{"id":135074,"date":"2025-09-11T01:42:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T01:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135074\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T01:42:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T01:42:16","slug":"48-hour-primer-week-15-at-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135074\/","title":{"rendered":"48-Hour Primer | Week 15: at Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hardly a newsflash given what has unfolded over the last few days, but it is now officially official: the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will head into Steeltown this week to start the final third of their Canadian Football League schedule without starting quarterback Zach Collaros.<\/p>\n

Collaros was injured in the third quarter of the Banjo Bowl loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders last Saturday after being sacked by defensive back CJ Reavis and hitting the ground heavily. And while he eventually got up and ran off the field and was in attendance at practice this week although not participating, he has now been ruled out with a head injury.<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers, 6-6, will now turn to veteran Chris Streveler for Friday night\u2019s game in Hamilton against the Tiger-Cats, with Terry Wilson and Chase Artopoeus available in the quarterback bullpen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the same as Zach in that he\u2019s a fiery competitor, a guy who is locked in and who is all about team,\u201d said veteran left tackle Stanley Bryant of Streveler. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy that will go out there and sacrifice his body, that will put the best effort forward in whatever way to help this team win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both the same in the huddle. Both fierce guys who will yell at you from time to time \u2014 and that\u2019s a good thing \u2014 because they want everybody to be in the right spots, they want everything to be perfect so they can make their read and make plays. Both those guys love football; they love to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s game will mark the third time Collaros has missed a start this season, the first due to suspension, the second two after injury. He\u2019s also not finished three other games this season with what had been designated as neck injuries.<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers are 2-0 in games in which Streveler has started in \u201925, as he completed 15-of-24 passes for 246 yards with three touchdowns and one interception in the season-opening win over the B.C. Lions and then was 17-of-21 for 173 yards with three picks in a win over the Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a vet in this league. He\u2019s a good player, a good quarterback who is going to lead us,\u201d said slotback Nic Demski of Streveler. \u201cHe\u2019s passionate about what he does. He\u2019s always in control in the huddle. You get a guy who can run, you get a guy with some grit \u2014 I\u2019m not saying that Zach can\u2019t, we\u2019ve seen his legs this year \u2014 but we still get a good player and a good quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers sit in third place in the CFL\u2019s West Division with their .500 record, trailing first place Saskatchewan, 10-2, and the Calgary Stampeders, 8-4, and just ahead of the B.C. Lions and Edmonton Elks, both at 5-7. Winnipeg has won the season series with the Lions and is up 1-0 on the Elks, with one more meeting coming in Edmonton on October 11th.<\/p>\n

KENNY TESTIMONIALS: Lots of talk this week in Bomberland about the club\u2019s first meeting with long-time receiver and popular teammate Kenny Lawler, now with the Ticats. Lawler is second in the CFL with 1,057 yards on 59 catches, with 10 receiving TDs in 12 games. FYI, Drew Wolitarsky, another former Blue Bombers receiver, has spent much of the year on the injured list in Hamilton and has suited up for just two games.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cStud. A guy that I still keep in touch with and a guy that will be in my life forever,\u201d said Brady Oliveira of Lawler. \u201cGood dude. Funny guy. We miss him here, not just the football player he is \u2014 obviously everyone here knows he\u2019s very skilled \u2014 but just the guy that he is; just a solid dude to have inside the locker room and outside the locker room just a great friend. We miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be fun to go against him; the last time I went against him was 2022 (when Lawler was in Edmonton),\u201d said Demski. \u201cThat\u2019s my guy. Every offseason we worked together training the youth in Winnipeg so, Kenny and I are close. He\u2019s like a brother so it will be fun to go against him and competing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I mean, I hope he doesn\u2019t line up at three-tech (defensive tackle) because he\u2019s a fast dude,\u201d joked guard Pat Neufeld. \u201cKenny is a guy we all know and love and it\u2019s going to be great to reconnect with him and a lot of ex Bombers out there. He\u2019s been having a great year. I trust our defence, trust our ability, but ultimately what I\u2019m most concerned about is Casey Sayles, (Mario) Kendricks, Miles Fox\u2026 those guys rolling through the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALL ABOARD TEAM TED: Friday\u2019s game in Hamilton has been dubbed the \u2018Team Ted Game\u2019 to honour Tiger-Cats GM Ted Goveia, a long-time fixture in Canadian football and a key part of the Blue Bombers success for over 10 years before his hiring in Steeltown.<\/p>\n

Goveia was diagnosed with a serious form of cancer in the spring, and several teams have worn \u2018Team Ted\u2019 T-shirts in support.<\/p>\n

The Ticats have \u2018Team Ted\u2019 t-shirts available on their site at\u00a0ticats.ca\/TeamTed<\/a>, and fans will be waving a Team Ted rally towel during the in-stadium tribute on Friday.\u00a0All proceeds from the sale of Team Ted t-shirts will support the Ted Goveia scholarships. An excellent piece from my colleague at ticats.ca, Steve Milton, is here:<\/p>\n

Team Ted is much much more than a slogan<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Goveia\u2019s role with the Blue Bombers was critical in helping the team rebuild and appear in five consecutive Grey Cups, ultimately capturing two titles.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a pillar in the organization and helped us get where we wanted to get to as an organization,\u201d said head coach Mike O\u2019Shea after Wednesday\u2019s closed practice. \u201cHe and Danny (McManus) were the first hires for the scouting department, and they\u2019ve done a great job \u2014 Ted\u2019s fingerprints are still all over our roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cTed was always excellent and making sure we understood what guys could do. And the intangibles that were important to our club, he fully understood and wanted to gather people like that. I turn on the tape, turn on the cutups to watch U-Sports players and invariably you would see Ted walking up and down the sideline and that always made me feel good. When he gave us information there was always going to be a nugget that somebody else didn\u2019t have because he was going to be right there within earshot when a guy made a play or didn\u2019t make a play; he was going to hear the conversation the kid had with the coach or with his teammates when somebody else made a good play or somebody else made a bad play \u2014 at some point that was going to come up in conversation: \u201cI was on the sideline and\u2026\u201d And I could put on the tape and there\u2019s Ted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s continued. He\u2019s a great scout. He\u2019s done a great job building Hamilton. He\u2019ll always be a great scout.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wish you never have to have a game like this. But it\u2019s a great tribute,\u201d O\u2019Shea added. \u201cTed means a lot to Canadian football. He\u2019s served on boards, he\u2019s been grassroots, he\u2019s donated time and money and effort to things we don\u2019t even know to make sure Canadian kids have opportunities. He\u2019s always been wired that way. It didn\u2019t matter at what level, he always found guys that had been released and maybe been out and he was going to go work them out or watch them or watch the new guys train. \u2018I\u2019ll just go down to the bubble. I think they\u2019re throwing today\u2019 just to see how guys are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe takes his job so seriously and understands that giving kids opportunities and opening doors for kids that might have been closed is pretty powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hardly a newsflash given what has unfolded over the last few days, but it is now officially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-135074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}