While I was angry last night I called for a boycott until the Cats win their first game. Since that time I have relaxed and instead thrown my dismay toward a hunger strike for awareness: awareness of the potential greatness of this team.
We need to support our team. Everyone needs to show up on Friday. Let's face it the season is out of control. They may simply not win for a long, long, time. But we should show up have a few laughs and cry on each others shoulders. We need to form a support group.
There are bright spots on the horizon. We need to sign Setta, Bauman, Moreno and Lumsden to 15 year contracts. They will emerge to be superstars in the League. Our time for greatness is approaching, albeit, slowly.
We will weather this storm. We will never give up. The Argos will always suck. TC will always be better than Stripes. And the Cats will be on top again. The tides are turning. Here's to the next decade!
Stripes was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Not TC - he had to pay his dues.
Back in the day, they couldn't even afford to buy subs for the players' lunch at training camp, never mind maintain TC. So he'd come staggering by at games, and he'd have all sorts of rips and tears, and his fur was all brown, and you could see where people had stuck gum on him and stuff. And the packs of children that roamed the stadium in those security guard-free days would send in a decoy to trick TC into a high-five stance, and then the rest would run by and punch him in the pills. And then there was the stench, the terrible, terrible stench, from not being able to afford a once-a-decade dry cleaning, I guess. But he always kept coming back to try and amuse us.
TC had every reason to boycott, but he kept the faith that there would come a day when the Ticats would sell so many tickets that he could finally be cleaned. It makes him an appropriate role model for these troubling times.
Jeff Dickens, The Hamilton Spectator [Final Edition]
Sep 8, 1997
Sports section, p. 3
The Tiger-Cats' furry symbol of goodwill was driving an all- terrain vehicle that struck Canadian Football League head linesman Bill Hagans during Saturday's contest.
Hagans was jogging backwards to his ready-for-play position along the sidelines when the collision occurred. The nine season CFL vet was blindsided and crashed hard on the artificial surface. The stunned crowd gasped in disbelief.
Medical personnel raced to treat Hagans, who initially showed no movement. The usually animated mascot clutched his oversized head, obviously distraught with the turn of events.
I too was at that game. Couldn't believe what happened. Maybe this is why we're always so heavily penalized? Are the refs are still getting us back for something that happened 10 years ago?
