From the Lions' Den

It started out so very innocently. On “Off the Record with Michael Landsberg”, Jeremaine Copeland and Nick Lewis were asked about their opponents, the BC Lions, and specifically Lions’ Slotback Geroy Simon, currently on pace to break the single season receiving record.

Geroy some years ago adopted a signature move to send his children at home a message, a “Superhero” pose, hands on hips, head turned. While changing some over the last few seasons, it has become less of an issue to Lions fans, knowing as we do that it’s Geroy saying “Look!” to his family.

To Jeremaine and Nick, it was a subject of ridicule, and they dubbed the pose “gay”, laughing and giggling all over the set. It was enough to make a Lions fan’s blood boil, but knowing Wally as we do, it was all but certain that there would be no retaliation, lest the wrath of the Wally be felt in all of its splendour. Then, in a break in the action at Ivor Wynne last week, Geroy looked at the camera and said, “Copeland, comin’ for you. Gonna bust yo ass!”

This was unprecedented. In the world of Wally, control is everything. Tom Higgins may throw up his hands and decree that the trash talking and dancing by the Stampeders is out of his control, but give Wally the chance, and he would try to control the rotation of the Earth…and Lions fans wouldn’t have it any other way. Lionbackers held their collective breath, and waited for Wally to rule and pass sentence on Geroy.

It came on Wednesday, and it was as much of a shocker as Geroy’s response was. Wally said in not so many words, that boys will be boys, and that it was indeed possible that the Copeland quote was on the locker room bulletin board. He then said that it was harmless fun, but might not be so harmless to the Calgary Stampeders.

One more thing here..raise your hand if you don’t know that Wally doesn’t like Calgary. F Troop ran him out of Calgary after the 2002 season, into our Den, where he slowly drew his plans against them.

At practice last week, Lions still worked hard, but were strangely quiet at times, practicing under the Dome (very unusual in regular season play) with the press not permitted to watch. Lions fans smacked their lips, knowing what must come.

On game day Friday, Lions under quarterback Buck Pierce engineered a 70 yard drive for a touchdown on the first series, and never looked back. After the second touchdown, (to Geroy Simon of course) Geroy calmly walked to the Stampeder bench, and gently placed the football at Jermaine Copeland’s feet, never saying a word. The game was never close, and Calgary scored their only TD in garbage time, with Lions playing 3^rd string qb Jarious Jackson, and other 2^nd and 3^rd stringers. A 39-13 pasting meant that the battle had been won, but would it continue on the 15^th in Calgary?

Wally left no doubt that it would. In a post game interview, Wally was asked about running up the score. His answer was, “Of course we ran up the score. My job is to kick their ass.”

Your faithful scribe will now make the trip to Calgary this weekend, of course. After all of this, who wouldn’t? One thing that has occurred to me, though: if this team has a date in Winnipeg in mid-November, and happens to return to BC in an extremely good mood

right after the game, I think they will owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jeremaine Copeland and Nick Lewis.