WINNIPEG — Relievedly, I point out to you, the valued reader, that the Grey Cup’s mass interview session is not even remotely comparable to the media maelstrom that precedes every Super Bowl.
Nary a “reporter” arrived at Winnipeg’s RBC Convention Centre in a wedding dress.
Nobody asked: “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” (Some poor sap actually posed that, er, question to Washington defensive lineman Dexter Manley in the 1980s. I pine for those days.)
The CFL’s Media Day was, as I spluttered to a much-younger (who isn’t?) CFL employee near the end of the two-hour storytelling smorgasbord, “a gas.”
He looked at me quizzically: “Is that a good thing?” (I mean, look at the price of gas these days!)
I quickly realized that the term was dated — unlike me throughout the 1980s — so I hastened to provide clarification.
“It was amazing … great … nice … awesome … a … a … a gas!”
He wasn’t aghast, so all ended well. But here is how it began:
Wednesday, 11:58 a.m.: Ahead of the noon kickoff to Media Day, I enjoy a wonderful conversation with Jeff McWhinney — the keeper of the Cup. Chatting with TSN’s Claire Hanna and yours truly, Jeff tells a story about emergency repairs to the trophy that were performed one day before the 2022 Grey Cup Game was played in Regina. Jeff also speaks of his friendship with the late, great Jim Hopson and his wonderful wife, Brenda. As well, Jeff lets me zoom in with my iPhone camera and take a picture of the “1966 Roughriders” plate on the trophy. Sweet.
12 noon: Six representatives of the Roughriders — Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager Jeremy O’Day, Head Coach Corey Mace, quarterback Trevor Harris, receivers Samuel Emilus and Dohnte Meyers and defensive tackle Micah Johnson — and six members of the Montreal Alouettes sit at different tables, poised to field any and all questions. Ready, set …
12:01 p.m. “Everyone,” Roughriders Communications Intern Amelie Sarauer observes, “is walking toward Trevor.” I soon ask him about (wait for it) Media Day! “It kind of builds anticipation for the game,” Harris tells this impartial observer, who just happens to be wearing a Roughriders cap, Roughriders jacket, Roughriders shirt, etc., to go with a green complexion. “For a number of years, you watch the guys do this and you’re like, ‘It should be us.’ You hear guys talk and you wish you were in that moment. Then you get here and you’re like, ‘I don’t want to do media. I just want to practise. I want to play. I just want to prepare.’ But these are the moments you never get back and when you’re done — which is in the blink of an eye — it’s something that you’ll look back on and you’ll appreciate, so I’m grateful to be in this spot.”
12:18 p.m.: I approach Meyers, who greets me with a warm handshake. He will be featured very shortly on a Roughriders-centric team website near you. I marvel at how accessible and amiable the principal players are, only four days before the Roughriders and Alouettes collide with a championship at stake. “Honestly, I like the media,” Meyers says. “I don’t have an indifference to the media, because all you guys that we deal with are nice. There’s a relationship and it’s not taxing every day, with an hour or two hours of media. I know today is the most media we’ll do all year, but it’s because of the hard work we put in to earn that right and the privilege to tell our story.”
12:35 p.m.: O’Day typically cedes the spotlight to Mace and the players, but it is important to underline the crucial contributions of someone who has been a Roughrider since 1999. O’Day was not yet 25 when he joined the Green and White as a free-agent offensive lineman. This is his fifth Grey Cup in green garb. “It means the world,” he says. “I’ve been a Roughrider more than half my life.”
12:44 p.m.: Over to Johnson, who has just been visited by a media crew that showed him highlights from Mace’s playing days, plus a childhood photo of a current teammate. Cue a classic “me being me” moment. For some reason, I thought Micah said “A.J. Alouette.” You mean, A.J. Allen? “No,” Johnson responded with understandable bewilderment, “A.J. Ouellette.” To which I replied: “Who’s A.J. Alouette?” The opposing team’s mascot, maybe? At that point, the five-time All-CFL defensive tackle has two options. (1) Call security. (2) Explain it in even simpler terms, if that is possible. Then, suddenly, it kicks in and the four remaining brain cells return to life after decades of dormancy “Ohhhhh!” I exclaim, “A.J. OUELLETTE!” Micah, bless his heart, finds it hilarious. I was embarrassed. “It’s all good, bro,” he says with a smile. “It’s been a long week.” I revere this man.
12:55 p.m.: I professionally eavesdrop on a conversation between two other members of the media. “I love covering the CFL,” one of them says, “because you have access to anyone, anytime, anywhere.”
