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Winnipeggers Neil Reavely and Tavona Molinski have completed a record-setting journey by attending nine CFL games in nine cities in an unofficial time of 338 hours and 51 minutes — a little more than 14 days.
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“This was such a whirlwind of excitement and adventure,” Reavely said. “We got to meet so many amazing people throughout our journey across Canada. People offered and opened up their homes for us to stay at, invited us to their pre-game events, and came by at the games to say hi.
“They also made sure to throw their jabs at the two of us for wearing our Bomber jersey when our team wasn’t even playing.”
The travellers covered six provinces, four time zones, and over 20,500 km. They faced challenges including flight delays, train delays, and cancellations but persevered.
Some thought they had no chance to better the previous best time of just more than 15 days, set last year by B.C.’s Bobby Dubeau and eclipsed earlier this summer by Chris Tymofichuk, a Winnipeg native who now lives in Ottawa.
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“It was a challenge that some people gave us no chance to complete but it made us even more determined to do it. We said from the start that it would be a bit of a race with some tight schedules, and the mental part of little sleep and getting around new cities.”
But the welcoming attitude of CFL fans made it a little bit easier.
“At times it felt surreal, the way we were welcomed into everyone’s stadiums with open arms,” Reavely said. “This was much more than just watching football every night. It was everyone coming together to share a common interest.”
The adventure concluded with a game in Montreal, marking the end of their record-setting trip.
“When the clock struck 00:00 on the scoreboard in Montreal at 9:59 ET we knew we had completed and shared something amazing together,” Reavely said.
This was the pair’s itinerary:
First up was the Aug. 10 game between the B.C. Lions and Edmonton Elks at Commonwealth Stadium, followed by Ottawa Redblacks at Calgary Stampeders (Aug. 15), Montreal Alouettes at Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina (Aug. 16), Edmonton at Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Aug. 17), Winnipeg Blue Bombers at B.C. in Vancouver (Aug. 18), Saskatchewan at Toronto Argos (Aug. 22), Hamilton at Winnipeg (Aug. 23), B.C. at Ottawa (Aug. 24), and Edmonton at Montreal (Aug. 25).
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