Rick Moffat
CFL.ca
Montreal Head Coach Marc Trestman has instilled team mantras each of his first two seasons in the CFL: “Everything Matters” and “Win the Day.” On June 4, 2010 at the Alouettes Grey Cup Ring Ceremony everyone mattered. And the Als surely won the night.
Owner Robert Wetenhall flew in 2010 Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Tracy Ham and Elfrid Payton, the perma-smile QB and the problem-child QB-hunter, for the occasion.
“On a late November evening when the darkness had come over the stadium… you men finished an incredible year. People will remember that game for decades and decades to come… everybody seemed to do their part—everybody,” rumbled the gruff-voiced financial saviour of the team, the Grey Cup shimmering behind him and a skyline backdrop on Mount Royal.
“You all, in the end, did it; and by doing so you have inspired hundreds of thousands of youth in Montreal to reach for a better life, to maintain hope and to believe in the good things of life.”
Als President Larry Smith teased his owner, “You are the greatest quarterback ever to come out of Princeton.” But Smith, a former captain of the Als under Marv Levy, studiously avoided any use of the “R-word.” Coach Levy had never pulled off a repeat. The word never once rolled off the tongue of GM Jim Popp or Head Coach Marc Trestman either.
But the Als players tossed talk of a repeat around with the bravado of a gun slinging QB heaving his warm up bomb tosses: “If ever a team could repeat it would be this team,” says Ben Cahoon. “I know Coach Trestman’s approach will not allow complacency.” (Memo to the Hall of Fame: Don’t bother with a bust of Ben’s rugged features. May I suggest a carving of his hands covered in Velcro.)
Can the Als repeat, Avon Cobourne? “I mean I want to say ‘yes.’ We’re gonna prepare like we wanna defend our title.”
“That was the wildest game I ever played in,” Jamel Richardson says of the 28-27 Als’ comeback of the century. “We expect big things. We got high expectations.”
Speedster Andrew Hawkins, who went from Reality TV (Spike’s “4th&Long with Michael Irvin”) to the unreal season finale for a Canadian TV ratings winner says the bling puts the CFL champs on par with the Super Bowl victors.
“My best friend is with the New Orleans Saints, Lance Moore. He was my roommate in college. I got a chance to see his ring and I think we got him beat! I think I have something to brag about when I get home.”
Cobourne says the stone-studded treasure even outdoes some of his buddies who won with the Steelers. “I told ‘em our ring was going to be bigger and it DOMINATES. Dominates.”
After the players and coaches were honoured, a flash of inspiration. Without fanfare, guest coach from ‘08-‘09 training camps and special consultant Tony Proudfoot was given a ring as well. Tony’s body may be weakened by the ravages of Lou Gehrig’s Disease but his wicked sense of humour still hits as sharply as a halfback blitz. “I think that was maybe the highlight of the night for me,” says Cahoon. “He is an inspiration to all of us as Alouettes and frankly the city of Montreal.”
For the record, the World’s Biggest Grey Cup Rings Ever bear four rubies and sapphires for titles won before the Wetenhall-Smith-Popp years. And there is one diamond for each victory posted by the Als in 2009. One of the stones splits the uprights like Damon Duval did with no time left. Yo, Rider Nation, that’s 17 diamonds in all. Count ‘em. Not 13.
