Kelly Bates
CFL.ca
November in Canada. If you are a Canadian sports fan through and through this is one of the most exciting times of the year. The NHL hockey season is underway. Teams are starting the gruel of an 82 game season in hopes that they can extend their regular season another two months at the very least with the ultimate goal of the hoisting the Stanley Cup.
For the baseball fans of the nation, the World Series has just come to its conclusion and if all has gone right Canada’s team, the Toronto Blue Jays, have conquered the Majors (all has not gone right in a very long time).
However, the best part of November is yet to come. For those true Canadian sports fans who have lived and died with their team of choice through an 18 game season, their one true wish and hope is that their team is still in contention for Lord Grey‘s Cup. I am of course talking about the CFL playoffs.
I thought I would take this time to share a couple of memories I have of the CFL playoffs and the Grey Cup game. I am very fortunate in that I have been able to experience the CFL playoffs from two distinctly different viewpoints.
Growing up as a fan of the Saskatchewan Roughriders I was not privy to many playoff experiences as there were some lean years through the 80’s and 90’s. However, I can fondly recall two great playoff runs, one ending in a championship in 1989 and the other ending in a Grey Cup loss to the Toronto Argonauts in 1997. As a fan, I can remember the month of November seeming like it would last forever. As a player, the month of November almost always seems to never last long enough.
As a player I have had two experiences in the big game. The trip to the 2004 Grey Cup game came via a first place finish and a West Final win over the Riders. It was a surreal time for me. I don’t think I really understood what was occurring until we were on the plane ride home after losing to the Toronto Argonauts. Everything seemed to happen in such a blur. I wanted to enjoy the moment, live in the moment, and remember everything exactly as it had occurred. I was almost scared that the experience was going to pass me by and that I would not be able to recall anything that had happened. And that is sort of what ended up occurring. I mean, how can one enjoy something when he is worried about not enjoying it enough?
When the opportunity arose for me to experience a trip to the Grey Cup again in 2006 I was determined to live in the moment. From the experience, or lack thereof, that had occurred in 2004 I was able to enjoy Grey Cup week the way I wanted to. Nothing was going to take away from this trip. And in that it was an amazing and unforgettable week that was capped off with a victory.
The week began with a flight to Winnipeg where we were met by the military and a marching band. We were then transported in a military Light Armoured Vehicle, which was an insightful experience, to the hotel. But that is not to say that the week did not have its snags. For instance, while eating breakfast in the hotel on Wednesday morning I bit into a piece of bacon and, for the tenth time, chipped half of my front tooth off (Insert large man bacon joke here). At the end of that day of practice I was whisked off to a dentist to have it repaired.
The rest of the week went to plan. We enjoyed the CFL Player Awards where five of the six awards were won by BC Lions. Saturday evening we got together with our girlfriends/wives for a lovely dinner at the Olive Garden. Overall, to the point, I had been having an excellent week, enjoying and taking in every moment of it.
Game day was the coldest day of the week, which did not surprise me as we were in Winnipeg. But weather was not going to take away from that day. The pregame festivities were… festive, although at that point all I wanted to do was play the game! And then it happened. Two plays into the game I went for a backside cut block on a wide zone run and took a knee to the head.
I can remember asking someone to help me up and having a metallic taste in my mouth. I can remember playing the next play. From then on in everything is pretty fuzzy. I can remember center Angus Reid asking what I had done on a play we had just run and I could not tell him because I could not remember. I can remember having the feeling of déjà vu, as if I had already played every play of that game. The next thing I remember was looking up at the scoreboard with two minutes left in the half and we were up 16-3 and I could not remember being on the field for any of the points, although I was on the field for all of them.
Things started to clear up after that to a degree. I remember playing the second half. I have since watched the first half of the game… I played pretty well! Ahh what great memories.
Kelly Bates has been a regular starter along the BC Lions’ offensive line since 2003. He was a 2007 CFL All-Star and played his 100th career game in Week 3.
