REGINA -- And now for something completely different. And for something completely the same.
For the first time in Grey Cup history, unless you go back to the Montreal AAAs vs. the Reginas in 1931, it will be the Saskatchewan Roughriders against the Montreal Alouettes in the Grey Cup.
For the fourth time in Calgary Stampeders history another Western Conference team will be moving into their McMahon Stadium dressing room. The previous three residents, twice with Edmonton and once with B.C., drank champagne.
"We can be the next team to do that and I'm going back to get my old locker again!" enthused Roughriders' veteran defensive back Eddie Davis, a former Stampeder.
"I live there in the off-season and I can't wait to get there to play in a Grey Cup game."
NOOSE AROUND NECKS
Playing with a noose around their necks for the last three weeks, the Stampeders gagged on yet another game against Gang Green, losing 27-17, to become yet another casualty in the long list of teams which couldn't close with the Grey Cup at home.
The Calgary 2009 Grey Cup will be the ninth of the 10 played on the Prairies in which the host has failed to make it to their own game. The only exception was Edmonton in 2002 and the Eskimos lost that one.
The Stampeders are just another in the list of failures in the Western Conference final featuring Grey Cup hosts.
Others to lose were the B.C. Lions in 2005, Calgary in 2000, Edmonton in 1997, Calgary in 1993 and B.C. back in 1987.
And the defending Grey Cup champions and hosts were in denial to the end.
"It never entered my mind. It wasn't a big topic. It's hard to get there, that's all," said coach John Hufnagel.
The Stampeders lost the last game of the regular season with first place on the line here two weeks ago and were winless in the four times the two teams played.
But to Rider Nation, this wasn't about somebody losing, this was about winning.
"What a great moment for these fans," said 15-year veteran Gene Makowski.
"For the first time in 33 years they got to have this feeling again," he said of the first Western final since 1976 in old Taylor Field.
"This is the loudest I've ever heard it here in my career and that is certainly saying something."
The most pleased person in the Roughriders dressing-room wasn't the old pros on the team but the old fella who coaches it.
"I'm just absolutely happy. I'm so happy personally and for the men in this locker-room," said 68-year-old head coach Ken Miller. "I'm so happy for the fans, the ones who were here tonight, the ones all over the province and the ones all over the world.
"To see the happiness in the coaches' eyes, the players' and the fans' eyes, it was a very satisfying feeling."
And it might not just have been the Roughriders who won here but Canadian football. Accent on Canadian.
It was the three slow, white Canadians who killed the Stampeders all year and with CFL commissioner Mark Cohon in Mosaic Stadium for the game, it was a great advertisement for Canadian starting content in the league. The league is allegedly talking of reducing the number of Canuck starters from seven to four as part of the current collective bargaining process.
KICK IN
It took a long time to kick in with Calgary taking a 1-0 lead and Saskatchewan started from their own 16, 25, 5 and 20 and had nothing happening until a pass interference play on Keon Raymond against Chris Getzlaf on the Saskatchewan 35. Seven plays later it was Getzlaf, the Calgary killer with his fifth touchdown against the Stampeders this year, and sixth of nine against Calgary in his CFL career.
And with CFL commissioner Cohon in the stands and Andy Fantuz and Rob Bagg collecting the other two touchdowns and Canadians responsible for 211 of the 246 yards in pass receptions, the timing was beautiful.
"How many touchdowns did we have today?" said Fantuz.
"I think what they're talking about with that rule looks kind of silly today," said Bagg.
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA
