Rick Moffat
CFL.ca
After very nearly committing the first turnover of the pre-season by bobbling his impressive new Grey Cup bauble, Anthony Calvillo led a lusty round of booing his ex-teammate Avon Cobourne at the Alouettes’ ring ceremony.
Even before the Alouettes hit training camp for their medicals, Calvillo proved his pride is as healthy as ever. It was all in good fun, so AC insists of his raspberries for “the other AC”. But the free agent defector to Hamilton was not shy about crashing the Als’ party with some brash trash-talk.
“The Alouettes cannot 3-peat,” Cobourne told me before the rings were revealed on the eve of training camp physicals. “Only I can, because Hamilton will win the Grey Cup in 2011.”
“I was definitely leading the pack in booing Avon,” admitted the future Hall of Fame quarterback.
“We always had a great time with him here and good on the organization for bringing him back. He’s got the attitude for Hamilton to bring to that organization, but we have 30 or 40 guys who have won it back to back. So the attitude’s here and this is where we want it to be.”
Cobourne wasn’t the only one making a brash splash. Chairman Paul Harris, usually a low-key man behind the scenes, proudly advised players to reserve June 1, 2012 for Montreal’s NEXT Grey Cup ring ceremony.
Director Jacques Menard quoted the Quebecois expression that breaks down to “Never two without three.”
But many Alouettes confessed they are baffled as to which finger they’ll wear the new title ring on.
“I can’t put it on my ring finger because that’s for my wife,” beamed Eric Deslauriers, flashing his new wedding ring from his college sweetheart Sophia. “Guess I’ll put it on my right hand ring finger.”
Special Teams demon Walter Spencer also got married over the offseason and is expecting his first child during the 2011 season, so he’ll find the right finger for a ring with special significance.
“I’m just thankful to be on a team that was so supportive,” says the victim of a horrible stabbing attack when a suspected gang member attempted to steal his ’09 ring.
“They looked at me and told me ‘we’re playing for you, man.’ That took the edge off missing the game for me.”
Paul Woldu and Ivan Brown figure sporting the ring is all about location, location, location, not about which finger. The Alouette defenders spent their offseason in Regina and still work out with Roughriders.
“To be among the best you have to practise against some of the best so I’ve been running with Dressler and Getzlaf and Clermont,” says DB Paul Woldu.
“I didn’t get heckled as much by Rider fans this off-season…not as much as after the ‘13th Man’ Game. But I’ll let Saskatchewan see (the ring) in a few weeks.”
Linebacker Shea Emry says the new ring eases his pain from losing his ’09 ring, swiped from his car before leaving Vancouver for Montreal and camp.
“I’m scouring e-bay, Kijiji, Craig’s List, you name it. Hopefully we’ll track it down. It’s definitely hard for anyone else to be wearing it. But the 2010 ring is special because of the guys in the locker-room,” says the BC native.
“A lot of rooms have a few guys who disrupt the cohesiveness of the locker room but we don’t have that. As a rookie they welcomed me with open arms and since then I’ve been happy to take more of a leadership role and just glad to share these moments with my teammates.”
Some lock up their championship bling in safe-deposit boxes. Calvillo doesn’t mind the rewards for playing a game becoming play-things for his little girls.
“They can touch ‘em but they can’t throw ‘em around. I got one for each daughter, and one for my wife but my brothers and my mom want one too so I’m not done yet.”
That’s bad news for Cobourne, not to mention the rest of the CFL.
