On Friday night, one of the greatest rivalries between two cities in North America will add a chapter to its long book of hatred as the Argos visit the Als at Percival Molson Stadium, right in the heart of downtown Montreal.
The Montreal-Toronto rivalry is right up there with New York-Boston and Detroit-Chicago as one of the best inter-municipal rivalries in everything, from sports to politics. Montreal speaks French (well, many in the city do), Toronto speaks English. Montreal is the biggest city in Quebec, Toronto is the biggest city in Ontario. The list of differences certainly outweighs the similarities.
As is usual with such rivalries, there is always some degree of animosity, even if the players aren’t saying so in the build-up to the game. Friday night, however, is different. It has a potent twist: all-starplayer Shea Emry did the unthinkable. He switched sides, from Montreal to Toronto.
The linebacker was selected by the Montreal club in the 2008 CFL Draft, at 7th overall out of Eastern Washington University. The Richmond, British Columbia native was mainly used as a special teams player in his first season but did make four defensive tackles to go along with his 21 special teams tackles.
In 2009 and 2010 he made over 50 tackles in each season, 52 and 58 respectively, a total complemented by his first two career sacks in 2009 and another in 2010. That year also saw his firs interception. 2011 was a slower yea, with only 16 tackles and one fumble recovery.
However, 2012 was his career year. His 87 tackles were good enough for 5th in the league, behind perennial defensive warriors J.C. Sherritt and Adam Bighill. His seven sack put him 5th in the league, again behind Bighill and other defensive superstar, Keron Williams, Alex Hall and Charleston Hughes. He had seven special teams tackles, an interception that he returned 47 yards for a major, and even a fumble recovery on the year.
Emry was a CFL All-Star that season, and was runner-up for Outstanding Defensive Player of the Year, falling short to Sherritt. He was also just behind Jon Cornish for Most Outstanding Canadian.
Last season, Emry didn’t perform up to his hype from the year before, finishing with only about half the tackles at 44 and just three sacks. He was better with air coverage, though, stealing two passes (on top of only two career interceptions heading into the season), and he recovered one fumbl.
The six-foot, 228-lb Canadian was a keystone in a quickly developing Alouettes defence, which featured 2013 Outstanding Defensive Player Chip Cox, Kyries Hebert, Marc-Olivier Brouillette, John Bowman and Alan-Michael Cash. They also have a wealth of up-and-coming youngsters in Brouillette, Mike Edem, Ed Gainey and Bear Woods. This year, the defense seems to be the only thing going for their team as the offense is weak and out of sync. But now, without Shea Emry, they lost a huge piece in their linebacking core, let alone the whole defensive unit.
To add salt to Montreal’s wound, Emry has been an Argos killer the past two seasons for his former team. In six games, Emry recorded 22 tackles for an average of 3.67 tackles/game with a high of eight on July 27, 2012. He also had two sacks and an interception, the aforementioned pick-six, the only one in his career. Ricky Ray is glad he’s on his side now–maybe Emry still picks him off in practice?
How much of a difference will Shea Emry make in this one, though? Having the most tackles of all the players on either side leads most to believe he will have an impact. Emry has 19 tackles, leading the Argos by one over Jalil Carter, while Kyries Hebert leads the Als with 18 tackles, one more than M.O. Brouillette. Emry is currently on pace for just shy of 70 tackles on the year, which would be his second best season, behind 2012.
After winning two Grey Cups in Montreal in 2009 and 2010, Shea Emry will return to his old stomping grounds for the first time since signing a three-year deal with rival Toronto in February. Will the nerves get to him, or will he excel with motivation to beat up on some of his former team mates on the opposite side of the ball? We shall see how it all plays out on Friday.
One thing is for certain though: Shea Emry will certainly give one more spark to an already intense rivalry.
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