By: Justin Boone
Mark Bowden is the kind of team vice president that embodies the spirit of his club. His office at 1 Jarvis St is a shrine to Tiger-Cats greats and when you need to get in touch with one of the Black and Gold’s alumni, Mark is the man to go to.
So when he received a call a couple weeks ago from one of the club’s former kickers it wasn’t surprising. After catching up briefly, the voice on the other end of the phone explained the true reason for his call. When Mark hung up the phone he decided to look into the callers query.
“That’s so cool that Ozzie was the one that found it, because you wouldn’t always see that from the older player,” said the Ticats current kicker/punter Nick Setta, when I told him that Paul Osbaldiston had contacted the team to bring to light Nick’s new record.
Against Calgary, Setta’s leg was in full force, booming seven punts for 422 yards, including tying his own Ticats record for a 97-yarder, but that wasn’t the important part. The thing that made Osbaldiston pick up the phone was Nick’s average on the day, 64.7 yards per punt, a number that eclipsed Ozzie’s CFL record for highest punting average in a regular season game of 63.5.
“It just shows what kind of guy he is to take the time to actually call in and say something about it,” explained Setta. “It seems like he’s proud of a new player coming in and doing something like that. You don’t get that often, someone wanting to show that someone else did well.”
Records are nothing new to Osbaldiston, who set 37 Ticats marks during his 18-year career in TigerTown, but in a world where low self-esteem can sometimes make people turn egocentric, Ozzie turned the laces out for Setta. Nick, being from the same mold as Ozzie, chose to give full credit to everyone but himself.
“Any time you can get a record in a league as storied as the CFL, it’s an honour. Our coverage team was doing a great job, the line was blocking well and the snaps were right where they needed to be, which makes for a good day for me, but I would have loved to walk away with a win in the game.”
As for Ozzie, Nick plans to thank him next time the two talk. Mark will be giving him Setta’s direct line to be prepared for Nick’s next record-setting performance.
