WINNIPEG — Alexandre Gagne believes his Montreal Alouettes could find new fans in Sunday's Gray Cup game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The special teams captain doesn't think the Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans at the sold-out Princess Auto Stadium will be rooting for the green and white Riders – it's just not in their DNA.
“I just don't see it because I don't think it's possible. They were born to hate Riders,” Gagne said this week.
“It's passed down from generation to generation, so I hope the Blue Bombers will root for us. It will still be the blue team that wins the Gray Cup, so I feel like maybe they'll root for it.”
The reserve linebacker from Saint-Hubert, Quebec entered the CFL in 2017 and played three seasons with the Roughriders before joining the Alouettes in 2021.
The Bombers moved on to play Montreal in the CFL East Division semifinals and lost. That denied Winnipeg the opportunity to play at home in a sixth straight Gray Cup, but many of the team's fans will be among the 32,343 fans in the stands.
Alouettes defenseman Davis Alexander has already felt the love in Winnipeg.
“Hell, every restaurant we go to and every place we go, everyone keeps saying, ‘Go ahead,’ and it makes us happy,” Alexander said Saturday via video conference after the team left the stadium.
“I know a lot of guys on our team told (the fans), ‘We don’t care, just wear blue. Wear the blue bomber, we love it.” It was amazing here and the fans were so great. That’s what makes the CFL so great.”
The Alouettes did not conduct regular training. Instead, they gathered as a family on the lawn to chat, joke and take photos—until the fire alarm went off due to a broken water pipe. The stadium was evacuated and the team returned to their hotel.
Montreal third lineman and defenseman Shea Patterson has also been linked to the Roughriders.
Patterson spent his rookie year with the Alouettes in 2021 before transferring to Saskatchewan in 2023 for two years.
The Toledo, Ohio native attended the Bombers' training camp this year but was released in mid-May. While he was coaching defensive backs at a friend's base back home and a father to his 17-month-old son, the Alouettes called him in August after the team suffered injuries.
Now the 28-year-old football player is playing in a championship match against a team that did not want to leave him, but does not hold a grudge against him.
He agrees with Gagne that Bombers fans may want to give their allegiance to the Alouettes rather than the Raiders.
“I'm very familiar with this rivalry, so I hope we have a lot of Bomber fans rooting for us,” Patterson said.
PUMPED UP WITH PAINT
Fans won't be the only ones in the stadium with their faces painted.
Montreal defensive lineman Isaac Adeyemi-Bergland and linebacker Darnell Sankey literally put their game faces on.
The six-foot-one, 245-pound Sankey wears black makeup and paints stripes on his face at an angle to make them look like claws.
“It kind of makes me feel like I'm at war, like I'm in the jungle somewhere fighting for my survival,” he explained this week.
Sankey began drawing different patterns on his face during brief stints with some NFL teams early in his career.
The California native entered the CFL in 2021 with the Calgary Stampeders, spent the following season with Saskatchewan before finding a home in Montreal in 2023 and winning the Gray Cup.
Adeyemi-Bergland paints huge black circles around the eyes, including on the eyelids, and down to the beard.
“When I get to the point where everything is done and the product is ready, I'm mentally in a place where I'm ready to take ownership of the game,” he said.
The Dartmouth, N.C., player played for the Stampeders from 2021-23 before joining the Alouettes.
Looking for their first CFL title, Adeyemi-Bergland said the key to beating the Riders and veteran quarterback Trevor Harris was staying focused.
“You have two great teams, two powerhouses, full of veterans,” he said.
“It’s just the ability to be disciplined and be in the right place at the right time where you need to be and not try to do too much.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2025.
