{"id":861190,"date":"2026-08-17T10:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/861190\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:02:14","slug":"nowhere-else-to-go-but-up-redblacks-superfan-stays-positive-amid-historic-losing-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/861190\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Nowhere else to go but up’: Redblacks superfan stays positive amid historic losing streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

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It’s official: the Ottawa Redblacks now have the longest losing streak of any CFL team in the modern era.<\/p>\n

On Friday night, the Redblacks fell 33-21 to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers<\/a> for their 15th straight defeat, a streak that stretches all the way back to the end of last season.<\/p>\n

With the loss, the Redblacks surpassed the Shreveport Pirates, who lost 14 straight games in 1994, according to Steve Daniel, a CFL historian and the league’s associate vice-president of football analytics and statistics.<\/p>\n

“I would characterize Ottawa as [having] the modern-day record now,” said Daniel.<\/p>\n

The fact Ottawa now holds that ignominious distinction is “really disappointing,” said Jimmy Fata, a passionate Redblacks fan who was in Winnipeg Friday night for the record-setting loss.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think anybody knows what [the reason] is,” he added. “I wish somebody [knew] what the problem is so we could fix it.”<\/p>\n

When the Redblacks play at home, there’s a tradition<\/a> of cutting a log section (called a “wood cookie”) for every touchdown and then searing a Redblacks logo into it. <\/p>\n

“Unfortunately we haven’t been cutting too many biscuits [recently],” said Fata, who’s been part of the crew that saws through the log for years.<\/p>\n

\"AOttawa Redblacks fan Jimmy Fata, also known as Zipperface, is seen here in 2015 during happier times. ‘Being a football fan is supporting your team, win or lose,’ he said after Friday’s record-setting defeat. (Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press)Third-longest streak since 1907<\/p>\n

In addition to holding the modern-day CFL record, the Redblacks’ streak is also now the third-longest in the entire CFL record book<\/a>, which goes back to 1907. <\/p>\n

Another loss this Thursday against the Montreal Alouettes would see them tie the Hamilton Wildcats \u2014 who lost 16 games between 1948 and 1949 \u2014 for second place.<\/p>\n

Still far off in first place, however, are a pair of Ottawa CFL clubs that lost a combined 25 straight games between 1928 and 1932. (The CFL considers those two squads, the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Ottawa Senators, to be a single entity for historical records.)<\/p>\n

According to Daniel, the league evolved significantly after the Second World War. <\/p>\n

Football in Canada “professionalized itself” in the post-war period, Daniel said, with teams paying their players “above the table” and becoming “extremely competitive.” <\/p>\n

Back when the Rough Riders and the Senators set the 25-game record, the sport was “strictly amateur,” he said.<\/p>\n

As for the Wildcats, they were a “late throw-together” club that formed after the existing Hamilton football team left for another league, Daniel said. <\/p>\n

They were around for two years and only ever won a single game, he said.<\/p>\n

\"AnWinnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros throws against the Ottawa Redblacks during first-half CFL football action on Friday night. (John Woods\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

Looking at the 0-9 Redblacks’ latest losing streak, Daniel said he thinks the team needs to continue its “roster rebuild,” mainly on defence.<\/p>\n

Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie replaced a lot of players after their eighth loss and made some defensive line changes, Daniel said.<\/p>\n

“[On Friday], quite frankly, they played a much better football game,” Daniel said. “I would view that as a step forward.”<\/p>\n

‘Through the good and the bad’<\/p>\n

One stat sums up the Redblacks’ struggles, Daniel said: they have the lowest percentage of any team when they’ve got the ball in the red zone.<\/p>\n

“You get inside the other team’s 20-yard line, a great opportunity to score, and they fail. And they’ve done that over and over again this year,” he said. “Just close, but failing at things other teams succeed on.” <\/p>\n

For Fata, it’s essential that fans support their team in moments like this, and he said he doesn’t appreciate “fair-weather fans” <\/p>\n

“I look at the team as if you’re raising a child \u2014 you support that child through the good and the bad,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They got nowhere else to go but up … It is a tough pill to swallow, watching them lose game after game, but [I’m] still a football fan.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-861190","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\/861190","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=861190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}