Gut-Wrenching Loss For Lions & Nathan

Photo Credit Sportswave

The BC Lions are coming off a three game losing skid return to BC Place hosting Winnipeg sit second with a record of 5 wins, 4 losses while the Bombers are 3 wins looking to climb up in the standings catching Calgary.

There is no question that all the talk this past week was the signing of National quarterback and 2022 CFL Most Outstanding Canadian Nathan Rourke return to the roster.

He suited up for practice as well as a media scrum this past Wednesday where Campbell mentioned “From talking to Nathan, I know how excited he is to be back with the Lions and to get going”. 

He also put to bed the thought that Vernon Adams Jr. will be moved and continues to be on the roster that will see them both work together.

In a touching move the Lions mentioned the loss of Dan Dorazio who was hired by Wally Buono in 1988 when he was Head Coach and GM of the Stampeders moving on to the Lions in 2003 where he spent 15 seasons with the Lions for two stints as the O-Line Coach.

Victoria’s Rourke was selected 15th overall in round two of the 2020 CFL Draft and to the surprise of many was named the starter for 2022 season.

In ten regular season games he managed 25 TD’s and 3,349 passing yards helping BC to a second-place finish in the West giving BC their first home playoff game dating back to 2016.

He had a solid 436- yard game with a win over Toronto in week three breaking Gerry Dattilio’s 41-year-old single-game passing record for Canadian quarterbacks. 

With the pressure on he broke his own record in back-to-back weeks with 477 yards (August 6) over Edmonton with a win and followed that up with a 488 yard comeback victory at Calgary.

He is only the third QB in CFL history to win the league’s Most Outstanding Canadian that sees him join Dattilio and Russ Jackson.

He went on to sign with Jacksonville Jaguars (January 2023) and also have NFL tryouts with New England, the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons over the past two seasons.

To many that alone not only surprised but shocked many in the football world that had some thinking his future was in the NFL.

It seems a “tad” funny with many thinking that there would be a trade on the horizon with him being the one to lead them to the 2024 Grey Cup played at BC Place, which we now know isn’t the case.

That alone wasn’t the case for today’s game with the Lions not able to be on the same page as Nathan’s playbook with limited practice time and given the overall performance you had to “feel” for Nathan who clearly put extra pressure on himself returning to BC Place.

Following the game he took extra time telling the media with the following being a part of what he mentioned.

“I’d like to say something, and hopefully it answers all your questions. I want to take this moment to publicly apologize. That was not my best football right there. You know, as a quarterback here, and it’s never, never a one-person job, but it is the position where everything you have the ball in the hand, your hands every single play, and I didn’t make enough plays.

Obviously, I’m not going to sit here and make excuses in terms of it being a short week and getting into the offence again. And it’s definitely a tough, tall task when you play a team like the Bombers, who have been so successful. But I’m not going to make those excuses. I know that I’m better than this. I’m sorry to the team who stuck their necks out for me for getting me here and allowed me to play the rest of my teammates who, you know, effort is never going to be an issue with this locker room that they fought right until the end got, battled and gotten to the end zone in that last possession.”

The Lions next home game is August 31 in Victoria which is called Touchdown Pacific that has them hosting the Ottawa RedBlacks with a 4 pm start. 

On a side-note for half-time entertainment they brought in Fred Penner a Canadian who founded Oak Street Music which is a Canadian record label that was founded in 1987 by Fred Penner and his manager, Gilles Paquin . 

On this label he (Fred Penner) produced among others Fred Penner’s Place in 1989, the multilingual Christmas album The Season in 1991 as well as a compilation called Collections in 1994. Following financial problems, Oak Street Music officially ceased operation February 4, 1997.