Hamilton’s Glenn’s been waiting for this

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This article was published 15/11/2011 (5254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If revenge is best served cold, Kevin Glenn has had this one cooling on a platter in the back of the kitchen for a couple of years.

The question now is whether Glenn can finally deliver it.

There are two compelling storylines heading into Sunday’s East Division final at Canad Inns Stadium between Glenn’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The first one — and the one you’re going to hear most about this week — is all about a local football team that is attempting to author one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in CFL history by going from a 4-14 debacle in 2010 to a berth in the 2011 Grey Cup game with a win over the Tabbies.

And the other is a tale of a Hamilton quarterback who toiled for four seasons in Winnipeg — guiding the team to the Grey Cup in 2007 before he broke his arm in the East Final — only to be kicked to the curb prior to the 2009 season by a head coach in Mike Kelly who, as it turned out, was a complete flake.

Punted by Kelly, the Bombers got not so much as a roll of tape for Glenn, who promptly ended up in Hamilton. And in the two seasons prior to this one, the advantage in that transaction has clearly gone to Hamilton. While Glenn and the Ticats lost in the semifinal in both 2009 and 2010, at least they made the playoffs — something the Bombers hadn’t done since Glenn was run out of town until this season.

All of which brings us to this week. With a wild 52-44 victory over the Montreal Alouettes at Olympic Stadium on Sunday afternoon, Glenn has an opportunity like no other to stick it to his former employers this weekend.

Glenn has never made much of a secret that he retains some hard feelings about how he was treated in Winnipeg. Even when he’s saying bygones are now bygone — as he maintained prior to the Winnipeg-Hamilton matchup in Week 1 of this season — he does so in such a way that there’s no mistaking his tongue is planted firmly in cheek.

Make no mistake — Glenn loves to beat Winnipeg and that would never be more true than this coming weekend. Hamilton Spectator columnist Steve Milton penned as much in his Monday column, noting Glenn’s clutch performance in Montreal on Sunday will not have gone unnoticed in these parts.

“Now, Glenn gets to go back to Winnipeg with something, something very big, on the line,” Milton wrote. “Sunday’s performance was the kind Manitobans complained they didn’t see enough of in Prairie post-seasons, and he will certainly relish the opportunity to deprive the Bombers of a Grey Cup appearance.”

But therein lies the rub. And it is this: While Glenn would surely love to deny the Bombers a Grey Cup berth, he’s going to have to do it against a defence that has owned him on the field — and resided in his head — all season long.

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Three times the Bombers have faced Glenn this season. Three times they have returned interceptions of Glenn for touchdowns. Three times they have won.

And in two of those games, Glenn didn’t even finish the contest, banished to the sidelines in favour of backup Quinton Porter.

So yeah, Kevin Glenn would surely love to hang one on the Bombers this weekend, but first he’s going to have to figure out how to stop throwing touchdown passes to Winnipeg players.

That’s no minor technicality — and it will in large part determine whether what gets served on the frozen turf of Canad Inns Stadium on Sunday is that cold platter of revenge or a heaping pile of crow.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca