Why?

This is the question I've faced more than any other when talking about my love for the CFL. I've never felt that I've been able to adequately answer that question, at least to my satisfaction, until I was able to make it to Tim Horton's Field in Hamilton this last Sunday. I won't recap the game, because I'm not into the horror genre, but what I will do is go over my experience at THF, a day I feel did more to answer that question than any words I've ever been able to put together.

My wife and I arrived rather early, because we had never been to the area before, so we had some time to kill before the gates opened. We went across the street to Tim Horton's (the coffee shop, not the field) to grab some lunch. Before we had walked 10 feet, a truck with 4 Ti-Cats fans in full gear drove by, letting out a long boooooo as they passed by. It was enough to let us know that they weren't fully appreciative of my team choice (as I was decked out in Blue and Gold, which, thankfully, was not Double Blue in this environment), but not enough to be in any way intimidating. At Tim Horton's we had a quick lunch as I firmed up some plans for later, and had a chat with a few Ti-Cats fans, who expressed concerns about our quarterback's health, words that would become prophetic later, but I digress.

We then made the walk to the stadium, and arrived 10 minutes before the gates opened. While waiting for the gates to open, a group of Bombers employees and a few of their fans happened upon us, so we chatted with them, told them where we were from, and were presented with a few Grey Cup Festival pins. We were also introduced to the mother and father of Khalil Bass, a Winnipeg linebacker. They had traveled with this group on the team charter, and were kind enough to share a few words with us. If that was all that had happened that day, it would have been plenty enough, but we were just getting started.

As we were on our way to find our seats, we ran into an older gentleman who stopped us because he noticed I was wearing a Tom Clements retro Bombers jersey. He relayed the tale of moving into a new apartment in 1983, and finding out that it had been Clements' apartment before he was traded to Winnipeg that year, because he kept getting his mail!

We checked out our seats, and then went back down to the south end zone to await the arrival of a few friends of mine, Josh Smith and Mark Fulton, who are both writers at 3downnation.com, as well as some of my CFL fantasy football opponents this season. Both arrived quickly, and it was fun spending some time getting to meet two guys face to face that I had been interacting with on Twitter for over a year.

During this visit, the CEO of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Wade Miller, happened to walk by, and was kind enough to stop by for a picture. Josh earned some points by predicting that it would be the happiest Miller would be that day, because the game wouldn't go well for his Bombers. He'd be absolutely correct in that assessment, and between that and yet another fantasy win for Josh this week, he's gotta be feeling pretty good about himself right about now.

It was fun educating my wife, who is not a fan, but who is very supportive of my fandom, about all the little things that an outsider wouldn't know, especially the story of Pigskin Pete, and the words to Oskee Wee Wee. We were also seated next to a few parents of Bombers players, and it was really fun to see them happy when their boys made a play.

Like I said, I'm leaving the game out of this, chiefly because it really didn't hurt the experience, even though it was lopsided and ugly. I'm hoping that by painting a picture of my experience this past weekend, I have been able to shed some light on the CFL community, and why I love this league the way I do.