Stamps have long history of choking
They’re favoured Sunday, but that means nothing
The Calgary Stampeders fold so often they really should join an origami class.
On paper, they are clearly superior to the Toronto Argonauts and should win Sunday’s Grey Cup game. But there is a tendency toward implosion.
Just last year, the 15-2-1 Stampeders lost 39-33 in overtime to the 8-9-1 Ottawa Redblacks with CFL supremacy at stake. It was a classic collapse by Calgary, which has repeatedly succumbed to an underdog in a big game.
Consider the Doug Flutie years. During four seasons in which the premier player in CFL history quarterbacked the Stampeders, they reached two Grey Cup games and won only once.
In Year 1 with Flutie (1992), Calgary went 13-5-0 and waltzed to a Grey Cup title.
Calgary registered subsequent Grey Cup victories in 1998, 2001, 2008 and 2014. Even so, the Stampeders have become known as much for letdowns as touchdowns. To recap ...
1993: Calgary went 15-3-0 before losing 29-15 to the Edmonton Eskimos (12-6-0) in the West final.
1994: Calgary flushed another 153-0 season by losing 37-36 to B.C. (11-6-1) in the West final.
1995: Calgary went 15-3-0 — this is not a recording — and reached the Grey Cup game before falling 37-20 to the Baltimore Stallions. 1996: The Stampeders (13-5-0) lost 15-12 to Edmonton (11-7-0) in the West final.
1997: In the West semifinal, the Stampeders (10-8-0) fell 33-30 to the 8-10-0 Roughriders.
2000: B.C. (8-10-0) beat the 12-51 Stamps 37-21 in the West final.
2006: Saskatchewan defeated Calgary 30-21 in the West semifinal. Calgary was 10-8-0; Saskatchewan was 9-9-0.
2010: Calgary finished first at 13-5-0. Saskatchewan was 10-8-0. The Roughriders won 20-16 in the West final.
2012: In the Grey Cup, the 12-6-0 Stampeders lost 35-22 to Ricky Ray and the 9-9-0 Argonauts.
2013: Calgary ruled the West at 14-4-0, posting three more victories than Saskatchewan. So, of course, the Roughriders won the division final 35-13.
2016: With a second-and-goal situation on Ottawa’s two-yard line at the Grey Cup, Stampeders coach Dave Dickenson kept his superb quarterback (Bo Levi Mitchell) and 254-pound tailback (Jerome Messam) on the sideline. Andrew Buckley, the short-yardage QB, was felled for a one-yard loss. Calgary settled for a field goal that forced overtime. Ottawa took it from there.
The strong suspicion here is the Stampeders, who have had a year to stew over a Grey Cup gag and salivate at the thought of redemption, will take out their frustrations Sunday in Ottawa and capsize the Boatmen.
But these are the Stampeders, so you never know.