Behind the Celebration: Where did Bowman’s celly come from?
For this week’s Behind the Celebration I decided to head all the way across the country to Edmonton (well, I didn’t exactly. CFL.ca’s Senior Writer Chris O’Leary was in town and so graciously filmed a video for me) to ask Adarius Bowman where his celebration originated.
Bowman’s signature celly may be one of the most identifiable ones in the CFL. You’ve seen it before – after a big catch or a touchdown – Bowman does this (see below):
When @AdariusBowman scores a touchdown, you already know his celebration. 🏈🙌🏻#CFL pic.twitter.com/5YzbyQSOXF
— Kristina Costabile (@kcostabile1) June 13, 2017
So where exactly did it come from?
“We were having a rough year, in 2014,” Bowman said. “And it was kind of like, ‘let us in.’ We’ve been grinding and we just wanted to get in the talks and in the mix. It was just something that we kind of latched on and the guys enjoyed it. It kind of grew from that.”
“A lot of people didn’t have Edmonton in the conversation and that’s why you kind of caught us all doing it that one year,” he said. “(The) defence was doing it then flipping (somersaults). It was just ‘let us in, let us in the conversation’ because we can compete too, we’ve got a great team and I think we’ve been doing a great job of it the past few years.”
And that they have.
Edmonton finished in the wild card position (10-8) in 2016 and went all the way to the Eastern Final against the Ottawa REDBLACKS. In 2015, the Esks finished the season 14-4 and were Grey Cup Champions by the year’s end.
Bowman had plenty of opportunities to show of his celly in 2016 (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
Bowman was 2016’s league-leading receiver – catching 1761 yards and nine touchdowns – and CFL fans got their fair share of his celebration.
I’d expect much of the same from him – catches and celebrations – when the regular season gets started in just a few weeks.
