By Perry Lefko
CFL.ca
Two months into my job as the Canadian Football League’s Director of Communications, I had my first road trip.
I travelled to Winnipeg, site of this year’s Grey Cup, and it turned out to be a star-studded experience.
It began in the security lineup at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. Behind me stood a gentleman who bore a striking resemblance to Heath Ledger, one of the stars of the film Brokeback Mountain.
While fumbling through my pockets to remove change and any metallic objects, I told the film-star lookalike he could go ahead of me. He initially said yes, but then became engaged answering his cell phone, which rang repeatedly. I listened to him and he clearly didn’t have a North American accent, which Heath Ledger, an Australian, used in Brokeback Mountain. Then he said, “It’s Heath,” during one of his calls, and immediately I knew it was him.
“I thought it was you,” I said to him. “I liked you in that film.”
“Which one?” he said.
“Brokeback Mountain,” I said.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Are you here for the Film Festival?” I said in reference to the Toronto Film Festival.
“Yes. I did a film a year and a half ago in Australia.”
I didn’t bother to ask the name of it, knowing it likely wouldn’t have the same hype as Brokeback Mountain, dubbed the Gay Cowboy Movie.
It was a compelling story about two ranchers who fall in love against the backdrop of the American Midwest. If memory serves correct, Ledger was nominated for an Academy Award but lost.
Anyhow, after walking over to the check-in area for my flight, I called my wife and told her I had just met Heath Ledger.
Then I spent a few minutes before boarding watching the Edmonton Eskimos-Calgary Stampeders game on TSN.
Then I boarded for Winnipeg, where I would be assisting the Pushing Daisies, who wrote the official 2006 Grey Cup song, C’Mon C’Mon, in their media launch the following day.
I arrived at the stadium the next day and met the Daisies for the first time and then introduced them to some of the Blue Bombers after practice ended. The Daisies had a chance to take their pictures with Winnipeg star players Milt Stegall and Doug Brown. In fact, Brown, the towering defensive tackle who also writes a weekly column for the Winnipeg Free Press, and I have had numerous occasions to talk in the last two years. His cutting-edge column has occasionally ruffled the feathers of the CFL office and in my new job I’ve had to remind him free speech is okay within reason if you’re a member of the media, but there’s accountability if you’re a player who happens to be expressing opinions as a media member. To his credit, Mr. Brown has listened to some of my suggestions about crafting his columns.
He also has a weekly radio talk show called the Spin Zone on CJOB and he invited the Daisies to be his guests on his next segment, two days later.
I motioned the Daisies over to the interview room to meet the local media. I introduced the foursome, which includes lead singer Roland Cote, lead guitarist James Roth, bassist Brian Trudeau and drummer Darren Burtniak. Rhythm guitarist Curtis Paul, who drew upon his minor football background in Winnipeg and Ottawa to write the lyrics for the Grey Cup son, couldn’t attend the launch because of commitments at a Regina trade show as part of his day-job. He planned to fly in the next day to join his bandmates in officially launching the song at halftime of the Bombers game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the annual Banjo Bowl. The Daisies talked to the media about why they wrote the song and their excitement about debuting it at halftime in front of what would be their largest audience.
One of the inquisitive reporters, Judy Owen, someone I had known for a long time in my previous days as a football reporter for the Toronto Sun, asked if the band was being paid by the CFL. I turned the question over to the boys, who indicated they were doing it purely for the opportunity. This was a big deal for the band, which had received some exposure as the warmup band for the Guess Who in its Running Back Thru Canada Tour in 2000.
The next day, I came to Canad Inns Stadium four hours before the scheduled kickoff to help the Daisies with their sound check. They were extremely excited as they set up their equipment and prepared to belt out some songs with a 25,000 watt sound system, a step-up from the 3,000 watt system to which they had been accustomed. Besides playing at halftime, they were slated to do a 45-minute set during the two hours leading up to kickoff. The plan was not to play C’Mon C’Mon until halftime.
The band, which was accompanied by their wives and girlfriends, worked out the sound system and then asked me if it could play C’Mon C’Mon to test it out. I said okay, and then walked far away from the sound system to avoid having my ears blown off.
They played the tune and it sounded okay – at least to me.
I met Saskatchewan Roughriders’ centre Jeremy O’Day, whom I have known for a long time, and told him why I was in Winnipeg and gave him a copy of the song. He introduced me to two of his teammates, fullback Chris Szarka and offensive lineman Rob Lazeo, and I gave each of them a copy of the song. Then I asked them if they wanted to hear the song and they said “yes,” so I went over to the band and told them to go through C’Mon C’Mon one more time for some of the Roughriders. Szarka, Lazeo and O’Day listened to the song and seemed to enjoy it and gave the band a thumbs-up.
The band played the set and then departed to another area to watch the first half and prepare for the official launch.
RoseAnna Schick, a Winnipeg publicist who had been hired by Winnipeg Grey Cup Festival Committee general manager Kevin Walters to help with the band, informed me an actor who was working on a film she was helping to promote wanted to come to the game and asked if I could get him accredited. I worked it out with the Bombers, and less than an hour later I met Cole Hauser, an American actor who was filming The Stone Angel three hours away. I stood alongside of him on the sidelines as he watched his first Canadian Football League game and he seemed genuinely interested and excited.
I asked if he had ever acted in a sports film and he mentioned School Ties, which had a football theme in it, about 15 years ago.
I excused myself shortly thereafter to stand outside the stadium and wait for Curtis Paull, the rhythm guitarist who was flying in from Regina to accompany his band. I was told by Bombers marketing co-ordinator Stefan Kalenchuk that the Daisies had to be by the sound stage no later than five minutes remaining to go in the first half. I waited and waited for Paul and finally gave up – only to find out he had already arrived through another entrance.
After the first half expired, the Daisies cut loose with C’Mon C’Mon. It should have lasted less than four minutes, but the boys extended it to six minutes or so to engage the crowd.
When the band finished, the crowd provided some applause.
The Daisies were now rock stars.
Even Cole Hauser, who was invited to stand by the stage, seemed to enjoy the performance.
Besides becoming the band’s unofficial manager, I was also at the game to represent the CFL if Milt Stegall scored four touchdowns to set a record for the most career receptions by a player. Milt scored one, and when he nearly scored another, I started worrying. I had brought along some business clothes just in case – and I’m told TSN made mention of that during the game. Milt scored only one TD, but his team won and that’s all that really mattered to him.
After the game, I invited Cole to come to the field and take some pictures with some of the film’s technical crew who happened to be at the game. Two of the people, including one named Shaky, who organized the transportation, engaged in some good-natured wrestling on the ersatz turf. I asked Cole if he’d mind posing with me beside a sign with a CFL logo and he obliged.
The next night, after spending the day with the Daisies doing some interviews, we headed to CJOB for Doug Brown’s show. It went over well.
Two days later, it was time to go home. While at the Winnipeg airport, I encountered one member of the film crew I met a couple days before. He told me he was waiting for actress Ellen Burstyn, who was arriving to film her part in The Stone Angel. Among her many roles, she played the mother of the possessed child in The Exorcist, one of the scariest films ever.
I didn’t have a chance to see her.
Alas, I guess I had already seen my quota of stars.
Perry Lefko is the CFL’s Director of Communications.
