Toronto versus Ottawa. A rivalry steeped in tradition, bad blood and a visceral hatred of the other guy. A disdain so strong that each loss seems a depressing devastation, each win a soaring monument to “you suck.”
But, that’s hockey.
What about football? Is this the time for these two cities to extend their mutual degradation society to the gridiron?
It might just be.
With the REDBLACKS at 4-3 and the Argos just ahead at 5-2, this Sunday’s tilt in Toronto could be just the thing to give these two cities the genesis of a football rivalry they’ve deserved but have never really had, because Russ Jackson and Whit Tucker never took on Doug Flutie and Pinball Clemons.
Star-crossed lovers, these municipalities. Because for some 40 or 45 years, they’ve never really had simultaneous contenders. It’s a bit early to suggest that these two teams are on the verge of entering a years-long football version of Thunderdome but we do have some ingredients in place that could lead to a healthy animosity. That, in turn, could bring games that suck out the very marrow of the losers’ souls. You know, football fun.
First, some history:
There was certainly a good dose of hate back in the late 1960’s, especially when Argos’ Head Coach Leo Cahill declared that “only an act of God” could lead to his team losing to the Rough Riders in the 1969 Eastern Final. Which it did when Jackson led his team back in the second game of a two-game, total points series, winning 32-3 after the Argonauts had won the opener by eight points.
Since that day when, you know, God suited up for the Rough Riders, Ottawa and Toronto have rarely met in the playoffs. They did, again, in 1977 and 1982. Know when the last playoff meeting came? 1990. Tough to kindle the flames when you go so long between finding a stick of wood to toss on the fire pit.
Through most of my life, I can’t really remember there being any bad, rivalry-induced blood between the Argos and Ottawa Rough Riders. That’s because the Argonauts spent the 70’s being terrible and the butt of everyone’s joke, including their own fans. A lot of people don’t remember this but the cry of “Aaaaaaarrggoooooos” was a derisive one, only floating down from the stands at Exhibition Stadium when the team was coughing up a lead – which it rarely had – or bumbling its way to another inevitable, lopsided loss. It became the boastful war cry of fans only when the powerful teams of the early 80’s reclaimed it as a celebration.
Well, nature abhors a vacuum and when the Argos climbed into championship rarefied air, the Riders were already well on their way to a decade and a half of making red and black the new double blue.
The Renegades weren’t around long enough and didn’t get nearly good enough to get under anybody’s skin, with the exception of disgruntled patrons trudging down Bank Street after one of their team’s twenty-two home losses between 2002 and 2005.
Now, though, laid out before us, is all the possibility in the world. The Argos might be emerging contenders and the REDBLACKS are birling their way into the hearts of an army of passionate plaidsters, making TD Place roil like the rapids on the Ottawa River. If their boisterous fans travel well and make their presence felt at the Dome, this weekend, it could be enough to light a fuse, so long as the teams provide the dynamite.
The Maple Leafs are well-hated in the Nation’s Capital even more so than anywhere else they go and claim to be “Canada’s Team.” Toronto can boast the upper hand in that particular battle, having repeatedly destroyed the hopes and dreams of Ottawa’s hockey aspirations with playoff victories that came even when they should not have. The city of Ottawa played the part of Meek Mill to Toronto’s Drake during that stretch of time, with four straight playoff losses. That was really where the Battle of Ontario had its legend develop, in the crucible of high pressure playoff games where heroes and villains had their images even more sharply defined.
The thing is, competition is where it’s at. The Argos and Ottawa football have not had toe to toe slobber knockers in important games since a young buck named Trudeau was rising through the ranks of the Liberal Party of Canada and becoming Prime Minister. Don’t get too excited, Justin. We’re not yet sure the Ottawa-Toronto football rivalry is fully reborn just yet, nor do we know there is a correlation between that and the political fortunes of the Trudeau family.
If the REDBLACKS are for real and the Argos can continue to pull together as a slew of new deck hands get to know each other, we might be on the verge of a new Battle of Ontario being born. This weekend’s game could play a part in that, and if the two sides stay relatively close to one another in the standings, their rematches on Sept. 26 and Oct. 6 may be meaningful and rivalry-building worthy.
You might think that nothing could ever supplant the great ongoing grudge match that the Argos have with the Ticats and that might be the case. Proximity of the two cities is a major factor there. Do not, though, discount that another rivalry can be built and built well. During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Winnipeg became Toronto’s football villain, as the Argos and Blue Bombers met five times during the playoffs between 1987 and 1991. After that, the Alouettes were public enemy number one in Toronto, with the Argos and Als meeting eight times in the playoffs between 1996 and 2006, with plenty of disdainful mustard flavouring their regular season games as a by-product. And those are two cities that aren’t even in the same province.
This could be good. It’s up to the Argos and REDBLACKS to make it so, though. Toronto needs to show it can continue to be the real deal, this Sunday and beyond. Ottawa must get back to the more impressive football it was playing before last week’s 48-3 loss in Calgary.
Toronto and Ottawa have a passionate hockey rivalry that shows the two can really get in each other’s kitchens and rattle those pots and pans.
It’s high time the football teams provided the same kind of cause for sibling city dysfunction.
Because most of us can’t even remember the last time it happened.
