Grey Cup has human face; Super Bowl does not

• Published in: CanWest News p. 1
• Main Author: Willes, Ed
• Format: Newsletter
• Language: English
• Published: Don Mills, Ont Postmedia Network Inc 18.11.2004
• Subjects: OTTAWA

OTTAWA - The question concerning the difference between Grey Cup week and Super Bowl week has been posed a number of times but, to really understand the two solitudes of professional football, we refer you to the Dominion final played in Montreal two years ago. It is customary, during Grey Cup week, for the football reporters to host a hospitality suite and, generally, the suite is thrown open to civilians. As luck would have it, four members of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats were in Montreal to celebrate the national final that year. Grey Cup week, more than anything, is a wondrous, intoxicated celebration of everything which the CFL is and, by extension, the NFL is not. In '98, TorontoArgonauts head coach Pinball Clemons, then one of the league's best players, attended the week in Winnipeg and could be found sitting in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza hotel by the hour, entertaining football folk and fans alike. Clemons is in Ottawa in a different capacity this week but, before he left Toronto, he hugged a TSN reporter goodbye.