The Grey Cup

We’re going to miss the Grey Cup this year. I’ve watched the Grey Cup every year since I can remember. Being a Hamilton Tiger-Cat fan, one is pretty confident of enjoying a Grey Cup victory every 7 to 10 years. A long time to wait, but far from being a futile endeavor. The most enjoyable Grey Cup I can recall was the Tiger Cat victory in 1999. I was in law school and was invited to my good friend David’s Grey Cup party. It was just the two of us and we probably should have been finishing our work, but there was Sleeman to drink and it was just going to go bad without our attention. Hamilton won that year thanks in no small part to our heroic consumption of Sleemans. That particular Grey Cup was the perfect combination of pizza, beer and victory.

Another memorable Grey Cup event took place last year and will be forever known as The Great Chili Ambush. As everyone knows, Chili is a Grey Cup necessity. Admittedly, while a student, Chili didn’t play a large role in Grey Cup festivities because no one we knew owned a pot big enough to make Chili. But, regrettably in this instance, one of our father’s did own such a pot and he made authentic Texas Style Chili. You know the kind – uses cubes of beef not ground beef. And not a tomato to be found in the sauce - just a careful blend of spices and slow cooking. To make a long story short, the Chili Assassin spiced the Chili that day to dangerous proportions. No amount of sour crème or cheese could blunt its effects. Although I could appreciate its depth of flavour, some others thought it was overdone. Regardless, I hope the Chili Assassin is back at it again this year.

Alas, no one has invited us to a Grey Cup party this year. The game won’t even start until 11:30pm here and is watchable only if you get the proper channel. Notwithstanding this cruel turn of events, I’ll be thinking of Chili, and Sleeman, the Tiger-Cats, the giant jar of bottle caps on Dave’s coffee table and of Grey Cups past. Hopefully, there will be snow in the air in Winnipeg and for one night most of the TV sets in Canada will be tuned to the CBC.

Just for the record – BC 41; Montreal 37.

PS – Anyone (Stephen) who would have any kind of ceremony, say by way of example an induction ceremony (his induction ceremony), at a time (4:00 pm) that would prevent others from enjoying the Grey Cup (Grey Cup Sunday) should be dragged into the street and shot. I mean really … it’s the Grey freakin’ Cup.