Rick Moffat
CFL.ca
Full disclosure: I have rarely made a successful Grey Cup prediction, though I have called two in a row and three of the last four.
I did forecast the Als in ‘77 before anyone knew about the staples. I called the Als again in ‘02 as surely as Shania was lip-synching in her Michelin Man costume at Commonwealth halftime.
When Chris Garrett powered the Blue Bombers through the Tiger-Cats in the Eastern Final, former Winnipeg and BC Coach Dave Ritchie’s profound words echoed in my ears: “when the frost is on the pumpkin, you gotta be able to run the football.”
Or seek shelter indoors.
The new lid BC Place hardly qualifies as shelter. Just ask the Montreal Alouettes.
Tormented annually in the “marshmallow in bondage” for a decade, not even a total reno-job could chase the demons that haunt Alouette roadtrips to Vancouver.
If CFL teams are supposed to peak in time for the playoffs, the Lions’ 43-1 discombobulation of Montreal in the final game of regular season may qualify as the perfect game. BC boy Sean Whyte’s punt single wasn’t even supposed to happen, so it could have been a shutout.
While Marc Trestman is back home in North Carolina in time for the other Thanksgiving for the first time in his CFL tenure and Anthony Calvillo makes another lonely voyage only to be gracious on CFL Awards night, I can’t help but think this year’s Grey Cup starting quarterbacks had thrown all of three post-season TD’s before this season. Calvillo? 26.
The quarterback duel? Lulay vs. Pierce intrigues. The Lions’ passer has the efficiency rating of a risk management expert. Buck Pierce proudly plays like an accident waiting to happen. Yet here they collide.
The Lions clearly have the offensive advantage but the Swaggerville D stands for Dominate.
Winnipeg’s lockdown job on Jamel Richardson late in the season foreshadowed the Alouettes’ departure in the overtime shootout of the Eastern Semi-Final. The Blue Bombers blanketed J-Rich as Calvillo went for broke throwing on second and short, then third and short.
No Als seemed concerned about frost or running footballs.
But the Grey Cup often thrusts unheralded individuals into untimely drama or the timeliest of heroics. The best man and the best team does not always win.
“Very humiliating,” says Hall of Famer Bruce Coulter of the Als’ three straight Grey Cup losses to the hated Eskimos of the mid-50’s.
“We should have won it in ‘54…in fact we DID!”
Coulter is telling me about the legendary Hal Patterson, who passed away three years to the day after his #75 was retired during 2008 Grey Cup Week festivities in Montreal. “If anyone wants to wear it again, they can,” Patterson told me humbly at the time.
But the conversation about the three-time Hamilton Grey Cup champ veers like a “Prince Hal” deep route from the man Coulter considers the best ever, to the Alouettes’ infamous loss in the Hunsinger “Fumble” game.
“Jackie Parker did so many things well but Harold (Hal) dominated in so many different ways. He was spectacular. Etcheverry loved to throw to him but he also would run him on end-arounds all the time. On defence he had amazing leaping ability and great hands, of course.”
Patterson never won a Grey Cup as an Alouette despite “The Rifle” and “The Target” tearing up pro football passing records at a time when NFL draft picks like Hal routinely came north to play on a bigger field for bigger dollars.
Being an Alouette “is forever” Wally Buono said the year he won the Commissioner’s Award.
“Prince” is dead. Long live the “Prince.”
And another crowning moment in the reign of King Wally may come Sunday. Just be ready to run the ball if there’s an indoor frost warning in effect.
