By: Don Campbell
Photo: Scott Grant – Image Communications
Playing in a stadium that hasn’t witnessed a championship banner of any kind being raised in 39 long seasons, no-one could have blamed the Ottawa REDBLACKS for jumping the gun prior to the opening kickoff of Sunday’s East Final and unfurling a banner reading “East Division Champions.”
Just over a month ago, the Toronto Blue Jays made the Texas Rangers watch as they unfurled an “East Division Champions” pennant from the ring at Rogers Centre, an event that certainly whipped the crowd into a frenzy.
No way says the REDBLACKS elder statesman and on and off-field leader Henry Burris.
“The only way to become the champions of the East is to beat the champions of the East,” said the soon-to-be CFL Most Outstanding Player for 2015 as he prepared to face two-time defending East-champion Hamilton Tiger-Cats Sunday in front of what will be a record crowd at a soldout TD Place.
“If there’s any team in this league that goes down swinging, it’s Hamilton and the bottom line is we have a great opportunity here,” Burris continued. “This is what you line up to play for. These moments are what you will remember 10, 20 and 30 years down the road. You won’t remember so much the score. You remember who made the big plays… who got the job done. Those are the things you will remember.
“This is one of the most exciting seasons I have ever been part of. It’s been so much fun to achieve this much and we worked so hard to put ourselves in this position and give ourselves a chance. And there’s another moment coming up.”
Burris has done everything the REDBLACKS could have asked of him this season. No, he’s done everything… and much more.
At 40, he will be the only player on the field who was even born the last time a championship banner was raised, way back in 1977 to honour the 1976 Grey Cup-champion Ottawa Rough Riders.
Burris has worked so hard to help his young teammates keep this magical 12-win season in perspective. It’s easy for a team enjoying great success for the first time to ride a little high with eight wins in their last 10 games.
The REDBLACKS could even lose the East Final and the season would still be deemed a tremendous success in so many ways and fans would eagerly look forward to 2016.
Some how, though, this isn’t a team that acts like they are done winning yet.
The flights to Winnipeg and the hotel rooms for next week’s Grey Cup are all booked and fresh off the REDBLACKS beating the Tiger-Cats in back-to-back games to end the regular season, there’s a loose, high-spirited attitude around the club. Some might even suggest a swagger about them.
That suggests they expect to be on the field post-game Sunday to receive the Eastern Division Trophy from CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge at which time the REDBLACKS will have a decision to make: touch it (and risk bad luck) or leave it alone, in the anticipation of hoisting the Grey Cup a week from now.
Burris, for one, who admits to having “two grey hairs” now, isn’t the least bit nervous about facing his former team.
“I am not even worried about the game,” said the future Grecian Formula candidate. “ You get to 40 and you’re so focussed on things like watching your kids play hockey or doing things at home that you don’t worry about the game until the day of the game.
“I’m just looking forward to getting out on the field and executing with this offence. The only thing we can really control is how we execute.
“I felt two weeks ago, Hamilton would get back here and that’s what happened. After the game, we’ll all wish each other good luck. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what team is on the other side.
“I don’t get too excited because its the playoffs. I get excited to play.”
The REDBLACKS own the city right now, much the way the Rough Riders did in the 1960s and 1970s when playoff games were a given and competing for the Grey Cup was almost a rite of late fall.
Local bar owners are talking about hosting Grey Cup parties again when for years, patrons might have asked them to turn on the NFL’s Sunday Night Football telecast instead.
And there is no hotter ticket that those for the final. The REDBLACKS released another 500 standing rooms tickets early in the week and they didn’t last long. Standing room-only for a football game in Ottawa! Never before.
The euphoria has sports fans in the city planning their entire Sunday around that 1 p.m. kickoff like hasn’t been the case in decades. Priests and ministers are going to have to keep the sermons short this Sunday or risk losing the congregation. That’s just the way the city is reacting.
And if the REDBLACKS can pull off one more miracle… well the field at TD Place may not be big enough for the post-game celebration. Fans with a long memory might want to even try tearing down the goal posts, the way fans used to celebrate big playoff wins in the old days.
Win or lose, Ottawa football fans are ready to celebrate.
“I’m excited . . . but I’m just focussed on Sunday at a o’clock,” said soon-to-be CFL Coach of the Year Rick Campbell. “The way I am looking at it, these guys (Hamilton) have been East champs the last two years.
“So until someone knocks them off, they still are. And that is the message I am trying to stick with.
“At halftime, the last two times we played them, it was neck-and-neck. Hamilton is coming off a big playoff win and we will have to play really well to beat them.
“It’s all going to come down to who plays the best 60 minutes.”
Then let the celebration begin.
