Tiger-cats still feeling raw over Grey Cup loss
HAMILTON Some 48 hours later and the pain of losing a Grey Cup remains with Chris Van Zeyl, a feeling the Hamilton Tiger-cats veteran offensive lineman has never experienced.
During his acclaimed days with the Toronto Argonauts, Van Zeyl played in two championship games, but he was on the winning team both times — the first in 2012 and more recently in 2017.
In Van Zeyl’s first season in Black and Gold, he played for a Ticats team that never lost a home game, a team that would win a Cfl-high 15 games during the regular season and advance to the Grey Cup by beating the Edmonton Eskimos.
Van Zeyl was named top offensive lineman in the CFL for the first time during his career, one of many individual honours the Ticats would earn.
“It hurts,” said Van Zeyl. “To make it as far as we did and not be successful in winning our objective, we’re still trying to come to terms with all the whys and all that. It’s tough. Then again, one team had to win, one team had to lose.”
When a team turns the ball over three times in the game’s opening quarter, it does not bode well and things did not, to say the least, go well for the Ticats, who were thumped 33-12 by Winnipeg in the biggest game of the year.
So good for the entire season, so bad when it mattered the most, the Ticats gathered for the final time at Tim Hortons Field knowing the 2019 team will not be the same as the inevitable off-season changes begin.
“It’s hard to express exactly how you feel,” said Van Zeyl, a class act who will be back in the
Hammer for the 2020 season. “It’s gut-wrenching. You make it as far as you do and to not win. I haven’t experienced that.
“For me, it was pretty tough. I would imagine it’s pretty tough for a lot of guys to varying circumstances as far their contracts and the length of their careers. Fortunately for us we had an incredible season, perfect at home, we were 16-3 up until the Grey Cup. There were a lot of great things to talk about and reflect on. The only sad part for me right now other than losing the Grey Cup, obviously, is that these guys won’t be back next year and the locker-room won’t be the same.
“That’s tough. Saying goodbye to a lot of these guys is tough and not knowing who you are saying goodbye to for the last time is tough. But that’s something you have to, unfortunately, deal with every year.”
Van Zeyl hasn’t watched a replay of the Grey Cup.
“I know how it went for myself,” he said. “I’m not making it a high priority. I don’t know if I’ll watch it or not.”