Chris Best has a career goal to be a fire investigator.
He'll have plenty of blazes to snuff during today's Grey Cup clash.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive lineman, who hails from Calgary, earned an engineering degree from Duke University before heading to the University of Waterloo.
He's on the cusp of a masters degree in fire safety engineering but has no plans to fight flames.
"I'm thinking Robert De Niro in Backdraft. That was always one of my favourite movies," Best said.
"A fire marshall or investigator. The investigation stuff is more interesting. I think it'll be fun. I always liked problem solving or doing math in my head. When I took my degree at Waterloo, it was really interesting and I could see it being a fun career, a CSI with fires.
"I don't know if I'll end up doing that, but it's what I'm working for."
The 6-foot-5, 301-lb. lineman has a more immediate job today, when the Riders face the Montreal Alouettes for the CFL title.
You'd think Best would be about as nervous as he was for his first start, which also happened at McMahon Stadium.
"I was really nervous that game. I'm calm compared to that," he said.
Calm? Starting a Grey Cup game in his hometown and he's not as nervous as he was for an October game a couple of year ago?
"I'm trying to be not nervous," he admitted. "I was looking around in the stands -- my parents had season tickets over there -- and I was 13 years old, sitting there watching games. It's a homecoming. It's hard to put in words how I feel, but it's huge.
"I am so fortunate right now to have this opportunity."
Best may have grown up cheering for the Stamps, but he's ecstatic to see his hometown has gone green. Not that he didn't see it coming.
"Every time we come here, half the stadium is green, so it's not surprising," he said. "I worked for an oil company in the summer before I was in the CFL, and three quarters of the people there were from Saskatchewan with Riders stuff all over."
