Rock Ramblings: Football bets involving Riders and Blue Bombers all part of the morning radio fun

By Medicine Hat News on November 2, 2017.

I’ve been working at 105.3 Rock and with my co-host Poncho for more than eight years now. If you are familiar with our morning show you’re probably used to hearing us bicker daily; talking about everything from retro furniture to beard jewelry and parenting. While we may not be the biggest sports enthusiasts, we sure love the Canadian Football League.

When we’re not playing your favourite rock tunes, we’re busy making bets representing our favourite CFL teams. Poncho grew up in the Keystone province and is a Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan and, hailing from Saskatchewan, I’m a fan of the Roughriders.

When we first started working together we would make friendly wagers, like having to buy coffee or breakfast for a week, or cutting the other person’s grass. Oh, those were the good ol’ days. The “CFL Showdown” has morphed into something much bigger since then. Over the past eight years we’ve endured a plethora of pain and ate some pretty disgusting things.

For some reason, the majority of our bets have involved food. Poncho has ingested prairie oysters and snorted cranberry sauce while I’ve eaten cockroach popcorn, drank hot dog water and sucked back a “herb & spice” slurpee. Last year I also had to drink an entire mug full of apple cider vinegar. I tasted it for a week after! To this day, I still can’t cook with it.

Just like the song “Green is the Colour,” Poncho has dyed his hair Rider green, along with his beard. Actually, the green beard lasted a lot longer than he expected it to. He was not impressed.

Our challenges have been on the physical side as well. Poncho took a roller derby class with the Gas City Rollers, picked up trash at Strathcona Park, did farm chores and rode the mechanical bull at Ralph’s. After losing the Banjo Bowl bet this year I got to be a “firefighter for a day” and participate in training with local firefighters including climbing the ladder truck, dragging a hose and going through a confined space. It was an eye-opening experience.

We’ve both endured some pretty painful wagers. Poncho had the opportunity to shoot paintballs at me — giving me welts the size of baseballs on my legs! Poncho has had to wax his legs twice and had to wear a dog shock collar twice. You think he would have learned his lesson.

Looking back at all the ridiculous things we’ve endured, I can’t believe we actually agree to do this year after year. Whether we are writing high school tests, playing egg roulette or stepping on mouse traps we haven’t lost our enthusiasm (well, maybe a little) for our respective teams. Feel free to check out all of our CFL Showdown videos on our website http://www.1053rock.ca or on our app. Just remember, “Green is the Colour” and I’ve got that “Rider Pride.” Go Riders Go!

Cassie Donnelly is the morning show co-host at 105.3 ROCK. You can reach her on twitter @cass_1053rock.