Posted on 08/24/2019 7:46:29 PM PDT by 11th_VA
After the bottom fell out of ticket sales, after the failure of promoters to actually promote the game and after neither team bothered to show up for a practice, the belief was everything had gone wrong for Winnipeg’s NFL pre-season game that could go wrong.
Then the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers took to the turf for their pre-game rituals at the home of the Blue Bombers, Thursday night.
And what had been a bit of a gong show became an all-out comedy of errors.
The lasting image of a night that was supposed to be about welcoming the planet’s best football players to our little house on the prairie might be the men in suits standing around and looking at holes in the ground in the end zones.
Actually, the holes in the ground were covered with turf. These were the patches left when they had to remove the goal posts used by the Bombers and replace them with NFL-appropriate posts deeper in the end zones.
The Packers didn’t think the patch jobs looked solid enough, and weren’t prepared to play on them.
TV audiences in the U.S. were told there was a problem even as fans who’d paid as much as $439 a pop were starting to file into their seats.
“We’re still in the process of determining what to do,” Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy told Fox-TV, about an hour before kickoff.
The Packers made one decision quickly, announcing around half an hour before kickoff the 33 players being scratched from the lineup included star quarterback Aaron Rodgers, receiver Davante Adams, running back Aaron Jones and pretty much all of their projected starters.
With that, yet another promise from the promoter was left emptier than one of those goal-post holes.
When this game was announced back in early June, fans were told the exorbitant prices were worth it because both teams would likely be using their starters for at least part of the game.
To be fair, Week 3 of the NFL pre-season is generally when that does happen.
Through no fault of the organizers, the Raiders had already decided coming into the game they would not be using starters.
But when the Packers balked at the quality of the field, any possible remaining marquee attraction had evaporated.
“We were going to have all our starters play,” Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed after the game.
Instead, they sat, Rodgers replaced by quarterback Tim Boyle, who found out during the chaos of the pre-game.
“That whole debacle with the field was going on,” Boyle said. “Decisions were made that we were going to hold our starters out. The plan was for me to play after, so this moved me up and I was able to start, which was fun.”
That pre-game fumble gets credited directly to promoter John Graham of On Ice Entertainment.
As one Green Bay staff member noted up in the press box, how an issue that large could be left to the last minute defies explanation.
Graham tried to revoke my credentials for what I’d written going into the game, which would have been a first for me.
Cooler heads eventually prevailed, and among the first things I heard entering the stadium nicely summed up the sentiments of the gouged public.
“They’re dressing the worst players ever,” one fan said during the first play.
“And we’re paying for this,” said the other.
But there would be more.
Green Bay refused to play on the full 100-yard field, and officials shrunk it to 80 yards so they could avoid those unstable patches in the end zones.
“Yeah, concerned about player safety,” Green Bay linebacker Ty Summers said. “We don’t want guys running in the end zone and rolling an ankle, or worse.”
So the 10-yard lines were suddenly the goal lines. A field goal from what looked like the 20 was really from the 10, but it was still 37 yards away from the goal posts.
“It was definitely a little awkward,” Boyle said. “It was almost fun. Kind of back-yard football, and go play with the boys and have some fun.”
Oh, and there were no kickoffs.
Funny thing is, Raiders coach Jon Gruden had no problem with the problem.
“I don’t know what that was all about,” Gruden said. “We thought the field was perfectly fine.”
Still, 80 yards it would be.
After the first-quarter stats were handed out, we were told the statistics for the next three quarters were no longer going to take the shortened field into account.
I still have no idea what that means.
Taking it all in was a paltry crowd better suited for a run-of-the-mill CFL pre-season affair, on a gorgeous night for football.
With ticket prices through the roof, the promotional machine needed to be in high gear in the weeks leading in.
Yet, Graham’s promise of a “festival” atmosphere during the week fizzled, too.
The Bombers set up a viewing party at The Forks, and that was about it.
But this wasn’t a blue and gold debacle.
The Bombers rented the place out and did everything asked of them to convert the place from 110-yard, three-down football to Canadian Premier League soccer to the four-down game – all in less than a week.
This was a bad idea from the start, executed poorly.
The Raiders, the home team, needed a place to play because their lame-duck home was devoted to baseball this week.
A franchise that’s been chasing the money from Oakland to L.A., back to Oakland and next to Las Vegas didn’t wring many silver pieces out of Manitoba.
Slashed ticket prices and giveaways bolstered what would have been an even more embarrassing crowd, announced at 21,992.
This was billed as a once-in-a-lifetime event. I heard it compared to seeing a Rolling Stones concert.
Only this was the Stones at a sound-check, with a roadie filling in for Mick and your annoying, guitar-playing neighbour sitting in for Keith. With wonky amplifiers.
The players who did suit up, god love ’em, did their best. Jobs were at stake, after all.
Boyle tossed some balls Rodgers would have been proud of. Receivers made some nice catches, dropped others.
The skill players seemed to be moving quicker than what we’re used to. Then again, the field was small. REALLY small.
Oh, and the Raiders produced a thrilling finish, winning 22-21 on a field goal with eight seconds left.
On what will be one of the more forgettable once-in-a-lifetime events you’ll ever see.
Well, there's the problem right there.
It's kind of like the socialists v the rino's. Second raters playing with our money.
“But the stupid owners think the sun rises and sets on Roger God-ell.”
*
Yeh, for sure. Actually, Canada has a thriving pro football league. Why, the NFL was invited to play is beyond me. A stupid idea by all parties if you ask me.
I think the NFL is simply looking for more of a fan base after losing all those American supporters. They might even be willing to show up in the Philippines if they knew there were potential fans to be gained.
Excellent point. We lived near Brown County Stadium in Milwaukee when I was a kid, so I started going to games as a toddler. My Grandma was also a die-hard Milwaukee Braves (then!) fan, so we were at that stadium a lot!
I can’t remember a Sunday that didn’t involve Church and then Green Bay Packer Football, bratwurst and beer.
And you’re right - the memories of those days more than make up for the stupidity that is the NFL now. :)
Why not 90 yards plus two 10 yard end zones and leave the goalposts where they were (goal lines of the CFL’s 110 yard field)?
The goal posts in CFL are at the goal line (I thought they were a yard or two deep, but apparently not). In some places the post must be a yard or two deep, but the uprights are even with the goal line.
I think the field must have been 90 yards long. A CFL field is 110 yards long, but the goal posts are at goal line, not at the end zone line. End zones are typically 20 yards deep, unless the stadium is also used for baseball or track.
Apparently only in Montreal and Toronto are the end zones truncated.
So they put the goal line at the 10 yard lines, with the goal posts 10 yards beyond that....So they put the goal posts at their original location?
Those $439 seats should have been discounted 20% since the field was shorted 20%. I, too, was thinking of the $ for food and parking. Mr. b used to be a big football fan but not since the kneeling. He couldn’t be bothered with the Cowboy pre-season game on tv.
My only claim to NFL fame is Oilers’ Toni Fritsch came to Thanksgiving one year so I have his bolo. Dang, didn’t get it autographed.
Ferris, I’m with you, last night’s supper was cheap enough. Made Chinese with some leftover rice, a pound of $2.99 beef (decent sale since beef averages $8 here - of course, there were only 3 packages at that price with higher unit prices sneakily mixed in), an onion, carrots, celery and spices. Total about $4 so $1 per serving. Mr. b requested dessert so threw a can of pineapple into a boxed angel food cake mix.
There are always better things to do!
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