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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMontreal Alouettes’ head coach Jason Maas talks to players during a walk-through ahead of the 112th CFL Grey Cup, in Winnipeg, on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Darryl Dyck<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just passed on every generation, so I hope that the Blue Bombers are going to be cheering for us. It\u2019s still going to be a blue team that\u2019s going to be winning the Grey Cup, so I feel that that\u2019s maybe what they\u2019re going to be cheering for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The backup linebacker from St. Hubert, Que., entered the CFL in 2017 and played three seasons with the Roughriders before joining the Alouettes in 2021.<\/p>\n
The Bombers crossed over to play Montreal in the CFL East Division semifinal and lost. It halted Winnipeg\u2019s chance to play at home in a sixth consecutive Grey Cup, but many of the team\u2019s supporters will be among the 32,343 fans in the stands.<\/p>\n
Alouettes quarterback Davis Alexander has already been feeling the love in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
\u201cShoot, every restaurant we go to and every spot we go to, everyone keeps saying, \u2018Go Als\u2019 so that makes us happy,\u201d Alexander said Saturday via a video conference call after the team had left the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a lot of guys on our team were saying (to fans), \u2018We don\u2019t really care, just wear blue. Wear your Bomber blue, that\u2019s good with us.\u2019 It\u2019s been awesome here and the fans have been so great. That\u2019s what makes the CFL so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Alouettes didn\u2019t hold a regular walk-through practice. Instead, they gathered with family on the turf to chat, joke around and take photos \u2014 until a fire alarm caused by a burst water pipe went off. The stadium was evacuated and the team went back to its hotel.<\/p>\n
Montreal third-string and short-yardage quarterback Shea Patterson is also linked to the Roughriders.<\/p>\n
Patterson played his rookie season with the Alouettes in 2021, then joined Saskatchewan in 2023 for two years.<\/p>\n
The Toledo, Ohio, native attended Bombers training camp this year, but was released in mid-May. While he was training quarterbacks at a friend\u2019s facility back home and being a dad to his 17-month-old son, the Alouettes called him in August after the team was hit with injuries.<\/p>\n
Now the 28-year-old is playing in the championship game against the team that didn\u2019t want to keep him, but he holds no grudges.<\/p>\n
He agrees with Gagne that Bomber fans may throw their allegiance behind the Alouettes instead of the Riders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very familiar with that rivalry, so hopefully we\u2019ll get a good amount of Bomber fans rooting for us,\u201d Patterson said.<\/p>\n
PUMPED UP BY PAINT<\/p>\n
Fans won\u2019t be the only ones in the stadium wearing face paint.<\/p>\n
Montreal defensive lineman Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund and linebacker Darnell Sankey literally put on their game faces.<\/p>\n
The six-foot-one, 245-pound Sankey uses black makeup and paints stripes at an angle across his face to look like a claw.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of puts me in that feeling of like being at war, like I\u2019m in the jungle somewhere and I\u2019m fighting for my survival,\u201d he explained this week.<\/p>\n
Sankey started doing different patterns on his face when he had brief stints with some NFL teams earlier in his career.<\/p>\n
The California native entered the CFL in 2021 with the Calgary Stampeders, played the next season with Saskatchewan and then found a home with Montreal in 2023 and won the Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
Adeyemi-Berglund paints huge black circles around his eyes, including on the eye lids, and down toward his beard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I get to the point when it\u2019s all done and the finished product, I\u2019m in a place mentally where I\u2019m OK to accept the responsibility of playing the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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The Dartmouth, N.S., product played for the Stampeders from 2021-23 and then joined the Alouettes.<\/p>\n
Seeking his first CFL title, Adeyemi-Berglund said the key to beating the Riders and veteran quarterback Trevor Harris is staying focused.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got two great teams, two juggernauts that are full of veterans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just being able to be disciplined and be in the right place at the right time where you\u2019re supposed to be and not try to do too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2013 Alexandre Gagne figures his Montreal Alouettes might gain new fans in Sunday\u2019s Grey Cup against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-285945","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\/285945","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=285945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}