Showdown today: Stamps vs. Riders
Allen Cameron, Calgary Herald
Published: Sunday, November 22, 2009
REGINA
All season long, the Calgary Stampeders have tried to put the Grey Cup out of their thought process.
Last year's championship? Ancient history.
The posters and billboards all over the city touting the Nov. 29 Canadian Football League championship game at McMahon Stadium? The daily newspaper ads describing the events of next week's Grey Cup Festival? Nothing to do with the task at hand.
Those temporary grandstands over the Red and White Club to accommodate Grey Cup fans? Just a change in the landscape.
But today, the Grey Cup returns to the horizon, for the Stampeders find themselves one win away from earning the oh-so-rare opportunity to play for a championship on their home turf.
Standing in their way: the Saskatchewan Roughriders, in today's West Division final at Mosaic Stadium.
"Everybody wants to have that same feeling we had last year, and going through it does prepare you for a game like this," said Stampeders linebacker Shannon James on Saturday, as the Stamps went through their final on-field prep session on a windy afternoon at Mosaic.
"It was a feeling that was indescribable. I never won a championship before and that was just the best feeling. I want that feeling back, in my heart, in my soul, and it would be great to start here (today)."
To do that, the Stamps have to beat a team they failed to conquer in three attempts this season, losing twice and tying, allowing the Riders to claim first place in the West Division despite both teams finishing the regular season with 10-7-1 logs.
But Saskatchewan's star slotback, Andy Fantuz, is refusing to put much stock in the regular-season success heading into today's clash that features the past two Grey Cup champions.
"Well, it can build some confidence in some guys, and I think the fans think we have their number, or however you want to say it," said Fantuz.
"But at the end of the day, they're getting paid and they're going to come and they're going to be ready to play. We have to bring our ‘A' game or we're going to get beat. It's as simple as that."
The Stamps insist they're a different team than the one that got smoked 30-14 here two weeks ago to close out the regular season, and they showed vast improvement offensively in last week's West semifinal win over the Edmonton Eskimos.
"I think we came into that last regular-season game with such a business attitude of coming in here and getting a victory, and we came here and played uptight football," suggested quarterback Henry Burris.
"It wasn't our style. We moved the ball, but we didn't do what it took to win the game. But right now, as you see, it's a loosey-goosey football team, we're much more relaxed and we're just ready to go out and play our style of football."
In fact, neither team on Saturday was showing any external signs of pressure.
Saskatchewan defensive end Stevie Baggs was playfully suggesting that "We're in Henry's head," before letting the media in on his joke ("I'm just playing, we're nice to Henry - until Sunday.")
Later, Stamps slotback Nik Lewis was saying he needed to get back to the hotel to get some exercise to Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease video.
"It's great exercise," he said, tongue firmly in cheek. "I'm trying to learn from Carmen, learn how to strip and have fun with it. That's a big, yellow stripper pole in the end zone. I could do something with it if they didn't put the pads on it.
‘‘Or, I could be like the guy in Hamilton and just climb up the damn pole and do a strip up there."
Needless to say, there will be no undressing today.
Instead, the Stamps say they will take the field finally being able to place their focus on the pot at the end of the rainbow after a season of trying to ignore it.
"Man, the hunger is there," said slotback Jeremaine Copeland. "I think our stomachs are growling at an all-time high, to tell you the truth. To go back to back, you have to go through trials and tribulations, through the toughest games. And we don't think we could be in a better place right now. This is the way you want to go. Hostile crowd, hostile environment. Everything's out there on the line."
![[]](http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/images/footerdots2.gif){kind=small}
