Hughes and Lemon are keeping it quiet
Grey Cup rivals and former teammates are strangely silent as title clash nears
At this point, if Charleston Hughes wants to talk trash, there’s not much anybody can say in response.
The Calgary Stampeders veteran has won two CFL sack titles in a row, after all, so if he’s going to say that he taught Toronto Argonauts defensive end Shawn Lemon everything he knows, maybe it’s best that Lemon just keep his mouth shut.
After years going back-and-forth on Twitter with Hughes, Lemon has stayed curiously silent about his former teammate — Lemon was with the Stampeders in 2013 and 2014 — in the days since their teams clinched a place in Sunday’s Grey Cup.
“That’s the personality he is, he has every right to. He’s led the league in sacks for the past two years, he’s a very good player in this league,” Lemon said Wednesday.
“It’s a typical day, being around him every day. He’s a good friend of mine, so I talk to him on a pretty consistent basis outside of this week.”
Hughes didn’t seem to be buying into the idea that Lemon was waving the white flag.
The Stampeders players who played with Lemon have always seemed to have a good time talking trash on social media with him, but most of them have toned it down as they try to focus on getting over the hump of actually winning the Grey Cup.
Hughes, though, is still going strong. It’s all done with a smile on his face, but Hughes wasn’t backing down.
“He don’t want to engage with me, he knows better,” Hughes said.
“I plan on stepping out and having lunch with him some time this week, discuss our Sunday approach. I know what I’m going to do in the game and I wanna hear what he says he’s going to do in the game.
“When you’re looking down on your son, when you’re talking to your father you’re going to tell your father everything you wanna do and I’m going to look back down on him and tell him ‘That’s what I want to hear, son.’
“I want him to succeed and do his best.”
While the trash talk between Hughes and Lemon might be mostly tongue-in-cheek, their rivalry could have a massive impact on the final result of Sunday’s Grey Cup.
The Stamps and Argos tied for the league lead in sacks, with each team getting 50 apiece, and combined to have five players in the top-10 in sacks.
They shut down opposing offences by putting pressure on quarterbacks, and whichever defensive line is able to cause either Stamps QB Bo Levi Mitchell or Argos pivot Ricky Ray the most trouble likely will be lifting the Grey Cup on Sunday.
A little pre-game trash talk isn’t going to have much of an impact on that, so Hughes’ teammates are perfectly fine with him stirring the pot with Lemon.
“It’s Charleston,” said fellow Stamps defensive end Ja’Gared Davis. “They have history together, they used to play together. They’re great friends, so it’s nothing but a friendly rivalry, like brothers.
“At the end of the day, we’ve still got to show up on game day.”
HE’S OK
There were a couple of scary moments during Sunday’s West Division Final for Stampeders fans.
Most notably, the defensive line seemed to take a serious blow when both Davis and defensive end James Vaughters needed help getting off the field following apparent injuries.
It would appear, though, that they’re both options for Sunday’s game.
Both Davis and Vaughters practised on Wednesday, and while that doesn’t mean they’ll be in the lineup for the Grey Cup, it’s still encouraging.
Also practising was Shaquille Richardson, who missed the West final due to an injury suffered in practice but was very close to playing. He will almost certainly slot into his regular SAM position, where Tunde Adeleke played against the Edmonton Eskimos before getting hurt.
He’s a good friend of mine, so I talk to him on a pretty consistent basis outside of this week.