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Dear Winnipeg Blue Bombers,
When I was twelve years old, I decided I wanted to understand football. For years, I'd heard the great Bob Irving calling the games, but it was a drone to me, I didn't understand it. Being blind, I hadn't been able to watch it on TV, so it was incomprehensible to me, and I decided to learn. So, with the help of my dad, my brothers, and my cousin, I did just that.
I loved being a Bomber fan. It was easy. I understood the game, I'd met one of the players years before and had someone I could call my favorite, we had some of the great players of all time on our team. I loved it. We always made it to the playoffs, and I always came away feeling we'd put in a good effort.
I've been a fan ever since, yelling and screaming at the radio, celebrating when you celebrated, feeling your pain when things started going wrong.
The golden age, as I see it, came to an end in the early nineties. All of a sudden things didn't go as well. The revolving door of Bomber head-coachship started turning a little faster. But, I was assured, give us a chance to fix things, we can. So I did.
And indeed, there were times when I thought maybe we we were turning a corner. 2001 was exciting, so was 2007. Maybe? Maybe? I never thought the Bombers actually earned their place in the Grey Cup in 2011, but the pundits kept insisting, so maybe I was wrong? Maybe? We've also seen some great players, even in these troubled times: Doug Brown, Khari Jones,Milt Stegall, and others. Could these players lead us into another golden age? Maybe? Maybe?
But with each blip of excitement came another slump: a drought of bad playing and seemingly empty promises, with pleas to "just give us another chance, stick with us, let us turn things around."
A guy can only take this sort of thing for so long, then he starts getting disillusioned.
I turned off the game yesterday at half time, and resolved not to check up on it. I'm still not sure what the final score was, all I know from people who did check is that we got clobbered by an expansion team, handing them their second victory and their first against a team in our division.
I'm very disillusioned, Bombers. I've given you chance after chance after chance, now, for twenty years since that golden age. I've stuck up for you, I've stuck out my neck time and again telling people, "I have a good feeling about them this year", only to have my hopes dashed again by ridiculous penalties, poor judgment, and more turnovers each year than a pastry chef could make.
I understand slumps. I understand giving your team chances, having faith in a team that's not at the top of its form. But how long can you, Bombers, expect your fans to keep supporting you if you won't support us by rewarding our loyalty? We need something tangible to show us you're serious, and we need it now. If we don't get it, those stands are eventually going to be emptier and emptier, not to punish you, but because we're tired of being punished by you, we're tried of having our loyalty mocked. We need something from you, Bombers, we deserve something, we deserve more than we've gotten, much more than we've gotten, in the last twenty years.
So I'm turning the tables on you. It's time to stop asking us to give you another, and another, and another chance. Instead, I'm appealing to you to give u, the fans, a reason to give you a chance. At this stage of the game, you have to start earning your "one more chances". You no longer have a right for a chance without a reason, now you need to put up the reason if you want us to give you a chance. We love you, but we're tired of being made fools of, we're tired of people around the country laughing at us for being loyal to a team of losers.
We're not asking for perfection, we're just asking for a reason, a real and a prolonged reason, to hope. Please give it to us. Honestly, after keeping you, the team, alive for the last twenty years, you owe us.
Sincerely,
Bruce Toews
When I was twelve years old, I decided I wanted to understand football. For years, I'd heard the great Bob Irving calling the games, but it was a drone to me, I didn't understand it. Being blind, I hadn't been able to watch it on TV, so it was incomprehensible to me, and I decided to learn. So, with the help of my dad, my brothers, and my cousin, I did just that.
I loved being a Bomber fan. It was easy. I understood the game, I'd met one of the players years before and had someone I could call my favorite, we had some of the great players of all time on our team. I loved it. We always made it to the playoffs, and I always came away feeling we'd put in a good effort.
I've been a fan ever since, yelling and screaming at the radio, celebrating when you celebrated, feeling your pain when things started going wrong.
The golden age, as I see it, came to an end in the early nineties. All of a sudden things didn't go as well. The revolving door of Bomber head-coachship started turning a little faster. But, I was assured, give us a chance to fix things, we can. So I did.
And indeed, there were times when I thought maybe we we were turning a corner. 2001 was exciting, so was 2007. Maybe? Maybe? I never thought the Bombers actually earned their place in the Grey Cup in 2011, but the pundits kept insisting, so maybe I was wrong? Maybe? We've also seen some great players, even in these troubled times: Doug Brown, Khari Jones,Milt Stegall, and others. Could these players lead us into another golden age? Maybe? Maybe?
But with each blip of excitement came another slump: a drought of bad playing and seemingly empty promises, with pleas to "just give us another chance, stick with us, let us turn things around."
A guy can only take this sort of thing for so long, then he starts getting disillusioned.
I turned off the game yesterday at half time, and resolved not to check up on it. I'm still not sure what the final score was, all I know from people who did check is that we got clobbered by an expansion team, handing them their second victory and their first against a team in our division.
I'm very disillusioned, Bombers. I've given you chance after chance after chance, now, for twenty years since that golden age. I've stuck up for you, I've stuck out my neck time and again telling people, "I have a good feeling about them this year", only to have my hopes dashed again by ridiculous penalties, poor judgment, and more turnovers each year than a pastry chef could make.
I understand slumps. I understand giving your team chances, having faith in a team that's not at the top of its form. But how long can you, Bombers, expect your fans to keep supporting you if you won't support us by rewarding our loyalty? We need something tangible to show us you're serious, and we need it now. If we don't get it, those stands are eventually going to be emptier and emptier, not to punish you, but because we're tired of being punished by you, we're tried of having our loyalty mocked. We need something from you, Bombers, we deserve something, we deserve more than we've gotten, much more than we've gotten, in the last twenty years.
So I'm turning the tables on you. It's time to stop asking us to give you another, and another, and another chance. Instead, I'm appealing to you to give u, the fans, a reason to give you a chance. At this stage of the game, you have to start earning your "one more chances". You no longer have a right for a chance without a reason, now you need to put up the reason if you want us to give you a chance. We love you, but we're tired of being made fools of, we're tired of people around the country laughing at us for being loyal to a team of losers.
We're not asking for perfection, we're just asking for a reason, a real and a prolonged reason, to hope. Please give it to us. Honestly, after keeping you, the team, alive for the last twenty years, you owe us.
Sincerely,
Bruce Toews
