No love lost in Battle of Alberta
Second-place Eskimos are keen to prove a point against dominant Stampeders
GERRY MODDEJONGE
You can respect an opponent without having to like them.
Teams across the Canadian Football League do it all the time. But this is the Battle of Alberta. All facades of sounding even somewhat complimentary are thrown out the window in the buildup to Monday’s Labour Day Classic between the first-place Calgary Stampeders and the Edmonton Eskimos, sitting second in the West Division at 6-4. Calgary ’s McMahon Stadium provides the venue. The teams are back at it again on Saturday, Sept. 8 at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium. The two teams have yet to meet this season.
The Stampeders have already earned all the respect they deserve on the way to an 8-1 record that has seen them go undefeated in five home games this year.
They’ve been the perennial powerhouse of the regular season since Anthony Calvillo took his last snap in 2013, finishing alone in first place every year except for 2015, when they tied the eventual Grey Cup champion Eskimos at the top with 14-4 records.
But all the records and stats are just numbers on the page when it comes to playing this rivalry game.
“The Battle of Alberta is different to me, the history of both the teams,” said Eskimos receiver Vidal Hazelton, who returned last week after missing the previous eight with a foot injury suffered in the season opener. “The people around here, they don’t care about the record throughout the whole season, all they care about is if you win these games.
“So when you walk around, if you want to get a little extra slice of pizza from the love around the city, you’ve got to make sure you win these games.”
Edmonton will have two extra days of rest coming into Labour Day, but Calgary will only be playing its second game in 10 days, so both siblings will be energized for some brotherly un-love.
And the newest members have been fully versed in the no-lovelost showdown, already injecting some venom into the conversation.
MITCHELL A TARGET
“That will be the goal to get to Bo (Levi) Mitchell because he is definitely the head of the snake over there,” Eskimos pass rusher Alex Bazzie said of Calgary ’s quarterback ahead of what will be his first Battle of Alberta experience.
“Without him, that team might be a little different, who knows? He’s been doing some great things with them over the years. With this being my first time playing the Labour Day Classic, it’s a big deal to this city and I want to have my guys ready for that excitement, for that heavy duty that’s really going to be put on us as a defensive unit.”
Calgary’s defence, meanwhile, has allowed an average of one offensive touchdown per game.
The thing about a good football rivalry is you didn’t have to have already played in a specific one to understand it.
“When I was in college, there was always that Marshall vs. West Virginia but we never beat West Virginia in history, so to me that wasn’t a rivalry,” Bazzie said.
“The next rivalry to me that was actually bigger than West Virginia was Marshall vs. Ohio University. Both schools are about 45 minutes apart from one another and those games used to come down to the wire.
“Very intense games, very meaningful games regardless of them being in the MAC Conference and us being in the conference we were in, it felt like our season was based off of that game.”
Even though Bazzie spent his first four CFL seasons with a B.C. Lions squad that remains rival less on rivalry weekend with a bye coming up, he noticed the Battle of Alberta as a rookie in 2014, when a group of Stampeders defensive players celebrated a win in the Labour Day rematch by posing for a picture around then Eskimos head coach Chris Jones’ motorcycle.
“I just remember Calgary got a victory and they were just doing this motorcycle thing on the field,” Bazzie said. “For some reason, that game always stuck with me and I’d always say, ‘What is this big deal between these two teams?
“Now that I’m playing with Edmonton, I know.”
Others in the locker-room are entirely new to Alberta’s CFL civil war.
“I haven’t heard or seen too much, I’m just kind of diving into it this week and seeing what it’s all about,” said defensive tackle Jake Ceresna. “But I’m looking forward to it, it sounds like it’s going to be a crazy rivalry.”
Call it chance or fate that Ceresna, who came over from the Ottawa Redblacks in the trade for Odell Willis, inherited the top team in the league as a rival.
“It definitely is a big task, but I think we’re up for the big task,” Ceresna said. “And I’d rather play the best of the best and be as great as I can be than play down to somebody. It being Calgary? So be it. Let’s go.”