all want you to lose and they’re talking a lot of mess, which is fun. Everybody is amped up. It’s always fun. I like these kind of games. They’re always fun to play in.”
That’s a sentiment that never grows old. Blue Bombers defensive coordinator Richie Hall is a prime example. He played in the Battle of Alberta as a member of the Calgary Stampeders, and then the Labour Day Classic with the Roughriders. He’s also coached on both sides as the head coach in Edmonton, and defensive coordinator in Saskatchewan and now in Winnipeg.
“To me it’s like college football,” Hall said with a smile. “Before you get to the stadium it’s like when the Banjo Bowl is here – there’s a buzz in the air. As soon as you get out of the car the crowd is just excited and there’s an electricity when you walk into the stadium and to me that’s college football. I just love that feeling.
“You wish you could have that every week, you usually don’t, but we have those rivalry games, and it gets your juices flowing so that makes it exciting.”
