Wind gusts during a CFL game between Winnipeg and Montreal on Oct. 26, 2024. Wind gusts during a CFL game between Winnipeg and Montreal on Oct. 26, 2024. (Joe Pascucci on X.)

Weather has often had a notable impact on football games, and that’s certainly been true in the Canadian Football League. But while there have been many CFL games impacted by game-long weather, it’s been rarer to see a dramatic impact from weather specifically in the final minutes. That’s what happened near the end of Saturday’s game between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Montreal Alouettes, though.

That game was a rematch of last November’s 110th Grey Cup, which Montreal won 28-24. It was also the regular-season finale for both teams, and while nothing was on the line for the Alouettes (they entered with a 12-4-1 record and had already clinched first place in the East Division and the accompanying bye), a win or tie would seal first in the West for Winnipeg (they entered 10-7 and  held the head-to-head tiebreaker over the 9-7-1 Saskatchewan Roughriders, who were playing later in the day). And the wind wound up playing a crazy role.

There had been notable winds at Montreal’s Percival Molson Stadium throughout this one, but the wind particularly picked up in the final minutes. With 1:12 left and the Bombers trailing 27-25, Winnipeg’s Sergio Castillo tried a 61-yard field goal, but wind pushed it left. Alouettes’ receiver Tyjon Lindsay caught the missed kick and took it back to their 19 to avoid giving up a rouge, but Montreal then gained just four yards on two rushes up the middle, and set up to punt on third (Canadian football is only three downs) and six.

Things then got real bizarre. As TSN broadcasters Marshall Ferguson and Duane Forde (who had quite the Halloween costumes for this game) noted, the wind started gusting massively right as Montreal’s Australian punter, Joseph Zema, lined up to get the snap. He wound up punting anyway, but that only went 21 yards and out of bounds, giving Winnipeg the ball on the Montreal 44 with 10 seconds left. Brady Olivera then rushed for two yards and Castillo tried again from 51, and the wind was more in his favor this time. That led to a Winnipeg win, and to both broadcasters and fans commenting on potential divine intervention:

In that clip, Ferguson says “All of a sudden, the wind just cranked up like crazy. The flags are completely twisting. And we’re getting essentially a snow shower of leafs, like, a leaf tornado just came over the top of Mount Royal. And this could completely change the kick. And it is! It’s a sidewinder! It got into Zema’s head, and he kicks it out of bounds! That wind came out of nowhere!” Forde says “Wow! This is unreal!” and Ferguson says “The football gods just smiled on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.”

The clip then cuts ahead to Castillo’s kick, which Ferguson sets up with “A second chance, thanks to the weather gods smiling on Winnipeg.” He then calls it Low snap. Castillo steps into it. It’s got the leg! It’s good! The Bombers walk it off to win the West.” And Forde responds “It’s official, Marshall, God is a Bombers’ fan. Unbelievable.”

This is far from the first case of weather and/or divine providence coming up in the CFL. Perhaps the most famous came from Toronto Argonauts’ legendary coach Leo Cahill in 1969, where between the first and second games of the East Final (it was a two-leg affair in those days, and Toronto beat the Ottawa Rough Riders 22-14 in the first leg at home), he vowed “It will take an act of God to beat us Saturday.” Well, freezing weather hit, and the Rough Riders and their broomball shoes beat the Argos and their cleats 32-3 to advance to a Grey Cup they’d later win, sparking the line that the act of God saw Ottawa pivot Russ Jackson walk across the Rideau Canal.

But the CFL has always been known for wacky weather games, from the “Mud Bowl” 38th Grey Cup in 1950 through the “Fog Bowl” 50th Grey Cup in 1962 (the only Grey Cup game ever suspended to a later day) to the “Ice Bowl” 65th Grey Cup in 1977 (featuring Tony Proudfoot’s staples) to the “Snow Bowl” 84th Grey Cup in 1996 through the recent snowy 105th Grey Cup in 2017. (The Bombers were involved in the first two of those, losing the Mud Bowl and winning the Fog Bowl, while the Alouettes won the Ice Bowl.) So this adds to a long history of CFL weather impacts, many in more important games. But the suddenness and specificity here were quite remarkable, and that led to those notable commentator reactions.

[Joe Pascucci on X]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.