Cauz: What I am hoping for in the Grey Cup

Before I get to my thoughts on the Grey Cup, I wanted to go back to the Eastern and Western Finals and say, we needed that. For altogether different reasons, those games made me happy as a CFL fan.

First let’s start with Hamilton’s ‘don’t the final score fool you, it was much closer than 40-24’ victory over Montreal. I’m glad that the best Eastern Division game played this season happened in the second to last week of the season. You had the individual brilliance of Brandon Banks, who proved you don’t always need great blocking to score on a punt return; his 69-yard masterpiece deserves to be in the Gizmo William/Pinball Clemons Hall of Fame.

I was happy to see Jonathan Crompton keep fighting throughout the game to keep his team in. I hope he can learn from some of his interceptions and become the player that brought Montreal back to within three points early in the fourth quarter. The league is better off if Crompton can grow into a complete quarterback, especially with S.J. Green and Duron Carter at his side (Stay away, NFL!).

As for out west, well I hate to say this but I’m glad Calgary won and won big. Having that dominant team is good for a league. It gives every other franchise something to shoot for. It allows for the rest of the league to see how they measure up. Also don’t we all like to see greatness realized? That is why I am hoping for the Stampeders to win the Grey Cup.

I’m not going to do a prediction piece. Instead, I want to look at what I want to see happen on Sunday.

Now this desire has nothing to do with my feelings towards Hamilton, it really doesn’t. The storyline of Hamilton getting back to the Cup and this time redeeming itself from last year would be a great one. Unfortunately for the tabbies, there is one story that is better for the entire league: Calgary winning it all.

Calgary has been the best team this year. From their 29-8 win over Montreal in Week 1 to their Week 20 33-16 victory over the Lions, the Stampeders have been the league’s most dominant team and we all know it. This organization deserves to have people stop talking about their recent playoff missteps; they deserve to win the Grey Cup.

But do you know who also deserves a Calgary win? You, the fan. You see, I don’t mind rooting for the underdog early in any post-season, but the Championship Game — I want that to go to the team that kicked ass in the regular season and continued to do so in the playoffs. I know we all say we love cheering for the underdog, I know that we pull for David to defeat Goliath but the nasty truth is we are far more attracted to the favourite.

I always use March Madness as my example. We relish wins by Davidson and Butler early in the tournament, but deep down we want to see North Carolina fighting Duke. We want to see greatness win.

Also, doesn’t it justify the time and attention we all put into the regular season to see the league’s Alpha Dog holding up the Grey Cup? Yes, upsets are fun, but a Calgary win on Sunday just makes the entire season feel more complete.

Of course I’m greedy, so I want so much more than just fans dressed in red and white celebrating on the streets of Vancouver.

First off, I want more Zach Collaros interviews with no seven second delay! Dropping that “salty” language on live TV after Hamilton’s Eastern Division win was awesome. I’m sorry if it meant someone working the game got in trouble. But I loved the honesty and the spontaneous nature of it. Let’s all be adults and admit that no one got hurt by that postgame interview and instead we got to see a young man lost in emotion after winning his first ever playoff start.

Speaking of Collaros, I’m hoping he has an absolute monster game. I want Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg’s coaching staffs to watch that game and come away being deathly afraid of the development of Collaros. I want them losing sleep thinking about Collaros riddling their respective secondaries with passes to Grant, Tasker and Fantuz.

This was a down year for the East and the main reason was inconsistent play at the quarterback position. For that to turn around, Winnipeg needs to give Drew Willy better protection and Collaros, just like Crompton, needs to build on his accomplishments from this season. I can’t think of a better springboard for success or a bigger confidence boost for this young quarterback than having the best game of his season in the biggest game of the season.

I want to see Nik Lewis with a ridiculous block that springs Jon Cornish for a long touchdown run. I want Simoni Lawrence flying around reminding people of some sort of crazy combination of Jamal Johnson and Markeith Knowlton. I want a couple of crazy catches from Luke Tasker, who has gone from Steve Tasker’s son to a guy you can count on in big moments.

Of course I want Brandon Banks to do Brandon Banks things and Kent Austin to call some daring plays. But in the end I don’t want a .500 team winning it all. I want a close, fun game with Bo Levi Mitchell winning the MVP and everyone hoping for a rematch.