Ticats scratch ‘favourite’ label

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This article was published 23/11/2019 (2115 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — They are being portrayed as the favourites, a popular pick among most football pundits to raise the Grey Cup tonight for the first time since 1999.

Just don’t try to get the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to bite, since they’re expecting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to give them everything they can handle.

“I don’t feel like we’re the favourite. I feel like anybody can beat anybody. This (Bombers) team is physical. They’ve earned their way here. I know their leader very well. I’m just looking forward to the competition. I don’t put much stock in who’s favoured or who’s not,” head coach Orlondo Steinauer said Saturday following his team’s final walk-through practice at McMahon Stadium,

“I know you’re hoping probably for a different answer, that would give them some more stuff over there in Winnipeg. But I don’t think you’re going to have to ramp up anybody. It’s zero-zero, anybody could beat anybody. This is the fun part, the buildup, but you’ve got to play the game.”

Quarterback Dane Evans has excelled since No. 1 pivot Jeremiah Masoli went down with a season-ending injury in late July in a game against the Bombers, and he led his team to a pair of regular-season victories over Winnipeg. Now comes the biggest test of his young career, one that feels like it would never arrive after a long week of hype here in Calgary.

“It seems like the last 24 hours always go more like 48 hours. It just takes forever for it to come,” Evans said. His Saturday night plan included a huge pasta dinner — “I like to carb load,” and some last-minute film study.

Linebacker Simoni Lawrence, who was edged by Winnipeg’s Willie Jefferson for defensive-player-of-the-year honours at the CFL awards earlier this week, was in fine form on the podium Saturday, cracking jokes about his pre-game music playlist (Jay-Z), taking his father out for a fancy dinner Saturday night and wishing the rather pleasant forecast for today’s game was a bit more wintery.

“I was looking forward to it being a little colder. It hurts a little more when you hit people when it’s cold,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence is one of a number of Tiger-Cats who were on the 2014 team that lost the Grey Cup to Calgary. The 20-16 final is best remembered for a Brandon (Speedy B) Banks 90-yard punt return which would have given Hamilton the lead, only to be called back on a controversial illegal-block penalty.

“It hurts a lot. I know the feeling of losing in the Grey Cup. This is why you train, this is why you work so hard at practice, this is why you go through what you go through just to win this game. It’s one of those feelings that’s hard to get out until you win. Because it’s still in my heart, it still hurts. I feel like the only way for me to be able to remove that feeling is to win one with my teammates,” Lawrence said.

Much has been made of Winnipeg’s championship drought, but Hamilton hasn’t tasted success for two decades, either — a fact Steinauer said the franchise and the city are acutely aware of.

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“There’s a lot of people vested in this. It would mean, well, there would be a lot of happy people, put it like that. A lot goes into it. I mean that with all sincerity. It’s really not about me. It’s about the city, it’s about the ticket-sales people, the janitors, the bus drivers — it’s all the little things, people that nobody pays attention to,” he said.

With preparation in the rear-view mirror, now it’s all about execution. And the bench boss said there’s a sense of calm among his troops.

“That’s just the way we’ve been the whole year. That doesn’t mean we’re overconfident. That doesn’t mean we’re not taking things seriously. I think some of the demeanour comes from just being prepared,” Steinauer said.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

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