Hat’s off to Bonk and Shepherd
Courtesy Winnipeg Free Press:
We’re here today to bang the drum for John Bonk and Tom Shepherd, two of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame’s newest inductees…
It seems that some media types in The Big Smoke can’t quite figure what these two gentlemen — particularly Bonk, the long-serving Winnipeg Blue Bomber centre — are doing among the likes of Doug Flutie, Pinball Clemons and Mike Pringle in arguably the greatest class of inductees in the shrine’s history.
Now, let’s get this out of the way before we go any further: Flutie is the most dominant CFL player these eyes have seen; Clemons was a gifted multi-dimensional runner/receiver/returner and the league’s best ambassador while Pringle was as great a running back as any that has been employed in the three-down game.
They are hall-of-fame slam dunks, plain and simple.
But in reference to Bonk, one respected newspaper colleague in Toronto called his inclusion “curious” and wondered why he was enshrined now after 20 years of eligibility. Another referred to it as a “mystery” while calling his career “good” and “workmanlike.” Even TSN — the league’s sole television partner — was in on the act, calling Bonk a linebacker “who liked to hit people” on Wednesday night’s Sportscentre. Technically, that’s not incorrect as Bonk came right out of the junior ranks to join the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as a defender, but the…..
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