{"id":7444,"date":"2025-07-19T06:43:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T06:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/7444\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T06:43:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T06:43:18","slug":"stegall-it-wasnt-just-cheers-that-were-coming-out-it-was-were-with-you-milt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/7444\/","title":{"rendered":"Stegall: &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t just cheers that were coming out, it was &#8216;We&#8217;re with you, Milt.'&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans wrapped their collective arms around Milt Stegall Friday night in a warm, heartfelt embrace that brought the Canadian Football League legend to tears.<\/p>\n<p>Returning to Winnipeg for the first time since the sudden passing of his oldest son Chase back on June 2nd as part of the CFL on TSN panel \u2014 which was in attendance at Princess Auto Stadium \u2014 Stegall was saluted with a message on the jumbotron that prompted the ovation. Stegall stood to acknowledge the crowd, which only made the ovation grow louder, and several current Blue Bomber players, including Willie Jefferson, were seen tapping their hearts as they ran by the hall of fame receiver.<\/p>\n<p>We spoke to Stegall moments after the ovation and during the conversation he was moved to tears in trying to explain what the show of support meant to him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat tops everything in my Winnipeg Blue Bombers career right there,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I broke the touchdown record, when I had that last second catch (100 yarder), anything, that tops everything and nothing comes close. I wasn\u2019t expecting the emotion. It wasn\u2019t just cheers that were coming out, it was \u2018We\u2019re with you, Milt.\u2019 That\u2019s what it felt like. \u2018Your pain is our pain\u2019 but we\u2019re all going to get through it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not surprised, but it was still unexpected. It was good. It was good. It was good.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Thank you <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cityofwinnipeg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@cityofwinnipeg<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Wpg_BlueBombers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Wpg_BlueBombers<\/a>, and the greatest fans in the world. The energy in the stadium was unreal, electric from start to finish. That was, without a doubt, the most unforgettable moment I\u2019ve ever experienced in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Winnipeg?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#Winnipeg<\/a>. My heart is full. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PaperPlates?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#PaperPlates<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Milt Stegall (@MiltStegallTSN) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MiltStegallTSN\/status\/1946372738832085175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 19, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Chase Stegall, a soccer player in his second year at DePaul University in Chicago, died suddenly last month and the outpouring of support from across the CFL and Canadian sporting community has been overwhelming. Stegall has said his son suffered a seizure during his first year, but the family is still waiting for results of an autopsy to confirm the cause of death.<\/p>\n<p>Stegall said returning to work has help in his recovery \u2014 he was back on TSN for Thursday night\u2019s Montreal-Toronto telecast \u2014 and coming back to Winnipeg has been like a warm embrace.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-593276 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3rd-5-Large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s therapeutic because I\u2019m around so many people who care and have love for me and it\u2019s all genuine,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not just saying it. All these fans are saying it because they mean it. They feel like I\u2019m one of their family members and I feel the same way. Even though I don\u2019t know all their names that\u2019s the feeling I get from this community \u2014 that we\u2019re all family members and they\u2019re right here with me and they understand my pain and they want to help me heal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hugs came out when I was at the airport. It was, \u2018We\u2019re sorry for you. We\u2019re here for you.\u2019 That\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stegall said he wished his wife Darlene and younger son Collin, 17, could have been with him here tonight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish they were here. You read my mind because I wish they were here,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, believe me, they felt that (ovation) all the way down in Atlanta. I honestly don\u2019t know how to explain that. I\u2019m trying my best to explain it, but I don\u2019t know if I really can put it into words.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just so thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                                <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans wrapped their collective arms around Milt Stegall Friday night in a warm, heartfelt embrace&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-7444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7444","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=7444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}