CALGARY — As the Saskatchewan Roughriders plane made its descent into Calgary Tuesday, Jeremy O’Day couldn’t help but have a strange feeling that he’s done this before.
There is a 15-3 powerhouse team coming from the East Division, fresh off a huge win in the division final and a Hall-of-Fame quarterback at the helm coming to play for a championship in an Alberta city against the Riders.
The scenario is similar to 1997, when the Toronto Argonauts whipped the Riders 47-23 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
Those Argos were led by arguably the best CFL player ever in Doug Flutie. The Als have Anthony Calvillo leading them into the 97th Grey Cup.
The main difference for O’Day this time is he will have more the fans on his side. In the ’97 game, he dressed as a reserve offensive lineman for the Argos.
“I was telling guys on he plane that being on the other team heading into Edmonton was overwhelming,” said O’Day, the now starting centre who has spent the past 11 seasons with the Roughriders.
“There were 60,000 people there and you couldn’t even see an Argonaut jersey. I only played a couple of plays during the game and on one of them, I jumped offside. I couldn’t hear the quarterback. It was a sight to see and the fans were awesome to be sure.”
There are two other Roughriders who played in that game.
Fullback Chris Szarka was in his rookie season and left tackle Gene Makowsky was in his third at the time.
There aren’t great memories about the game, obviously, as the 8-10 Riders weren’t expected to compete against the defending champion Argos.
“It was my first time playing in a Grey Cup, so it was a good experience for me,” said Makowsky about the team that upset both Calgary and Edmonton in the playoffs that year.
“After a full season of aches and pains, it’s never fun when you don’t win your last game. We were up against a pretty good team then and we’re up against a good one now. They are pretty similar.
“They are firing on all cylinders right now. Hopefully we get a different outcome.”
O’Day knows exactly how the Alouettes feel right now.
Anything less than a convincing victory will be a giant disappointment for Montreal, which has lost just three times in a year.
It was the same scenario the Argos had going for them in 1997.
“You have to feel confident if you are them,” O’Day said.
“You have won 15 of out 18 games and just had a playoff win that was a pretty dominating game. I’m sure the confidence level is pretty high on their side.”
Unlike the ’97 playoff run, the Riders are a formidable group that won the majority of their games during the season.
They also have plenty of big-game experience on their side, being that this team won the Grey Cup just two years ago in Toronto and they are expected to dress 19 players from that group this week.
It was Makowsky’s first ring, so it takes the sting away from his first trip to the Grey Cup.
And now the Riders seem to be making a habit of contending over the past few seasons.
“There was a lot of dry years and fortunately we rewarded our fans for supporting us during those lean times,” Makowsky said.
“We’ve been doing well on the field as well as off. It’s a level playing field now and hopefully it stays that way.
“You won’t get to the Grey Cup every year but you want to give yourself the best chance and hopefully we can keep doing that as an organization.”
