Stamps earn a chance at redemption
Calgary gets another shot at Ottawa team that pulled off upset in 2016 Grey Cup
Several Grey Cup storylines died Sunday.
It could have been a game between a team playing in its third Grey Cup in four years, and in its fifth year in the league, against a team that hasn’t been in a Grey Cup game since 2011 and hasn’t won one in 28 years.
The Ottawa Redblacks, who won the Grey Cup just two years ago, are headed to Edmonton. The Blue Bombers are headed home to Loserpeg again.
It could have been CFL Most Outstanding Player West candidate versus CFL Most Outstanding Player East candidate. Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell made it. Jeremiah Masoli of the Hamilton TigerCats didn’t.
It could have been ex-Eskimos quarterbacks Masoli and Matt Nichols in a Grey Cup game but neither made it happen.
It could have been Harris versus Harris. Ottawa quarterback Trevor, who set a CFL record with six touchdown passes while connecting with 12 receivers, is headed to Edmonton. Andrew Harris, the Winnipeg running back in contention for a second straight CFL award as top Canadian is coming for the awards ceremony, but not bringing his team.
It won’t be Ric Flair versus Brett “Hitman” Hart in the battle of old pro wrestlers who were recruited to pump the Tiger-Cats and the Stampeders up with pre-game speeches. Calgary’s Hart, son of former Eskimo Stu, will be headed north. Meanwhile, Ottawa fans serenaded Flair with his trademark “Whoooooo” as they put the Tiger-Cats away 46-27.
Even with these missed scenarios, the matchup in place for Grey Cup 106 this Sunday at Commonwealth Stadium has its own set of intriguing storylines.
First of all, there’s Eskimos rival Calgary moving into Edmonton’s palatial Commonwealth Stadium dressing room. That should be a photo-op Tuesday.
There’s Edmonton born and raised head coach Rick Campbell, who grew up in that dressing room when his dad Hugh coached the Eskimos to five straight Grey Cups, played football at Harry Ainlay High School and began his coaching career with the Eskimos before joining the Redblacks as the only coach they’ve ever had.
Calgary making it into an Edmonton Grey Cup game is, at long last, a chance to get even with the team from the provincial capital for winning Grey Cups in Calgary in 1975 and again in 1993.
Historically, it’s a rematch of the Grey Cup just two years ago when former Stampeders QB Henry Burris tweaked his knee in the warm-up but returned just before kickoff and gave Ottawa a 27-7 lead in the third quarter. Calgary would tie it up and send it to overtime.
In extra time, Burris threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Ernest Jackson. His Calgary counterpart, Bo Levi Mitchell, threw three incomplete passes. Burris completed 35 of 46 passes for 461 yards to win MVP honours in his final CFL start. Final score was 39-33.
It’s also, in a year in which Edmonton is taking the Grey Cup Festival to an entirely new level, an occasion to celebrate the Calgary- Ottawa matchup from 1948. What happened in 1948 gave birth to the Eskimos. Calgary was the toast of the nation and Edmonton didn’t even have a team.
In 1948, it was Calgary’s first trip to the Grey Cup. They took the train and head coach Les Lear had the team out on the cinders running around the train at the stops. That was the year the Grey Cup became The Grand National Drunk with a horse in a hotel lobby and flapjacks being served off chuckwagons. Lear ran the old sleeper play and Calgary won 12-7.
And, for the fifth straight season, the teams that finished first in their respective divisions and earned the bye week have made it to the Grey Cup game.
Another storyline that will probably command considerable attention this week: Calgary’s recent failure to close.
For six straight seasons, Calgary has won 13 or more games and only has one Grey Cup to show for it. They’ve lost three of the last four Grey Cup games, including the last two.
But this one doesn’t set up the same.
Yes, it’s true Calgary won both games against Ottawa this year, 27-3 and 24-14, both before Labour Day. But the Redblacks come into the Grey Cup having won their last four games, including three against Hamilton.
Meanwhile, Calgary suffered a late-season three-game losing streak before winning its last two games.
And with the way the Redblacks dominated the Tiger-Cats Sunday, they just might be the favourite coming into the championship tilt.