Brooke Andrus
Argonauts.ca

It was a damp Canada Day in Hamilton, Ontario, and that put me in a bit of a pickle. Based on the outcome of my first visit to Tigertown—during which, you may recall, I foolishly wore Argonauts apparel—I elected to go incognito to my second Argos-Ticats match-up at Ivor Wynne Stadium.

The ominous evening clouds that formed a dark canopy over the field, however, presented me with a terrible pre-game dilemma: tempt fate and walk onto the sidelines in a plain black t-shirt, as planned, or sacrifice my anonymity for dryness insurance in the form of a team-issued rain coat. I chose the latter, and I don’t regret it for a second.

Perhaps it was the air of Canada Day spirit among a crowd of otherwise loud and obnoxious football fans; perhaps it was the 20-point deficit the Tiger-Cats suffered before the end of the first half. Whatever the reason, all I know is that last week’s group of rough-and-tumble Hamiltonians made this week’s crowd look like the audience at a Sunday matinee.

With the exception of a few remarkably creative “Argos suck!” outbursts — many from the mouths of five, six and seven-year-old children — the fans seated in the area just above the sideline were surprisingly tame. Don’t get me wrong, they still cheered their hearts out for the hometown team. They just weren’t as apt to direct their “enthusiasm” toward innocent bystanders/Argos fans.

My mom insisted that the taunting words I used to conclude my last blog would surely ruin the Argos’ karma and cause our team to lose. But I knew better. I knew how hard the players and coaches had worked last week. I knew how well they had practiced. I knew how hungry they were for their first regular season win since September 1, 2008.

In the end, I was glad that Mother Nature forced me to show some team spirit. As the Argos players and coaches spilled onto the field after the game, hootin’ and hollerin’ as they slapped high-fives, I couldn’t have been more proud to be wearing Double Blue. Unlike my dad, who received the requisite first-win Gatorade bath, I stayed warm and dry.

Brooke Andrus is Head Coach Bart Andrus' daughter and is in Mississauga interning with the Argonauts' communications department. She is a photojournalism major and a track athlete at the University of Montana.