BOLDUC’S GOT MAJOR FAN BACKING
87-year-old grandfather of Ottawa special teams player always calls following games
It doesn’t matter when or where the Ottawa Redblacks are playing, Jean-Philippe Bolduc knows his 87-year-old grandfather Roger Tousignant will be watching.
“My biggest fan is my granddad,” said the 26-year-old Bolduc, who’s become a valuable special teams player. “He owned a furniture store in Hawkesbury for 30 years. He’s from Ottawa. He grew up in Vanier so he’s been an Ottawa football fan forever. When we played out West, he went to bed at like 1:30 to make sure he watched the game until the end. He calls me after every game, it doesn’t matter what time it is — I have to pick up.
“When we won the Grey Cup last year, he probably had more beers than me.”
His grandfather still plays golf a couple of times a week and drives.
Also amazing is Bolduc’s grandmother Gisele, who’s 88.
“She’s the rock of the family,” said Bolduc. “She still cooks three meals a day.”
Then, there’s Bolduc’s dad Jacques, a golf nut, his mom Louise and his sisters Miriam and Justine, who have artistic skills.
“My dad’s always watching The Golf Channel,” said Bolduc. “He still shoots 75, 78. He was 15 years old when he started playing golf so that’s his thing. I find it the most boring sport ever so I’m not sure why he likes it so much. He’s also a huge football fan — he’s gone to two Super Bowls.”
The relationship between father and son got physical over the years. When Bolduc was a bit younger, the two would playfight — WWE-style.
“We’d wrestle on the couch, it was like a two-minute fight,” said Bolduc with a laugh. “Not for the past couple of years, he hasn’t wanted to start a fight — I guess he’s retired now.”
When Bolduc was younger, Jacques figured he didn’t want to get up early and be at an arena at 5:30 on a weekend morning, so football seemed like a good option for the kid. It worked out well. Bolduc went on to play CEGEP with the Champlain Cougars and was a huge contributor for the Laval Rouge et Or before being selected in the fifth round of the 2016 CFL Draft by the Calgary Stampeders.
As a Redblack this season, he’s got 14 special teams tackles and has grown in the role.
“It’s been a great season,” he said. “From a personal standpoint, one of my goals was to establish myself as a premier special teams player. We’ve had a good season on special teams — up and down sometimes. The last couple of weeks, we haven’t played as good as we can, especially me, I didn’t have super good games. But I know coming off a bye week, I have fresh legs and I’m ready to roll for playoffs.”
Maybe a bye week before the Redblacks start the playoffs will wind up being a good thing. Offensive lineman SirVincent Rogers and receiver Joshua Stangby could resume practising sometime in the next couple of weeks.
The Redblacks aren’t looking beyond Friday’s home date (7 p.m.) versus the Ticats. Said coach Rick Campbell: “We haven’t even talked about the next bye week, it’s really just focusing on this. There’s a whole bunch to play for, the biggest reason, obviously, is we can finish in first place. If we win this game, we put the pressure on Toronto. We’re really not treating next week as a bye week — we’re going to be in town practising and making sure we stay sharp.”
When we played out West, he went to bed at like 1:30 to make sure he watched the game until the end. He calls me after every game, it doesn’t matter what time it is — I have to pick up.
When asked about playing the role of spoiler against the Redblacks, Ticats head coach June Jones said: “They know we went up there and beat them (26-22 on Sept. 9). They take a bit of pride in that.” ... The CFL announced on Wednesday that Canadian hip-hop artist SonReal will perform at the SiriusXM Kickoff Show on Grey Cup Sunday. The Toronto-based singing group Choir! Choir! Choir! will sing the national anthem at the Grey Cup.