Dawgs By Nature
CFL’s championship game features a fifth-consecutive appearance
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL) will compete in their fifth straight Grey Cup this Sunday, November 17, 2024, as they meet the Toronto Argonauts in the league championship game with a kickoff at 6:00 p.m. (Eastern). The title game is the 111th and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network as well as CFL+, CTV, TSN, RDS networks, and Sirius XM radio.
RELATED: 6 FORMER BROWNS IN THE CFL
Two seasons ago these same two clubs played in the Grey Cup as Toronto came out on top 24-23 to capture their 18th CFL crown. The Blue Bombers won the Cup in 2019 and 2021, then lost to the Argos in 2022 and the Montreal Aloutettes last season. The 2020 schedule was canceled due to COVID.
This year, Winnipeg won the West Division with an 11-7-0 record while Toronto placed second to Montreal (12-5-1) in the East Division going 10-8-0 and clinched a Wild Card berth. The Argonauts then defeated the Alouettes 30-28 in the playoffs.
The venue is BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia with a capacity of 65,061 while the halftime show for this year’s Grey Cup is the Jonas Brothers. The stadium is the largest cable-supported retractable roof in the world. It features a center-hung high-definition scoreboard measuring 68 by 38 feet plus installed around the building is a 51-inch electronic ribbon board with a circumference of 2,200 feet.
With the game on everyone’s mind, the Cleveland Browns have a connection to the CFL.
On the list of Browns team executives under the category “Football Operations”, the first name you view is Catherine Hickman. She is the Assistant GM & Vice President of Football Operations. Under her job heading, the Football Administration, Football Information Systems, Training and Medical, Player Engagement, Security, Equipment, and Video all fall under her responsibilities with 36 people employed by the team to perform these duties.
Hickman is the highest-ranking female executive in the NFL. She was born in Canada. She began her trek interning with the CFL.
Catherine Hickman (formerly Raiche) was born in 1989 in Montreal. At the age of seven, she fell in love with the game of football. She had a brother who played offensive tackle and she was the water girl. In high school, Catherine played for the girl’s flag football squad.
Her father was an accountant with a Master’s degree in taxation. Her mom was a nurse (who now manages HR) working with nurses for a private company.
Catherine then attended the University of Sherbrooke located in Quebec with a second campus on the [South Shore of Montreal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Shore_(Montreal)#:~:text=The%20South%20Shore%20(French%3A%20Rive,Quebec%20administrative%20region%20of%20Mont%C3%A9r%C3%A9gie.&text=The%20largest%20city%20on%20the%20South%20Shore%20area%20is%20Longueuil.). She completed a law degree and was admitted to the Quebec Bar Association in 2012. She then went back to night school and got her Master’s in tax law while practicing during the day. Her forte’ focused on corporate and tax laws but she always wanted to get involved in the sports world. She looked into the...
