The Canadian Press
Man it can be hard to be a Toronto Argonauts fan when you’re living in Toronto. Despite three Grey Cup Championships in the past 15 years, five dollar beers and an organization committed to community engagement, the Argonauts are often overlooked on the Toronto sports scene. I’m not here to sugar coat you with a fluff piece about the triumph of the Argonauts winning over the cynical, big bad city of Toronto. That’s not the point of this piece. I don’t stump for TFC or the Toronto Rock who also have winning pedigrees and are well run organizations so it would be hypocritical of me to expend all my energy on the Double Blue.
I promise I will not engage in one of those tired columns trying to get Torontonians to go to BMO Field. You’ve read them before and I’ll be honest, I have no problem with some of my fellow Torontonians who aren’t fans of this wildly fun league. There are only 24 hours in a day it’s impossible to be engaged in all that this city has to offer. Also I live by the motto (it’s actually my motto) that if you like everything, you love nothing. I prefer to love a couple things and let so much else slide to the wayside. So I never take offence to anyone who lives in the GTA who turns their nose to the CFL.
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This story is about the joy I get being an Argos fan. 2019 has been a difficult year for all of us so Thursday night’s 28-27 come from behind win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was extra special. If S.J. Green’s game winning touchdown catch was the big moment, I’ll remember from Thursday night the brief happy nod I exchanged with a couple sitting inside a Pizza Nova on King Street West as the small one I’ll always enjoy. It’s not every day you can wander the streets of downtown Toronto after an Argo victory over the CFL’s best team and encounter an Argonauts jersey-wearing couple and have that brief connection where we can all bask in the glow of a Toronto win.
I loved strolling through BMO before the game and getting constant blasts from the past. My favourite was one couple wearing Andre Talbot and Michael Bishop jerseys. Talbot had a nice career but never exceeded a 1,000 yards receiving, while Michael Bishop had one of the most bizarre/unique seasons I’ve ever seen from a quarterback. Did you know that in 2004 Bishop attempted over 200 passes and completed only 48 per cent of them? When was the last time a quarterback attempted that many throws and managed to hit on less than half of them? To make this season even more of an outlier, Bishop put up this wildly inaccurate season as a member of a Grey Cup winning team! Bishop backed up Damon Allen and got plenty of action that year. Somehow Toronto still managed to win 10 games and the Grey Cup. Full credit to a defence that included Noah Cantor, Kevin Eiben, Clifford Ivory and Orlondo Steinauer. Enough reminiscing, back to the game!
Damn, what a wide range of emotions! With just over three minutes to go in the first half I and five other friends were lamenting this dud of game with only five dollar beers and three dollar hot dogs to bring us solace. McLeod Bethel-Thompson was generating nothing but punts and the defence was getting shredded by the “Mocker of the Ravages of Time” Andrew Harris. Toronto was down 20-0 and I could not help but feel bad for all the die hards who were stuck in the Sisyphean football reality of cheering for Toronto. Then suddenly everything changed as Bethel-Thompson and Green got in sync, the defence tightened up, the penalties were cleaned up and Chris Rainey was a one man special teams wrecking crew. It wasn’t a dramatic turnaround but rather a slow and steady climb for Toronto and by the midway point of the fourth quarter, Winnipeg’s 20-0 lead had dwindled to 27-21. Then came the final drive.
I’m not going to lie, most of us thought the game was over after Willie Jefferson hit the rare defensive trifecta (sack, forced fumble, fumble recovery) with under three minutes to go, but Corey Chamblin’s defence gave the team one more chance, this time at their own 38-yard-line with just over 100 seconds left. Thompson went 8-for-9 for 58 yards, converting a third-and-seven situation on his way to the winning touchdown pass to SJ Green. Every play was at a Tarantino level of tension but in the end, we all got to go nuts which was even more fun as my group of friends was surrounded by Bombers fans.
More than anything I was just so happy for all the loyal fans. The ones who have to suffer the slings and arrows of dismissive Toronto sports fans. The ones who sat through a 64-14 home opener loss to Hamilton and that bizarre 18-17 defeat to the BC Lions, who won by missing a field goal. It was great to feel their joy, it was cathartic as an Argo fan since John Candy was entertaining the world on the SkyDome sidelines to be able to fully revel in being not only an Argonauts fan but a CFL fan. This game was everything you could ask for. Tons of drama, oodles of passes and a last minute victory.
On the field, how could you not feel good for Bethel-Thompson, who must know his job is in jeopardy with the acquisition of Zach Collaros? All he did was put the ball up 49 times, completing an un-Michael-Bishop like 76 per cent of his passes for 343 yards, three touchdowns and more importantly zero interceptions. On the Bombers side it was a joy to watch Andrew Harris exert his will over the Argonauts defence and speaking of defence, no one had a better game than Willie Jefferson, who was knocking down passes, taking down Thompson and generally making life miserable for Toronto’s offence. Is it any coincidence the last second game winning touchdown drive for the Boatmen came with Jefferson injured three plays in?
In the end, what I loved most was that after such a tough start to the season for the Argonauts, at least one night mattered. For one night they treated the fans and the country to a hell of a game. The last two years have been rough for Argo fans but on Thursday night everything felt just so special. I was glad to be a part of it.
