At the start of my third year of covering the Eskimos, I can safely say I’ve never been to a game like the one I was at in Guelph on Sunday.
The rain started to come down heavy at the end of the first quarter of the Eskimos’ eventual win and while it went away a few times, I don’t think it ever fully stopped until well after the game was over. This was the perfect storm (pun not intended) of challenges in covering a game and it was unlike anything I’ve ever encountered in the CFL. In every other venue I’ve been to across the league, the elements haven’t been an option. You can crack a tiny window in the press boxes in Calgary and Regina and you used to be able to in Winnipeg and in the old Ivor Wynne Stadium, which gave way to this year’s Tiger-Cats foster parent for this year, Alumni Stadium in Guelph.
Before Sunday’s game started, I got a direct message on Twitter from Murray McCormick at the Regina Leader-Post. He asked me how the facilities were, press-wise, in Guelph. I read his message, looked through the plastic tarp/window setup that was in the makeshift press box/tent setup that the Ti-Cats have in Guelph and I wrote him back and said, “If it rains, we’re screwed.”
By the end of the first quarter, that’s where we were.
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Take a look at the setup they have in Guelph. It needs to be said up front that the Ti-Cats staffers put a lot of work into doing what they could at Alumni Stadium, as far as giving the press box folks options in the tent-like setup that we were in. Even when we were being hammered by these seemingly torrential rains, they were there, trying to keep things running as smoothly as possible.
Before the game started, with the sun shining and the bad weather that was forecast for Sunday seemingly behind us, the people in the press box agreed to roll up the plastic windows that were over the press box, so we could see the game better. That worked for most of the first quarter but when the weather turned, things got ugly. You couldn’t see what was happening on the field, the plastic got foggy and water started to leak in around the plastic and spread out on the floor. And then it just kept on raining and raining and raining. With water finding its way in everywhere, I made my laptop live up to its name and put it in my lap for the rest of the game. At halftime another Ti-Cats staffer came in and actually squeegeed the floor in the press box.
“This is like trying to watch a game in a submarine,” my colleague from the Edmonton Sun, Gerry Moddejonge said.
Whenever the rain seemed to let up — there was talk of the storm being off of the radar at halftime — it always came back, always determined to test everyone’s patience. The worst of the weather came in the final two minutes of the game, with the rain rattling off of the roof of the tent, blurring whatever we tried to see outside. I saw the game, but I feel like I need to actually sit down and watch it again on TV to see everything that happened.
As challenging as it was to work through something like that (I don’t want to think about what it might be like in Guelph in October or November), Sunday’s weather made for the most unusual experience I’ve had covering the Eskimos. After the game, the trailer that made up the Eskimos locker-room was a hub of positive energy from a group of players that bore the brunt of a foul day, from a weather standpoint. Winning cancels out a lot of negatives.
And, in turn, it makes for an uber-quotable group of players. Hugh Charles, who rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns, supplied this gem after the game when talking about how he recovered from a fumble while returning the game’s opening kickoff.
“My motto is, ‘Through each adversity lies a greater benefit.’ That’s what I’ve told myself since high school,” he said. “I learned it from my mom and this game is too long to dwell on something negative, just like a quarterback with an interception. Those kinds of things, you’ve got to clear out your mind, knowing there’s a full half, another three quarters, whatever it may be, to redeem yourself. Coaches have confidence in me and I’ve been around long enough to know.”
Charles went on to talk about his mom, Wendi, as his inspiration in sports.
“I have two great parents. My mom was the sporty one and my dad, he was working and he’s happy with me doing whatever I need to do,” he said. “My mom, she had a lot of words of wisdom and that’s one of the things she preached to me.”
Most CFL Thing Ever nominee: Greg Wojt
In being dealt to the Tiger-Cats in February, offensive lineman Greg Wojt got a chance to get back to his roots. Born in Poland but raised in Mississauga, Wojt is closer to home now, playing in Hamilton.
He’s also in a unique living situation. Wojt lives in Toronto, splitting a place with Argonauts offensive lineman Joe Eppele.
“We were friends before,” Wojt said. “In the CFL, you get guys in town for six months and they go back home for another six months. That’s kind of what I was doing in Edmonton and that’s the situation that Joe is in with the Argos.
“His roommate moved away and I said, ‘Hey, perfect, I need a roommate for six months.’ Initially I thought I had to go back to Edmonton and I thought this was a great stay for six months and then the trade happened. Now it’s a 30-minute trip down the QEW to get to Hamilton, so I figured it’d actually be nice to have a place to live in for a full year instead of having to move around for six months at a time.”
The odd-couple roomies got the awkwardness out of the way in Week 1, as the Argos hosted the Ti-Cats. Wojt said he’d heard of Hamilton and Toronto players living together before, but said that it is pretty rare.
“We’ve talked about it,” Wojt said. “I don’t think it’d happen in any other league than the CFL.”
Week-end winners
Game of the week: Hamilton vs. Edmonton
Fully admitting my bias on this pick because I was there, but the weather at this game made it one that if you were there or you had a vested interest in either team and you were watching it at home, you’ll never forget it. Estimates of the rainfall are around the 40 mm mark, which is a tremendous amount of water over a few hours. The rain essentially turned the entire game on its head, giving every play enormous potential for a mishap (and also made for a photographer’s dream). A less-than-stellar offering from the other three games this week paved the way for the rain to steal the show. If Calgary could have kept it together in the second half against Saskatchewan, that game may have forced its way into the conversation.
Winning players
Offence: Korey Sheets, Sask. – Proved that he wasn’t just cashing in against a defence on an off day in Week 1 with an almost identical performance a week later against Calgary. Sheets is clearly the focus of the Riders’ offence, taking 26 carries and turning them into 133 yards and a touchdown in Saskatchewan’s impressive win over the Stampeders. Have fun with him next week, Toronto.
Defence: Winnipeg Blue Bombers defence – They sacked Anthony Calvillo seven times! The Bombers showed a lot of heart in their past two games, narrowly losing to Montreal in the league’s kickoff game and then bouncing back for a surprising win over the Als in Montreal. Specific props to Winnipeg DT Bryant Turner for his three-sack effort in the slow-paced, low scoring win.
Special teams: Edmonton Eskimos coverage unit – You might see this as a cop-out selection, but consider that all that Lindsey Lamar had known before Sunday was scoring return touchdowns in the games he played. Sure, two of those were preseason games, but the Eskimos are still the first team in the CFL to keep Lamar out of the end zone (assist on that goal to the rain, which Lamar said obstructed his vision on returns on Sunday).
“I think the weather conditions might have had a little bit to do with that but it’s true, we have demons all over the field,” Eskimos long-snapper Ryan King said of the job the Eskimos did on Lamar. “We have guys that have really bought into the special teams unit and that’s what we do on the team and we’re very proud of it. We look forward to going out and stopping guys like this, the Chris Williams’ and the Chad Owens’ of the league, we like the challenge and we look froward to it.”
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For more on the King brothers’ first game against one another, check the story I wrote on Saturday.
Up next: The Eskimos got back into Edmonton early on Monday morning. They’ll host the B.C. Lions on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. MT at Commonwealth Stadium.
