Hughes says he plans to ‘drop the hammer’ on former teammates

REGINA Typical of their preparations for the madhouse that is Mosaic Stadium, the Calgary Stampeders practised twice this week with simulated crowd noise during offensive play-calls.

Instead of that blaring roar, it might have been more appropriate to fill their ears with the notso-soothing sounds of motormouth defensive end Charleston Hughes, now hunting quarterbacks on behalf of the Saskatchewan Roughriders after a decade-long stint in Red and White.

“Y’all should mic Charleston up, because you’ll hear him yell ‘Sack!’ the entire game,” quipped Stamps signal-caller Bo Levi Mitchell. “It’s something he always did here during (practice), and I know as soon as I see him, he’s going to start doing it.

“But it will be fun to play against the guy.”

Hughes, who cemented his status as one of Calgary’s all-time greats before being traded away during the off-season, is hoping to ensure today ’s reunion at Mosaic Stadium is anything but fun for his former teammates.

The self-proclaimed, and oftproven, sack-machine suited up for 147 career contests with the Stamps. This will mark his first time seeing red on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage.

“They better strap up because I’m going to be trying to drop the hammer on everybody,” said Hughes, in a playful mood after Friday ’s walkthrough at his new home digs.

“So I can laugh. So I can text them after the game and say, ‘Hey, I got you!’ ”

Chances are Mitchell and the rest of the Stamps won’t have to wait until they check their cellphones to hear from Hughes.

With so many friends on the other side, surely the 34-year-old defensive star has some wise cracks ready.

“Good one-liners? Nah man, I ain’t got one-liners,” Hughes replied with a wide grin. “I got 10 lines.”

For 10 seasons, Hughes gave fans in Calgary lots to gab about. He racked up 99 quarterback sacks with the Stamps, tied with Will Johnson for the all-time club record. His career stat-line in a Stamps uniform also included 412 defensive tackles — 44 of ’em for a loss — and 23 forced fumbles, plus 26 knock-downs and three interceptions.

Hughes was ultimately a victim of a salary-cap crunch at McMahon