Ok, here it goes again, again. If you were wondering why I haven’t posted a blog in a while it’s not because I’m lazy (that’s usually the case but not this time). Last weeks blog was lost in the in-box of the guy who posts my blogs after I email them to him. It was letting everyone know that the coaches were holding me out of the game in Calgary last week and it described how I got the injury (during practice) and where the injury was (deep groin…actually the “Magnus Adductor” which is really close to the “boys”). Also, with all the extra time I had not going to Calgary I wrote another Blog about what it’s like being injured. I have spent the last 3 days trying to locate it on my computer. Turns out I didn’t save the file before my computer was shut off so I will do my best to sum up the last 2 blogs that you guys didn’t get to read….that is unless my daughter wakes up and I have to cut the blogging short. Boy, those two blogs were probably the best of the year but sadly they are lost in cyber space.
So, I don’t know if you’ve guys have noticed or not but a few of the guys are sporting new hair-do’s. As a part of our breast cancer campaign Glenn January agreed to shave his head if we raised $10,000 and proud to say so far we have raised over $30,000. The hair will be sent to a company who makes human hair wigs for children undergoing radiation and chemo therapy. What made this head shaving party so special for me was how my teammates jumped on board to support breast cancer awareness. Without having to ask anyone, except January, no fewer than 5 Riders got shaved. Gene Makowsky jumped on board a few weeks ago and Andy Fantuz, a fellow Mustang, decided to cut off his notorious afro (notoriously bad) the day before the shave-off, and Weston Dressler who initially showed up to poke fun at Glenn got caught up in the emotions of the day and joined the rest of us who were showing our support to those going through the cancer battle.
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Seeing as how October is breast cancer awareness month we thought this would be a good time to do it. I was touched by all the guys supporting the cause, my cause. And these are not just your average players either. These guys are the heart of the CFL. A two time CFL Lineman of the Year, soon to be multi time winner of the Top Canadian, and the 2008 Rookie of the Year. There are people all over Saskatchewan who would die to have this all-star team show up at their event, and it would cost them a pretty penny too, but these guys showed up without me even asking them to shave their melons. WOW.
If you have been by practice you will have noticed that the bald heads and thicker sweaters are not the only difference in fashion on the Rider sidelines. We have been wearing pink gloves all month during practice and intend to wear them during warm ups in our next 2 games. These gloves will then be signed and auctioned off on my website (abou67.com) over the next few weeks with all proceeds going to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
These gloves are fairly controversial. I have been working on this since February and have gone through all the proper channels to make it happen and to make a long story short…. Reebok, all the CFL teams and what seemed like the CFL front office staff were on board to have a breast cancer awareness week where players would be allowed to wear pink gloves in the games and coaches could wear pink sideline caps. Cool. Well about 3 months ago, I get an email telling me that the commish has vetoed the idea because if the CFL supports breast cancer we would have to support all charities. I see his point but hockey does it with pink sticks and baseball does it with pink bats. The NFL doesn’t do it but if they did, would we?
So because the league can not endorse breast cancer research, Reebok can’t make the pink gloves. They don’t make pink gloves and need a minimum 300 unit order to produce a new colour. Because I am bank rolling this initiative 300 units x $30 each wasn’t possible but I was determined to get my hands on some pink football gloves. What a good way to raise awareness than to do what you’re not supposed to. That’s when I got a hold of Chris at Entrix, the Canadian distributor of the “Cutters” brand, and he sent me 30 pairs of black and pink gloves hot off the press. That brings everyone up to date on the gloves, other than the fact that we are given strict order not to wear the gloves during the game. Warm ups are ok but not in the game!
As I’m writing this I’m watching Calgary vs Winnipeg and just saw the hats that were supposed to be worn on the sideline being sold to the fans and last week I saw Hamilton wearing pink ribbon decals on the back of their helmets. Actually the Ti-Cats organization got in to trouble regarding these decals as they didn’t get the commish’s approval, which makes me think we should have just gone ahead with the gloves and then gotten in trouble after the fact.
Any ways, I’ve spent my entire blog writing about boobs and gloves. Look for the gloves on Sunday, who knows where they will turn up, and watch for them on my auction. I promise next week I will talk football again but I had to sum up previous blogs…if you don’t know, now you know!
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