The Writers of FPF: Justin Blanchard (Division 5A&5B)

The Writers of FPF: Justin Blanchard

The first time I asked Justin to sub for me on a podcast was a short while ago.  I left to pursue romantic endeavours (Commissioner Campana gave me a few days off so I could, “See about a girl”.)  The next morning, I sat in a Starbucks and began watching the recordings I was on the verge of spitting out my Pike Place Roast. I felt as though I had made a terrible mistake.  The lively, excitable and somewhat irritable Justin Blanchard was more robotic than Jetson’s family hired help. Luckily, he quickly turned that around.  He was already a stellar writer and his insightful view of the game allowed Justin to become one of FPF media’s surging stars.  We invite him back as a writer and his analytical approach to his articles as well as his somewhat aggressive irony have drawn players to his work whether they play in high or low divisions.

Q&A

Q-Who Do you think you are? What gives you the right? I was going to tell you what gives me the right, but the randomly capitalized “D” in your question angered me so much that I had to go read William Strunk Jr.’s The Elements of Style in my room to cool down. (Classic deflection by Justin Blanchard)

Q-Tell us about JBlanch. We all know you are an FPF Finals MVP (because you won’t shut up about it), but give us some insight on your career as a player as well as a media member? There, that’s better. Well, my first season in FPF was in 2012. I was introduced to the league by two of my CEGEP football coaches, who invited me and some of my teammates to join their flag team for the winter season. I’ve been hooked ever since! An aspiring journalist at the time, I then met Rob “The Commish” Campana, a year later in hopes of getting more writing experience. Rob first brought me on to write real journalism-style “meet the team”-esque columns in Rehan Sarwar’s articles in 2013. A season later I was covering my own division, then expanded to providing some awkward moments hosting one of the podcasts, and now I’m here answering your questions.

Q-Recount some of the most amazing plays you’ve ever seen in FPF. Recounting each play would take a while, but I’ll list the ones I can remember off the top of my head (in no particular order):

-Sacha Papich pulling off a Pierre Garçon-like one-handed catch for a 40 yard TD As seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byr5ze5gvas

-Jordan Moses rushing Fred Viens and batting down one of his passes – to himself. He then proceeded to take that INT to the house, crushing my team’s (6 Fast Guys plus Ryan) collective heart in the process

-Gabriel Parent taking a handoff from Fred Morissette and proceeding to juke out the entire opposing defense on his way to a 40-yard rushing TD. There’s a video of it somewhere on the internet. Oh here it is, hope this works: https://www.facebook.com/gabriel.parent.71

-Derek Daoust making a rocket catch on a 3-point convert to keep Primetime’s season alive when they were down 4-0 in overtime. There’s a video of that on the internet too. Couldn’t find that one so here is a funny cat compilation: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tntOCGkgt98) Primetime eventually winning that game

-Quaysie Gordon-Maule playing hot potato with the ball at the goal line and still having the time to burn the entire offense for a Pick 6 I have seen countless others in my short FPF career, and look forward to the ones I’ll get to see this season!

Q-Why are you so angry? I can’t stop being hungry. I’m always hungry. I’m hungry because I’m angry. I’m angry because I’m hungry.

Q-Who is winning the championship in the divisions you are covering this year?

5A: Pure football athleticism isn’t always a sign of sure success in the likes of the NFL, but in FPF, it sure goes a long way. That’s why I can’t help but peg Les Verges Folles as the favorites to win it all. With a full FPF season now under their belt, and the same talent they had last year, I think their explosive offense could carry them all the way to a championship win.

5B: Teams (mostly) new to FPF have generally been the ones hoisting up the Div 5 trophy by season’s end, so I’m going to predict that trend continues this year—for 5B at least—and go with Fuzzy-Kittens. A single playmaker is often the difference down in the bottom divisions, and I can’t help but see Simon Bosquet-Beaudoin going HAM and helping paint the Bell Complex pink come April.

Justin sure is angry!  He also clearly loves talking about himself.  So if you want to know more you can definitely email him at [email protected] and @JBlanchFPF.