12:59 p.m.: Part 1 of Media Day is nearly finished. When I arrive at Coach Mace’s booth, he is responding to a question about the status of KeeSean Johnson. The All-CFL receiver has missed the past three games, including the Western Final, with a knee injury. “He’s very close,” Mace notes — two hours, as it turns out, before Johnson’s return to the practice field. That, you should know, is the news of the day. And it only took 851 words to get here. Remedial journalism school is a wonderful thing.
1 p.m.: Time for Part 2. O’Day, Mace, et al, leave the convention room. Next up: Two players named A.J. — Allen (linebacker) and Ouellette (running back) — so I am perilously prone to becoming a gormless mess once again. The select Saskatchewan sextet also includes cornerback Tevaughn Campbell, defensive halfback Rolan Milligan Jr., offensive tackle Jermarcus Hardrick and linebacker Jameer Thurman. Reporters of various affiliations approach different stations. My mission for Part 2 is to hear the backstory of Milligan Jr., who as a human being is even more exemplary than the on-field version, for a future story. We chat for nine minutes. During that time, I advise him that a fellow University of Toledo alumnus — Dave Ridgway — kicked the game-winning field goal for Saskatchewan in the 1989 Grey Cup. Will Toledo tip the scales in the Roughriders’ favour once again?
1:04 p.m.: The Alouettes’ Tyson Philpot, who caught the Grey Cup-winning TD pass in 2023, is being interviewed as I stroll by. “I want it to be, ‘No time on the clock. You look at me. I want that matchup,’ ” Philpot states as I surreptitiously scribble. I point this out simply for the purpose of noting that Philpot’s father, Cory, was on the Roughriders’ practice roster from Sept. 23 to Oct. 6, 1998. One of Cory Philpot’s teammates was Jeremy O’Day.
1:19 p.m.: The same TSN tandem that visited Johnson is now showing the Mace highlight footage to Allen, who provides narration. “Chase him down … strip-sack … pose for the camera, man! You know it’s something to celebrate.” The overall appraisal of Mace is effusive. “I love it!” Allen says. “That is a good nose tackle right there!”
1:24 p.m.: When it is my turn to yak with Allen, he lights up the notepad, as always. “I never would have dreamed of this,” he says. “Here I am. I’m at the Grey Cup. I used to watch this on the couch with my friends. Now my friends will be watching me on the couch. That’s sick.” (He means “sick” in a good way, much like “a gas” is, well, “a gas”!)
1:29 p.m.: Hello there, Yoshi. The always-quotable Hardrick — the West Division’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman — is entertaining a handful of reporters. He knows the drill, having previously played in the 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 Grey Cup Games as a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. “The first couple of times, I didn’t really know what was going on,” he recalls. “I was a little starstruck. I’m a CFL fan so, the people I’m seeing, I’m seeing them all over the Internet, on TSN, and all this, so it was pretty cool. Now it’s more like a business but, after the season when you look back on it, it’s pretty cool.”
1:43 p.m.: After a lengthy chat with Hardrick, I thank him profusely, make a sharp right turn, and trip over a light stand. Even if someone does show up in a wedding dress and asks the dreaded “tree” question, my goofiness for the day is unsurpassable. For some reason, I am not too ashamed to report this.
1:51 p.m.: Campbell, a former football and track star at the University of Regina, is familiar with Winnipeg for reasons that do not pertain strictly to the CFL. He has sprinted here for the U of R Cougars. As a U of R Ram, he opposed the University of Manitoba Bisons — whose locker room at 12-year-old Princess Auto Stadium belongs to the Roughriders this week. “It’s funny,” Campbell says, “because I’ve seen (Bisons alumnus) Kienan LaFrance’s poster up there on the wall. I played against Kienan, and with Kienan in Sask. I remember when the stadium was built. We got to play in it all the time.”
1:52 p.m.: Closing time approaches. Fittingly my final stop is at A.J. Ouellette’s booth. I wisely avoid telling him about, you know, The Incident. As I arrive, he is looking at pictures of eight-year-old A.J., shown to him by TSN. “I look like an O-lineman at that time,” Ouellette says. “I had some chubby cheeks.” One of the most fan-friendly players I have ever met, Ouellette also welcomes the steady stream of questioners on Media Day. “I love the hype,” he says. “Anytime the CFL can be broadcast and talked about, it’s exciting.”
2 p.m.: Media Day is over. I have everything I need … and then some! Oh. Cancel that. Hold on. Is anyone still here? I forgot to ask: “If you were a tree …”