GREY CUP GRUDGE MATCH

Stamps eager to erase sting vs. Ottawa

Don’t call it a Grey Cup rematch.

And don’t imply that getting revenge on the Ottawa Redblacks in Week 1 — and Week 2 — of the 2017 CFL season is somehow motivating the Calgary Stampeders.

Beating the 2016 champions isn’t going to somehow earn the Stamps the rings they lost in last year’s Grey Cup final, and most of this year’s returning Calgary team is ready to leave the past in the past.

Bo Levi Mitchell, though, will admit that last year’s championship loss has been on his mind as he prepares to challenge the team that beat them last year.

“I’m telling the truth, I mean … it’s not like it didn’t happen,” Mitchell said Thursday after the Stamps arrived in Ottawa. “The game happened, we all know that, we all understand that, we played in it.

“Our motivation can’t be drawn from that (though), and that’s what it is. It can’t be ‘we’re here to get the ring back’ or ‘we’re here to show that we can beat these guys’ because if you put it all on that and lose, then you’re thinking the season.”

The Stampeders haven’t been able to escape questions in preseason about last year’s loss in the Grey Cup final.

They were heavy favourites, but fell short. The Redblacks outplayed the Stamps in the first half and then survived a late comeback to win 39-33 in overtime.

What had felt like a historically great season ended on a sour note, and the visitors will surely have lots of reminders of their bad night when festivities get underway on Friday evening.

While both teams are emphasizing that it’s a new year and what happened last year doesn’t matter, Mitchell said everyone at the club has been preparing for the inevitable.

“I think we understand what’s going to come, we know they’re going to do a celebration and play stuff on the video board and try to get us riled up,” Mitchell said. “We prepared for it, we understand that. (Head coach Dave Dickenson and president/GM John Hufnagel) got us prepared.”

Dickenson, meanwhile, sounds like he’s OK with however his players choose to handle Friday’s situation.

He’s said throughout training camp that, as professionals, his team should be motivated regardless of the opponent, and clearly respects the Redblacks enough not to take them lightly.

“For me, I’ve moved on,” Dickenson said. “Great challenge though, no doubt, when you’ve got to go on the road to the defending champs’ home for the first game.”

The Stamps aren’t the only team playing Friday night who are trying to move on from last year’s Grey Cup. The Redblacks are just as invested in getting past last year’s triumph.

Taylor Reed, who split time between the teams last year, said he’d shipped his ring back home so he could focus on what lies ahead.

And if there’s a rivalry between the Redblacks and Stampeders, Reed said last year’s game ranks low on the list of reasons why it exists.

“I feel like every team in the league would say (there’s a rivalry) with Calgary. They’ve been arguably the top dog for however long it’s been, so we know they’re a great team, year in and year out,” Reed said. “It was great to look back at that 2016 Grey Cup run, but it’s 2017.”

For Mitchell, though, there’s no denying that last year’s pain still lingers. It might not be motivating the CFL’s reigning Most Outstanding Player, but it’s still there.

“I think as competitors and athletes, just going into the regular season, we’re just so ready to go back on the football field, (but) obviously it does add to it,” Mitchell said.

“There’s a chance to go out and exact revenge on a team that took a ring from you. We can’t look at it as a Grey Cup rematch, I do understand that, but the fact is the game is what it is, they scheduled it this way for a reason.”