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Stampeders Looking To Make The Most Of Their Opportunity
CALGARY - In his rookie season, JoJuan Armour experienced what it was like to compete for the 2004 Grey Cup when his B.C. Lions lost 27-19 to the Toronto Argonauts in Ottawa.
Now in his fifth CFL campaign, Armour will have another shot at winning the Grey Cup as a member of the Calgary Stampeders next Sunday against the Montreal Alouettes at Olympic Stadium (Pre-game starts at 3pm et/Noon pt on TSN and TSN HD).
"The experience was amazing," said the Calgary linebacker of playing in the Grey Cup. "I'm glad this time I have a bigger role on the team. I feel like I can contribute a little more."
The biggest thing Armour can relate to his teammates is about how horrible he felt after the Lions lost.
"When you lose, all the good things that you accomplished in that season are forgot about," said Armour, who's a big part of the defence that shut down the B.C. Lions during Calgary's 22-18 win in the West Division final on Saturday afternoon. "Here, we've done some great things, we've done some outstanding things. You want it to be worth something, you want it to count for something. That's the biggest thing I can draw on that experience."
In his first two CFL seasons, quarterback Henry Burris was the third-string quarterback for the Stampeders, who won the Grey Cup in 1998 by beating the Hamilton 26-24 in Winnipeg before losing to the Tiger-Cats 32-21 the following year in Vancouver.
"I was able to see what it took for a Jeff Garcia to win a Grey Cup and I saw what it took for a Danny McManus to beat us in '99 to win a Grey Cup," said Burris, who will now guide the Stampeder offence for the first time in the CFL's marquee game. "I was able to see those things and kind of give myself an idea of what it was like, so that's going to help me out in my preparation."
Receiver Jeremaine Copeland will be returning to Montreal where he played for four seasons and helped the Als beat the Edmonton Eskimos 25-16 to hoist the Grey Cup at Commonwealth Stadium in 2002.
"I had a chance to get two back-to-back," said Copeland, whose Montreal squad lost 34-22 the next year in Regina. "We didn't go out and execute the way we were supposed to."
Copeland and other veterans spoke out in a team meeting on Sunday about what it will take for the Stamps to go into a hostile territory in Montreal to beat the Alouettes in front of their home crowd.
"I really think that's the plus that we've got is that guys really know what's out in front of them," Copeland said. "We're going to take that one more step because if we don't win this game, everything that we've done so far is just going to disappear."
Defensive tackle Randy Chevrier, who lost to Copeland's Alouettes in 2002 as a member of the Esks before helping Edmonton rebound to win the Cup the next season, said the Stamps have to prepare themselves to maintain their focus amidst all the hoopla in Montreal.
"Whether you have the crowd in your favour or not, you've still got to go out and perform," Chevrier said. "The challenge here is to be mature in a hurry with this team that we have and draw on the experience of guys like myself and guys who've been there.
"We worked so hard to get to where we are at this point that I don't think anybody would be satisfied with a loss in Montreal."
In his ninth season with the Stamps, offensive lineman Jeff Pilon will make his first trip back to the Grey Cup since helping Calgary beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 27-19 at Olympic Stadium in 2001.
"That's a long time ago," said Pilon, who's seen countless teammates come and go during that span. "It's been a real journey. At times it can test your love for the game, at times it can test your thoughts of what the heck am I doing, why am I putting my body through this?
"In the end, you're doing it for your teammates, you're doing it for the guys you're playing with and you're doing it for the love of playing football, the love of competing, the love of going out there and testing yourself ... testing what you can do, how far you can push your body and what you can accomplish."
During the win over B.C., Calgary coach and general manager John Hufnagel wore the 1992 Grey Cup ring he won when he was an offensive co-ordinator with the Stamps and he's planning to wear it all week leading up to the game against Montreal.
"Players who have been involved in Grey Cups stood up and talked to the team about what to be expecting and their past experiences," Hufnagel said. "You can always derive information from those types of things. You want to try and obtain as much information from all sources and probably the best source is experiences from the players that are in that locker room."
08 CFL Grey Cup preview show featuring Doug Flutie
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Cohon: Cfl Should Be Prepared For Tougher Times
The Canadian Football League appears ready to handle to the challenges of tougher economic times across the country and around the world.
That was one of the key messages conveyed by Mark Cohon on Friday as part of the CFL commissioner's annual state of the union news conference in Montreal.
"We are not immune to the economic downturn in this country and around the world, but we feel we are well positioned when compared to other leagues," he told reporters. "We have good ties to the community and are affordable. We are aggressive with our fan base and those companies that are aggressive during down times are more successful."
Part of the league's aggressive approach with fans will be marketing an inexpensive, home-grown entertainment option that has attracted more than two million fans through the turnstiles for a seventh year in a row.
The commissioner's question and answer session also brought up the annual laundry list of league concerns, including the possibility of expansion and the National Football League's presence in Toronto.
A 'Blue Ribbon' team of Jeff Hunt, John Ruddy, Roger Greenberg and William Shenkman are already working diligently to bring a CFL team back to Ottawa amid reports that the nation's capital will host the Grey Cup in 2014. "We're hopeful that 2011 will be a time when we can get a franchise back in Ottawa," said Cohon.
The commissioner addressed questions regarding new exposure into markets like Quebec City, Moncton and Halifax, with the possibility of neutral site regular season games in one of those cities provided that a suitable stadium is available. The city of Moncton already has a track and field stadium in the works which could potentially host a game in the near future.
"I do believe there are opportunities to expand our reach into those markets," said Cohon. "That (facility) has the ability to expand up to 20,000 (seats), so we are looking at an opportunity in 2010."
With the Toronto Argonauts out of the postseason and the Buffalo Bills set to play their first regular season at the Rogers Centre on Dec. 6, Cohon chose not to discuss the presence of the NFL on the CFL's biggest weekend.
"One season does not make a league," he said. "Three quarters of a million people watched the Labour day Classic, with more than a quarter of that number from the GTA."
Other points from the commissioner's address included:
- A continuation of the CFL's Retro program, including the possibility of opening next season on Canada Day.
- Creating a league command centre for officiating so all decisions can be made from Toronto.
- New in-game standards to protecting quarterbacks. At season's end the CFL will meet with club GMs and coaches and discuss how this can be further improved.
- A drug-testing policy - which already has a first draft - that, with the support of the CFL Players' Association, will be part of the new collective bargaining agreement in 2010.
- Talking to the CIS about co-ordinating efforts with the two title games being played in the same city.
- The league will decide shortly what the cap will be in 2009 but doubts it will increase from its present level of $4.2 million.