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Flin Flon is used to taking some good-natured ribbing over its unusual name, but now even TSN is getting into the act. Flin Flon became a running gag in a recent CFL panel discussion broadcast on the network's top-rated website. It all starts when the segment begins with an e-mailed question from Jodee Gray, who made sure to note in his message that he is from Flin Flon. Host Dave Randorf, one of four panelists, asks Milt Stegall, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers legend, whether he had ever been to the northern city. "Never been to Flin Flon," answers Stegall with a laugh telling of things to come. "I've heard of it, but I don't know where it is. I know it's somewhere in Manitoba." "You know what, you're not alone," Randorf retorts. "Everybody in Canada has heard of Flin Flon, but very few have actually been there." Stegall, along with fellow ex-CFLers Matt Dunigan and Chris Schultz, proceeds to answer Gray's query as to which team they most hated to play. Stegall answers the Montreal Alouettes teams coached by Don Matthews, adding that the location of the game was irrelevant. "It didn't matter where it was," he says. "We could have played in Alaska, Flin Flon, it doesn't matter. They pretty much put it on us every single game." Stegall's answer prompts Randorf to quip, "That's not going to go over well in Flin Flon." At one point, Dunigan interjects that when he played for the Edmonton Eskimos, he once judged the Miss Teen Canada Pageant and remembers "Miss Teen Flin Flon." Even though the panel gathered to expound on football, Randorf feels compelled to turn the conversation to hockey Ð Flin Flon style. "The Flin Flon Bombers, you know what they do to rally the team when they are down a goal or two in the third period, Milt, up there?" Randorf asks Stegall. "This is true: they throw a moose leg on the ice." "A real moose leg?" Stegall asks in disbelief. "A real, live freshly shorn moose leg. I saw it with my own two eyes, much to my horror," Randorf replies lightheartedly. "I was there with (TSN hockey analyst) Pierre McGuire and this thing came flying out of the stands and I was saying 'What is that?' and the guy goes, 'Oh, I forgot to tell you about the moose leg.' "It was huge and it left this big entrail all over the ice. "They were playing Weyburn that night and they rallied and won the game and it was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life. But that is a very true story." Randorf then jokingly submits that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers should take up the moose leg tradition. Stegall suggests Edmonton instead. Randorf concludes the nearly 11-minute segment with one final Flin Flon reference. "And that's the roundtable from Toronto all the way to Flin Flon," he says. All of this had Gray, the resident who sent in the question, tickled pink. "I was laughing," he says. "First off, I didn't think they were going to read my question. And then when they actually read my question, I was quite surprised. But then, when they made the whole big thing about Flin Flon, I was kind of proud. They were talking about our hometown." Adding to Gray's surprise was the fact that he received no notification from TSN that his question would be answered. With Gray in the process of moving to Wadena, Saskatchewan, to teach, the segment marks a sort of going-away present Ð both for him and the community. "This is my sendoff to Flin Flon," he says. The segment remains accessible at http://watch.tsn.ca/cfl-news-and-highlights/clip331201#clip331201.
