One of the Canadian Football League’s most famous games each year is the rematch of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers-Saskatchewan Roughriders Labour Day Classic in Winnipeg the following week, a game typically called The Banjo Bowl. Why’s it called the Banjo Bowl? Well, that nomenclature dates back to former Blue Bombers’ kicker Troy Westwood saying in 2003 that people from Saskatchewan were a bunch of “banjo-picking inbreds,” then later partly apologizing with “I was wrong to make such a statement and I’d like to apologize. The vast majority of people from Saskatchewan have no idea how to play the banjo.”
Winnipeg then seized on that as a marketing campaign for the annual Labour Day rematch, and it’s since become one of the CFL’s most-discussed games, one that usually has some high tensions on the field. Those were apparent in this year’s game Saturday. And they were perhaps particularly apparent in a brawl that broke out after a Winnipeg touchdown in the second quarter (starting around 0:24):
We've got a little bit of a Banjo Bowl brawl 😱
Oh, and a Blue Bombers TD! pic.twitter.com/COv9XdRQiH
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) September 11, 2021
That led to six players receiving penalties, three from each team, but Saskatchewan DT Garrett Marino and DB A.J. Hendy were the only players ejected (notable, considering that Winnipeg RB Andrew Harris ripped off an opponent’s helmet). The Blue Bombers went on to win 33-9 and improve to 5-1, while the Roughriders fell to 2-2.
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