Maybe it was the release of all the pressure built up in his rookie season as head coach with the securing of the first Western Conference playoff spot in four years for the Edmonton Eskimos.
Maybe it was that barrel of Gatorade and ice they drenched him with after the win over the B.C. Lions Friday night.
Or maybe it was just his turn to catch the flu.
Either way, Richie Hall was one very ill football coach yesterday as he watched the game between the Calgary Stampeders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Hall was wrapped in a blanket, with a thermometer in his mouth and a bucket beside the bed while the Riders and Stamps decided who finished first in the West and who would host the Edmonton Eskimos in the West semifinal one week from today.
OK, we're not sure about the blanket, the bucket or the thermometer.
But the man was down for the count. So there was no answer to the question if Hall felt any better watching his longtime team, the Roughriders, finish first for the first time in 33 years.
Or if he felt even more ill knowing he'd be taking his team back to McMahon Stadium, where the Eskimos lost 32-8 on Labour Day and 30-7 just three weeks ago.
Or maybe he was like his quarterback, who wasn't going to let a little thing like drawing the team which slaughtered them twice in Calgary instead of the team which they beat twice in Regina get him down.
Ricky Ray, who has never lost a Western Conference playoff game to anybody, says he watched the Riders' 30-14 win over the 2008 Grey Cup champion Stampeders with great interest -- but not in terms of picking his poison.
"To get to the Grey Cup we have to beat them both. Doesn't matter which order," said Ray.
"We certainly haven't done very well in Calgary this year. We had two pretty good performances in Regina," he said of 38-33 and 31-27 wins. "But over the years we've had a lot of trouble there."
Besides, said Ray, this is more about the Eskimos than the team they play next.
Ray is not the excitable type. But he sounded that way when talking about his offensive line, running back Arkee Whitlock and Friday's massive win in Vancouver.
"The offensive line, they put on a show," he said of Patrick Kabongo, Kyle Koch, Aaron Fiacconi, Calvin Armstrong, Joe McGrath and associates.
"In the last two games, I've barely been touched. And they've been opening up huge holes," said Ray.
"They've been pretty consistent all year. We've been one of the top teams in sacks against. But they're really coming on now. And Arkee is really coming on, too. Everybody is kind of counting on him to break at least one big one every game.
"You get a good offensive line and a good running back going together and playing well at the same time and it's a great opportunity.
"That brings a lot of confidence to the rest of the team. When it catches on and you get 60 minutes from all three phases of the game ..."
Ray is back looking like Ray again, too.
"In the last two weeks Ricky has looked so much more comfortable," said GM Danny Maciocia.
"I wish it had come a little bit sooner," he said of the mid-season switch of offensive co-ordinators, which took the Eskimos from first to worst in the West until they upgraded themselves to third place on the last weekend of the schedule.
Ray agrees.
"It took a little time."
Maciocia called what he watched Friday night in Vancouver "a team effort, which was really gratifying.
"We really set the tone physically. That's as dominant a performance as we've had in B.C. since I came here in '02. We dominated the line of scrimmage against a team that it's been very difficult to do that against," he said of the CFL sack attack leaders.
"I think we're going to have a lot of guys come to practice this week with a real spring in their step."
So will Maciocia.
"It excites me. There's still football to be played."
Sunday. In Calgary.
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA
