Stamps need to buck title game reputation
Another Grey Cup loss would make Calgary the CFL equivalent of NFL’S Buffalo Bills
The Stampeders are a hilarious 96-28-2 over the last seven regular seasons and each one of those seasons have resulted in at least a berth in the West final.
Oh hey, look, it’s coming up on the last weekend of November and the Calgary Stampeders have one game left in their season. It must be Grey Cup week.
This year will mark the 106th version of Canadian football’s championship, to be played in Edmonton at the Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium, the stadium so nice they named it twice. The Stampeders will battle the Ottawa Redblacks for the right to have their name chiselled onto the silver chalice next to illustrious past champions like the Calgary Stampeders and the Ottawa Redblacks. And also the, erm, Sarnia Imperials (1934 and 1936) and, uh, Toronto Balmy Beach (1927 and 1930). Look, when your trophy has been around for 106 years there are going to be some strange winners.
Anyway, much will be determined by late Sunday. Here are some of the storylines to come in the following week:
THE REDEMPTION NARRATIVE
The Stampeders are such a familiar sight at this point that I was able to make a Stamps reference back there in the first sentence and you knew exactly where I was going with it. But for all of Calgary’s general jugger-nautness in the regular season, they have not been so great at closing the deal. The Stampeders are a hilarious 96-28-2 over the last seven regular seasons and each one of those seasons have resulted in at least a berth in the West final. But Calgary has just one Grey Cup victory in that span, which is one less than the Toronto Argonauts during the same period. The Stamps have been a model of stability; the Argos have as many ownership changes in the last six years as they do Grey Cup wins. Coming off two straight losses in the title game, Calgary really needs this one to avoid unkind comparisons to the Buffalo Bills.
THE OTHER REDEMPTION NARRATIVE
Trevor Harris signed with Ottawa in 2016 to be their franchise quarterback, but he couldn’t beat out 41-year-old Henry Burris for the full-time starting gig and watched the old-timer beat Calgary in the Grey Cup that November. He took over last season after Burris retired, but managed only an eight-win season and a loss to the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders in the East semifinal. There were whispers about Harris’ ability to perform in big moments, right up until he blew the Hamilton Tiger-cats away on Sunday with six touchdown passes in the East final. One more win would quiet those whispers for good.
THE APOLOGY TOUR
As if Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson needed to give Edmonton fans any more reason to dislike him, he was caught on a microphone Sunday complaining about how the officials weren’t going to penalize Winnipeg coach Mike O’shea, who, Dickenson noted accurately, was a “(bleeping) Canadian.” Dickenson, who is a bleeping American, will no doubt offer a fulsome apology for his poor choice of words. And the fans at Commonwealth Stadium will note this apology and continue to boo him and his team with lusty vitriol. As one does.
THE UNEXPECTED SURPRISE
There will be much analysis this week about the various matchups on both sides of the ball, but if recent Grey Cup history is any indication, the game will swing on a handful of goofy plays that precisely no one predicts. No one knows this better than the Stamps, who were poised to score late touchdowns in each of the last two title games only to forego the use of Jerome Messam, the road grader of a running back who had been excellent for them in short yardage. In 2016, Calgary faked an inside handoff and sent Andrew Buckley on a dash to the pylon, but he was tripped up by a diving Ottawa defender before he could score the touchdown that would have given the Stamps a last-minute lead. Last year, it was Kamar Jorden waltzing toward the end zone for a game-sealing touchdown that instead turned into a fumble and a 105-yard return touchdown the other way. Calgary also added an interception in the end zone in the final moments when Bo Levi Mitchell failed to notice Toronto’s lurking Matt Black.
If any of those plays go a different way, Calgary comes into this week with a Grey Cup victory or two in its pocket and no one is saying anything about having to prove itself worthy of the big stage. On the plus side for the Stamps, there is zero chance they will fail to go to Messam in the closing minutes as he is no longer on the team.
THE HALIFAX REVEAL
Grey Cup week is usually light on actual news, unless you count CFL officials talking about another great season as newsworthy. But this one is expected to include the release of the planned name for a possible expansion franchise in Halifax. You will note there were a couple of qualifiers in that sentence: There seems to be much enthusiasm for the CFL to finally have a 10th team, but there will be many chances for the process to be derailed before it is a reality, even if it has a cool nickname. The smart money is on the Schooners, by the way.