“The time when there is no one there to feel sorry for you or to cheer for you is when a player is made”- Tim Duncan
Everybody loves a feel good sports story or movie. Miracle, Moneyball, The Rocket and Rocky are some of the best sports movies around and they all leave the viewer feeling good about the team or athlete that climbed out of the depths of despair to claim that elusive title, or win that important game.
This season, a year a real-life feel good sports team has been writing an unbelievable script right under our noses in the Canadian Football League, by the name of the Ottawa Redblacks. The Redblacks played their first game in the league just 18 months ago and after a 2-16 inaugural season, the Redblacks had nobody cheering for them and well, nobody felt sorry for them either, considering that they knew what was coming to them as an expansion team.
That’s when the team was “made”, in the words of the great NBA superstar, Tim Duncan.
The Season That Was
An off-season beautifully crafted by general manager Marcel Desjardins has led the Redblacks all the way to the 103rd Grey Cup to face the Edmonton Eskimos. The team acquired receivers Maurice Price, Greg Ellingson, Ernest Jackson, Brad Sinopoli and Ernest Jackson and gave veteran quarterback Henry Burris the tools to craft an high-octane offence.
The Redblacks finished the season with the number-one ranked offence and number-two defence, in average yards per game. They set records for time of possession and controlled their opponents on the field in every aspect of play. That isn’t even the best part of this feel good sports team.
After a 5-4 record at their week ten bye week, the Redblacks exploded the rest of the way, finishing the season 7-2, with their only losses coming by way of the the Toronto Argonauts. They finished the season on a four-game win streak, including back-to-back victories against the 2013 and 2014 East Division Champions, Hamilton Tiger-Cats. They failed to score more than 25 points only once over that nine game span, and that was in a windy 12-6 win in Steeltown.
Burris spread the ball around to their off-season acquisitions, with all of them hitting the 1000-yard mark, with the exception of Price. These receivers were the key to the Redblacks victory over the Ti-Cats in the East Final last Sunday, 35-28.
“The Play”
With no passing touchdowns thrown by Burris through the fourth quarter and with Hamilton holding momentum after a furious comeback to tie the game at 28, the Redblacks produced “The Play” that might go down with Jose Bautista’s bat-flip home run as the play of the year in Canada.
With under two minutes to go, Burris nearly threw the game away but was saved when Arnaud Gascon-Nadon dropped the interception to end the game. J’Michael Deane received a 15-yard penalty for a chop block on the same play on Ted Laurent and set the Redblacks back to their 17-yard line.
With 1:11 left, Burris handled a high snap to perfection, called his own play and bombed the ball downfield to a wide open Ellingson, who stiff-armed his defender and finished off the 93-yard play with a game-winning touchdown.
TD Place and the city of Ottawa was sent in a frenzy. The rest of Canada watched in shock as this sophomore team clinched their birth in the country’s most prestigious football game of the year.
Twitter also exploded with talk about The Catch, including some of the reactions from the media below.
Cfl
— James Duthie (@tsnjamesduthie) November 22, 2015
Oh. My. GOD. #Redblacks #CFL #TSN — Kate McKenna (@_KateMcKenna) November 22, 2015
Not sure I’ll ever have a bigger call than this. Burris to Ellingson to send Ottawa to the Grey Cup. #RNation https://t.co/q2iV3vTpOY
— AJ Jakubec (@AJonSports) November 22, 2015
Move over Tony Gabriel. You’ve got company. — Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) November 22, 2015
To not have chills while watching his touchdown, you have to be cold-hearted, or a Ti-Cats fan. Although this team will never have a movie in Hollywood, this is the feel good sports team of the year that featured storylines that Hollywood writers couldn’t even write.
Let’s see if the Redblacks could finish off the Cinderella story next Sunday in Winnipeg.
Main Photo.
