Determined to make history, not repeat it
Heavily favoured Calgary remembers 2012 loss in Toronto all too well
CALGARY— The Calgary Stampeders were a 12-6 team that lost to the host 9-9 Argonauts when the Grey Cup was last held in Toronto four years ago. The message at McMahon Stadium on Monday morning was to turn a deaf ear to talk of being prohibitive favourites against the Ottawa Redblacks.
The Stampeders (15-2-1) and the Redblacks (8-9-1) clash in the 104th Grey Cup game Sunday at Toronto’s BMO Field.
“You have all these people telling you you’re great and you start buying into it and thinking that something is going to come easy,” Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell said.
“I was here in 2012 and we got our ass whupped by a 9-9 team. I’m not going to let that happen again.”
The Stampeders retain a dozen players from the 2012 squad that fell 35-22 to the Argos. Calgary also has 23 from the team that won the Grey Cup two years later with a 20-16 win over Hamilton in Vancouver.
So there are enough Stampeders seasoned in the hoopla of Grey Cup week to guide their less-experienced teammates through it when they arrive Tuesday in Toronto.
“It’s a big week. It’s bigger than you. It’s bigger than football,” said 10-year Stampeder running back Rob Cote. “But then it all comes down to one game and what you do in those days leading up to it, preparing, working, getting ready to go out and win one football game that kind of leaves a legacy.”
Defensive back Josh Bell says Calgary will strike the right balance of seriousness and fun in the days leading up to Sunday. “We have a good combination of, almost like a mullet: business in the front, party in the back.”
The Redblacks boast more recent Grey Cup experience, having lost 2620 to the Edmonton Eskimos last year in Winnipeg. Quarterback Henry Burris, a Stampeder for 10 seasons and a Grey Cup winner with Calgary in 2008, will lead Ottawa against his former team.
“Henry is one of my good friends,” Stampeder defensive end Charleston Hughes said. “I intend on sacking him at least once in this Grey Cup.”
Burris, 41, was Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson’s backup when they were Stampeders teammates from 1997 to 1999.
“That’s crazy,” said Dickenson, just two years older than Burris. “He’s doing well, and good for him. Definitely a weird year, I’ll bet, for him. He’s had some ups and downs. He’s on an up right now.
“He’s always been challenging to game-plan against. Hopefully our guys can find some ways to slow him down.”
The tie in Calgary’s and Ottawa’s regular-season records came against each other with a 26-26 decision in Week 3. The Stampeders beat the Redblacks 48-23 in Week 13.
The Stampeders fell a win short of tying the league record for most victories in a regular season, but their record plus a Grey Cup would count them among the top teams in CFL history.
“It’s to leave a mark, to leave your name in a history book or something where someone might read about you one day,” Mitchell said.
Dickenson said he would institute “some curfews” later this week.
“Nothing about this game is normal,” Dickenson said. “Be selfish at times too and turn down some requests because you’ve got to get yourself right and you’ve got to get your body right.”
The last four Grey Cups in Toronto were played indoors at Rogers Centre. This year’s game is outside at BMO Field and exposed to wind coming off Lake Ontario.
The forecast is for partly cloudy and a high of 4 C.