Emotions high for players, fans after Blue Bombers lose 2nd straight Grey Cup game | CBC News

Call it the shock in the Steel City. 

The mood in the dressing room after the Blue Bombers watched their second consecutive Grey Cup slip away in the final seconds of Sunday’s game was sombre. Winnipeg fell 28-24 to the Montreal Alouettes in the 110th edition of the Canadian Football League championship. 

“I think I was so emotional just because this is the last time I’m gonna be together with this group,” said Bombers running back Brady Oliveira. “I’ve talked all year how special it was, I mean I truly think it’s a lot more special than it was last year.”

“I think that’s why I was so emotional … it’s not gonna be the same going to work next year because I know it’s not gonna be the same guys in this locker room. I really wanted to win it for the guys that haven’t got a chance to experience it.”

It was the Bombers’ fourth consecutive appearance in the big game. They won it all in 2019 and defended the title in 2021 (the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) but have now come up short twice in a row.

Quarterback Zach Collaros said losing in back-to-back Grey Cups will eventually be used as motivation but will sting for the time being. 

“We’re all professionals in there — people that will use it to fuel them. But for now it’s hard, it hurts,” he said. 

Back in Winnipeg many fans were left feeling that pain, too. 

Sam Friesen, who watched the game from the King’s Head Pub, had his face painted in Bombers colours and planned on going to Portage and Main to celebrate an expected Winnipeg victory.

“It hurts, it stings, but you know what, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers we had a competitive team the last four years we went to the Grey Cup. As a fan, that’s all we can ask for,” he said.

“Good for Montreal, they outplayed us unfortunately.”

Family brought together by football

Lifelong Bombers fan Doreen Geary watched the game on TV from her room at Winnipeg’s Victoria Hospital, where she has battled health issues.

She felt close to the team this season because IG Field can be seen from her window. Geary followed their success while staying cozy in a Bombers blanket.

Despite the team’s loss on Sunday, the experience was a win for Geary and her family. Her son, John, came to Winnipeg from P.E.I. over a month ago, unsure of how much time he’d have left to spend with her.

But things have since turned around and Geary watched the big game alongside her loved ones — John and his siblings.

“It was good to see her in the highs and lows, she was very humble,” John said. “It was a nail biter toward the end [and] she had an exaggerated sad face like a majority of Winnipeggers, as I’m sure.”

He said it was a special night that he and his siblings won’t soon forget. 

“Moments are precious and at 94 you never know when the last time is,” he said. “The three kids relished that.”