Rider fans step in to help young bomber fan at Banjo Bowl

A trip to the Banjo Bowl in her home city turned into a nightmare for a Winnipeg woman and her nine-year-old son.

Janelle-Marie Emond said everything was fine until they left their seats and her son put on a green sweater.

“We were sixth row so we had to go up quite a few stairs to get up to the concourse, that’s where these lovely ladies decided to start throwing obscenities at my son because of his sweater,” she told 650 CKOM Monday.

Emond told the women to leave her young son alone and pointed out he was wearing a Blue Bomber shirt underneath, but the abuse didn’t stop.

“The one girl looked at me and literally just poured the beer on top of his head and laughed,” she said.

Emond said as they moved through the stadium, more Bomber fans yelled and made comments, including a group of seven or eight men who cornered her.

During the chaos, Emond let go of her son’s hand and, for a minute, couldn’t find him.

She said an older man and woman who were Rider fans grabbed her son and hugged him until they could be reunited. The couple then walked them out to their car.

When they got home, Emond shared the experience with her friends on Facebook, who shared it several times on the Blue Bombers official page.

Since then, Emond said Bomber’s CEO Wade Miller has contacted her to apologize and offer game tickets, along with a special team coin.

“My son was pretty excited about this coin, I think it’s going to be something he’s going to carry around with him all the time…I think it kind of helped,” Emond said.

She added, however, they won’t be going to another game anytime soon.