CFL to pause playoff to honour veterans’ sacrifice
Ticat game with B.C. to mark Remembrance Day, including coin toss
Toronto Argonauts defensive back Matt Black figures it’s only fitting the CFL playoffs begin on the same day Canada remembers those who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice for the country.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats host the B.C. Lions in the Eastern semifinal before the Saskatchewan Roughriders host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the West Division contest, as Canada marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
The CFL will commemorate the day by stopping the Hamilton-B. C. game at 2 p.m. ET — 11 a.m. Pacific time — for a moment of silence to honour Canada’s veterans. The league also will pay tribute to veterans during the pre-game coin toss in both contests and players will wear a poppy decal on their helmets.
That’s significant to Black, a 10th-year defensive back who has two Grey Cups with the Argos.
In 2016, the 33-year-old Toronto native also received the Jake Gaudaur Veterans’ Trophy, given annually since 2010 to the CFL player who best demonstrates the attributes of Canada’s military personnel. Gaudaur is the longest-serving commissioner in league history (1968-1984), but also flew for the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War. Black considers the award a career highlight.
“The CFL, for me, is something that’s so Canadian through and through. It brings so many diverse and different backgrounds together and we celebrate something that’s so Canadian, this game of football that we’ve been playing here for so long,” he says. “I think it’s good the (playoffs) are happening on Remembrance Day because it can bring Canadians together. It’s an opportunity to reflect on what are Canadian values and appreciate the fact that our values come from our diversity and our differences and that we celebrate those. That’s what makes this country so special and so great . ... And I know no better way than by remembering our troops while playing a football game.”
Canada’s military connection certainly resonates with CFL board chair Jim Lawson. His father, Mel, played quarterback with the Hamilton Wildcats and scored the winning TD in the club’s 23-14 win over the Winnipeg RCAF Bombers in the 1931 Grey Cup at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. At 20, Mel Lawson became the youngest winning quarterback in Grey Cup history.
Black, who clinched Toronto’s stunning 27-24 Grey Cup upset win over Calgary in Ottawa last year with a late interception, was among a group of CFL players who visited Canadian troops in Lviv, Ukraine and Marseilles, France before the 2017 season. The aim of the trip was to help boost the military personnel’s morale, but Black said it was the armed forces officials who provided the inspiration.
“They’ve leaving the comforts of everything we have in Canada behind to help spread Canadian values and ideals around the world. But they’re walking into totally unknown situations and sacrificing all the comforts and safeties we have, so we don’t have to go through that. You never think about that until you go over and see it for yourself and really appreciate it. We’re not even at war right now and we have people who are doing these things to help us. You got to be grateful.”
Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea also has military ties. The four-time Grey Cup champion (three as an Argos player, another as a Toronto assistant coach) and the Canadian Football Hall of Famer’s father, Michael, served with Britain’s Royal Air Force as a navigator-bombardier in a de Havilland Mosquito during the Second World War before coming to Canada.