Kickoff: Saturday, July 26th, 6 p.m. CDT; BMO Field, Toronto
TV/Streaming: TSN 1/4, CTV, CBS SportsNetwork; CFL+
Radio: 680 CJOB (pre-game begins at 4 p.m. CDT); Play-by-play: Derek Taylor/analyst: Doug Brown; Sirius XM (ch. 167)
Scene Setter
TORONTO — It’s a natural storyline — a Grey Cup rematch between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts — hanging there all plump and ripe and ready to plucked and devoured by fans and media alike.
Thing is, that angle — as juicy as it might appear to the outside world — hasn’t moved the needle even a bit this week in Bomberland. Not one millimetre.
“I don’t think that’s even popped up one time around here this week, the idea of this being a Grey Cup rematch,” said veteran slotback Nic Demski in a chat with bluebombers.com. “I got asked by someone in the media about it a couple days ago, but around here — around the boys, around the coaches — I never heard it once.
“I mean, it’s a completely different season. All we care about is getting back on track and playing the football we know how to play.”
Nic Demski at Blue Bombers practice earlier this week
Yes, there are clearly more pressing matters for both the Blue Bombers and Argonauts for Saturday’s matchup with Winnipeg trying to halt a two-game losing skid and the Boatmen trying to right the ship after a 1-5 start. Here’s the other thing: last November’s championship win by the Argos has virtually no meaning for so many new faces suiting up this weekend.
Case in point: Winnipeg returns 17 starters, 13 roster players and another 13 members of the injured/practice roster from last year’s Grey Cup. Of the 71 names listed on the depth chart/practice roster/injured list for last year’s Grey Cup seven starters are gone, as well as 21 others. Those numbers are even greater for the Argos, who had their championship roster ravaged in free agency, including losing a dozen starters.
“You obviously remember the Grey Cup game — it hurt all offseason — but once we got rolling this season it really is that we’re on to 2025,” said centre Chris Kolankowski. “Besides, you look at both rosters and they’re both very different. That’s common with the CFL where there’s a lot of turnover. I remember my first year in the CFL — I was lucky enough to be a part of a Grey Cup team — and Marc Trestman, my first coach, said at the end of that Grey Cup, ‘Appreciate the guys in this room as you celebrate because this collection of individuals will likely never be in the same room again together.’
“That’s how it is every year. I took that to heart back then and I remember it every year in those last couple of days we’re together. It’s the same thing when I come into this room for the first time at training camp and this isn’t the team as last year. We have to learn to win together because we’ve got a lot of new guys.
“And you can bet in Toronto they’re doing the same thing with their room, just like every other team in the league.”
The Grey Cup rematch story angle has been floated all week by various media but with few players or coaches, if any, biting on that narrative. A few days ago it was CJOB’s Derek Taylor broaching it with head coach Mike O’Shea and before the radio voice of the Blue Bombers could even finish the question, the boss was shaking his head negatively, adding, “It’s so far in the rear-view mirror.”
Defensive coordinator Jordan Younger
Football is a here and now business, of course, and coaches and players seldom spend too much time worrying or relishing about the games played because it has no impact the next time the ball is put on the tee. And it was defensive coordinator Jordan Younger who may have slammed the door closed on the Grey Cup rematch discussion when he was asked if during his playing days he didn’t want to exact some sort of revenge/payback after losing to an opponent previously.
“Maybe there were some individual matchups I brought to the game where if you had a rough showing against a guy you wanted to play better the next time,” he said. ” That’s natural for any competitor but as far as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, it’s 2025.
“That’s all we can worry about. If we’re carrying the weight of 2024 into this game, we’re doing the wrong thing.”
THE LINEUP: The Blue Bombers depth chart features just one change for this week with rookie Canadian safety Ethan Ball coming aboard for linebacker Lane Novak to make his CFL debut. Ball was a sixth-round pick of the club in the 2025 CFL Draft after playing his college ball at North Dakota and Calgary.
This means future hall of fame left tackle Stanley Bryant will be absent for a second straight week and will be replaced again by Micah Vanterpool. Bryant, long-snapper Mike Benson, LB Jonathan Jones, RB/KR Peyton Logan, WR Dillon Mitchell and DT Tanner Schmekel are on the one-game injured list.
Novak, unfortunately, has now been moved to the six-game injured list, joining WR Dalton Schoen, DB Jake Kelly, OL Eric Lofton, DB Enock Makonzo and DT Jamal Woods.
