Sawing REDBLACKS’ wood cookies a labour of love for Erik Leicht and Jimmy Fata

The Ottawa REDBLACKS have celebrated each home touchdown with a wood cookie since the franchise’s inception in 2014, and it has become synonymous with the team in that time.

For the past three seasons, Erik Leicht and Jimmy Fata – who are perhaps better known by their aliases, FD Lager, and Zipperface respectively – have taken care of the log. The process is completed in about a minute. After a touchdown, the pair start the chainsaw and get to work. Once they are through, they’ll paint a special marking on the back, and burn the REDBLACKS’ logo into the end of the log for the next major score.

The ordeal is jam-packed with excitement, as fans go wild and fireworks are set off. It’s not something that either will ever get tired of.

“It’s a thrill to know that people are watching you do it,” Leicht said. “You’re on TSN, you’re on the jumbotron, and it’s always fun.”

The average fan would never consider all of the work and planning that leads up to that fun, however. Leicht says that in the past, the log has been used for a second season, but led to issues as the wood got older and dried out, and this year, the type of log changed from pine to maple, a harder, heavier wood.

Everything is down to a science, including the chainsaw. Leicht arrives at the stadium, and makes sure everything is warmed up and ready to go, making mistakes rare.

“It’s quite the chainsaw to get going, it’s a big machine,” Leicht said. “We have figured out a way to get it started pretty well by now.”

The pair are long-standing fans of the REDBLACKS, and got the opportunity to be at field level as the wood cookie cutters on a whim. After the pandemic, the club reached out to Ottawa’s firefighters, who picked a couple of their own to take the task.

Leicht works as a district chief, in charge of seven fire stations in Ottawa’s south end, while Fata works in fire investigation. They both take great pride in their work away from football, and consider it a personal responsibility to save lives, either through actively helping someone who is in trouble, or by preventing fires in the first place.

“I have never woken up and felt I didn’t want to go to work,” Fata said. “I was always very curious, I wanted to know everything. I’ve knocked down many fires, but there was a part of me saying it should happen in the first place. I wanted to know why it started, and how to stop it from happening again.”

Both have become popular with their coworkers for their tales of unbelievable moments at TD Place, and both have become quite fond of retelling the story of the miraculous comeback against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers earlier this season.

Fata recalls Leicht believing the game was over, but reminded him that this is the CFL, and anything can happen. Sure enough, the REDBLACKS did the unthinkable, and won the game, sending the fans into a frenzy, but no one was more excited than Fata, who picked up a wood cookie, and sprinted over to the sideline to give it to the team.

That cookie eventually ended up in Dustic Crum’s locker, and the rest is history.

“Those are the kinds of games we love to be at, and that was an awesome cookie to cut,” Leicht said. “Jimmy took off running with [the wood cookie], and we hadn’t even discussed it.”

Their love of the REDBLACKS and football in general is evident, and their decision to stick around for at least another year has been easy, every single time.

“Jimmy and I asked each other if we would do it again next year, and we looked at each other and said ‘yes’ right away,” Leicht said.

Fata’s love runs deep, remembering going to Rough Riders’ games all of those years ago, and relishes every opportunity to see and feel the emotions of a game day.

“I would do anything to promote football, and get people’s butts into seats,” Fata said. “This is the only team sport left where everyone needs to do their job, other than rugby. You can do it yourself in almost every other sport. It’s also the only sport that ends. There’s beer league hockey or soccer, but you can only play football for so long.”