Friday Thoughts: Grey Cup 102

The holy grail of Canadian football will be handed out on Sunday... though given that they grey Cup is not a fictional item and has not had a hilarious Monty Python movie written about it, maybe holy grail isn't the best term. Anywho, Ticats play the Stamps on Sunday for the championship. I won't go into full detail on the game but given that I fancy myself a CFL blogger I suppose I should make some effort to comment on the biggest game of the year.

Predictably I am cheering for the Ticats. What can I say? I hate the Stamps. With Bo Levi Mitchell as their QB over Tate, they are slightly more likable but not enough to overcome the deeply engrained hatred. Plus as someone who cheers for a team that has put us fans through a lot of misery and hell, I feel compelled to root for the fan base that has paid more dues. Hamilton has gone 15 years since its last Grey Cup and its not like those years were roses and sunshine. They were god awful for a lot of those years. The endured 1 win seasons, the Jason Maas experiment, the Casey Printers experiment, the Burris experiment, one of the worst plans ever to build a new stadium. They've been through the ringer. By contrast, the Stamps last won the Cup in '08 and while their steady string of regular season dominance and post season futility since its not enough misery to earn the sympathy of this grizzled heart.

Now who I'm cheering for is a completely different matter than who expect to win. The Stamps are pretty good on both sides of the ball and have shown solid depth all year long. The TiCats are no slouches and bring a good D but I really don't think they have the offensive fire power that the Stamps have. Can't expect Brandon Banks to win the game for them two weeks in a row. The Ti-Cats have really good run D (best in the CFL) so I don't expect Cornish to run all over them as some do. But the Stamps have a lot of ways to beat you offensively. Collaros can certainly put up passing yards but their ground game is far from a sure thing and they have a lot of solid receivers but no real game breakers. Hamilton needs to keep it close to have any chance in this one.

I'm hoping for the Ticats but expecting the Stamps.

As you enjoy the game be sure to get your votes in for Fans' Choice Douchebag of the Year. We already have 4 write in votes for Jon Cornish so he is very much alive in the race to three-peat.