CFL stars answer in one word what would it mean to win the 112th Grey Cup

CFL.ca Staff

TORONTO — Winning the Grey Cup is a feeling that few players can describe.

It’s the ultimate goal in Canadian football reserved for the last ones standing when November comes to a close. As training camps approach their conclusion, the feeling is on everyone’s minds as they prepare for Week 1 football.

CFL.ca spoke to some of the league’s biggest superstars and asked them to describe what would it mean for them to win the Grey Cup in just one or two words.

Brady Oliveira: “Two words: fairy tale. Hometown kid playing in the biggest game of his life at home, winning it, how amazing would it be?”

Stanley Bryant: “Miraculous.”

Eugene Lewis: “Glory. It would be glory, because ultimately, that’s what every player plays for. You play for the glory. And the glory is the Grey Cup, it’s to pick that trophy up and put it above your head.”

Adarius Pickett: “Incredible, just because everything that I’ve been through to get to this point and to do it with a team like Ottawa that was overlooked before I came here to now being in the conversation and being one of the better teams in the league. Bringing in additions like Geno Lewis and William Stanback, and just having the players that we had on our team last year. For the city, I think that mean everything to them, and because I’m part of that it means everything to me.”

Christian Covington: “Finally.”

Garry Peters: “Accomplished. I will feel like my career has been accomplished. Doesn’t matter what I’ve done, all the interceptions, all the All-CFL awards. I need a Grey Cup to feel like I’ve accomplished what I set out to do in the CFL. So I won’t stop playing until I get that.”

Trevor Harris: “There are a lot of words that come to mind. Gratitude, nostalgic, timeless, something that lives on forever. It’s, one of those things that it’s hard to put into one word. I do hear a lot of people (saying) we want to win the Grey Cup this year. Everybody has that goal. To me, it’s about, what are you doing to accomplish that goal? Who are you becoming every day? And that’s really what we’re focused on.”

AJ Ouellette: “Exhilarated. It’s the only word that’s popping in my head right now, just knowing what the team is going to go through, through training camp and as we’re going to battle through a season worth of injuries, losing teammates, bringing in new teammates, like just the excitement that’s going to be in the locker room and across the whole province. The city in this province, we need a Grey Cup.”

Bo Levi Mitchell: “Legacy. I think my biggest reason for not going to the NFL in 2019 was I wanted to continue to leave my footprint on this league. Try to build up the guys around me and kind of continue something I had started here, and I think I want to end it the right way. So a Grey cup, I think would create the legacy that I’m looking for.”

Tim White: “Everything.”

Tyrell Ford: “Relief, because I’ve lost two, so it’d be nice to win one.”

Kurleigh Gittens Jr.: “Hard work, or just ‘difficult’.”

Tyson Philpot: “Accomplished. Let’s use that. And in context, just because of what I’ve gone through with last year. And to be able to come back like that and have a Grey Cup in 2025 would be amazing. It would be a dream come true again.”

Austin Mack: “That’s the ‘goal’. Every week until then is what builds up to that great feeling of winning the Grey Cup. You can’t just put yourself at the week of the Grey Cup and win and expect to feel that. It’s all the sweat, blood and tears that you put in from starting May 11 all the way to November 16, when you get that opportunity to hoist that trophy again, and the trials and tribulations through that season and the growth throughout that season.”

Jalen Philpot: “Accomplished.”

Reggie Begelton: “If we win the Grey Cup, I’m happy. The awards that come after is just a testament of the work and the vision that you had, that you’ve been putting throughout the entire season. It’s just an icing on the cake, but the Grey Cup is what we what we’re really going for.”

Wynton McManis: “Relief. All the work, everything that goes into it, you do so much for a short period of gratification. Like I said, relief just knowing we did it because you know everybody’s counting on you, all your friends and all the fans and even your teammates, and so I guess the relief of coming through on your word. Because everybody sets that goal, everybody says that’s what they want to achieve and says that’s what we’re going to do this season, but to actually do it, it’s like a feeling of relief.”

Damonte Coxie: “Going to steal these two words from my teammate: great business.”

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