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CALGARY – The football cleat is on the other foot now.
Suddenly Henry Burris is the guy who gets it done and Ricky Ray is the guy who has had it come undone.
“Now Henry Burris is the guy who won and I'm the guy you wonder if he can get it done anymore,” said Ray before the Edmonton Eskimos headed here Friday.
Burris, after the Calgary Stampeders practice here, snorted at that. “It's true that I'm the guy who won the last one. But I'm also the guy who is still trying to get where he is.
“I won one last year but he's still one up on me and he's still one up on Anthony Calvillo, too. And how many playoff games has he lost other than the last one? He hasn't lost his reputation of being a guy who once he gets into the playoffs gets the job done.”
Burris, at this time of year last year, was the quarterback who had never won a playoff game with the Stamps. He was 0-3.
Ray, going into the playoffs last year, was the quarterback who had never lost a playoff game, not one, in leading the Esks to the Grey Cup every year he was in the playoffs.
Burris was Mr. Can't Win The Big One.
But then he won the West final and then the Grey Cup.
Ray's remarkable run was stopped last year in the East final in Montreal. He'd won a West semifinal, three West finals and led the Eskimos to become the first crossover team to win an Eastern playoff game the week before in Winnipeg.
He'd gone two for three in Grey Cup games. Ray had the claim to fame that every year he got into the playoffs he got to the Grey Cup.
Ray is amassing some sensational stats in his career but he says it's only the ones at this time of year which matter.
He hasn't been to the Grey Cup since he was the game MVP in 2005.
He wants to be known as the Git 'R' Done guy.
“As a quarterback, this is the time of year you're judged by, not the regular season,” said Ray.
“As a quarterback, championships mean more than statistics. That's what I want to be all about. It's all about the Grey Cup. I want to get back there. This is the time of year you play for.”
In the CFL and particularly in the playoffs, even if it's true that Ray required relief with Jason Mass getting the save in the two in 2005, it's about your starting quarterback.
Having a QB with a 7-2 record in the post season, who is 205 for 324 for 2,569 yards with 10 touchdowns against five interceptions, even if he lost the last one, provides some confidence and comfort.
And coach Richie Hall says the Eskimos can see the quiet determination in their quarterback this week.
“They can see it in his concentration and focus and how everything is turned up a notch,” says Hall. But having the QB who won the Western Final and the Grey Cup game last year ... well football, as Ray says “is a what have you done for me lately.”
And his coach agrees that Burris comes into this game with plenty to reach in his pocket to use that wasn't there before.
“Just being able to accomplish bringing a Grey Cup championship last year is something you can really draw on in the playoffs,” said Hall. “He's been in there in the fire, in the storm and he's won. The regular season is the regular season. This is the money game.”
Burris may not buy into the stuff Ray was trying to sell at the top of this column, but he buys into that.
“I don't think I have the same pressure as last year. I know I can succeed. Now it's just go do it,” said Burris.
“It's a different feeling,” added the QB who now has a still-not-too-impressive 2-3 record and 64 for 115 and 999 yards with three touchdowns against eight interceptions stats line for the Stamps in the post-season. (People tend to forget his one playoff year for Saskatchewan when he was 1-1, 43 for 67 and 574 yards with five T.D. passes and no interceptions.)
He's 1-0 in the Grey Cup.
He's the guy who drove to practice here yesterday like Ray and the Eskimos couldn't drive to Calgary after theirs.
“I had the DVD of the Grey Cup game on the speakers in my truck,” said Burris. “It reminded me of everything. It was inspiring and motivating and I got all emotional just driving my truck to practice.”