Sharon Higgins
CFL.ca

The feeling is totally indescribable when the gun goes to end the final playoff game and you realize that you, yes you, and your team are about to participate in the greatest game of the football season.

The euphoric celebration begins when you and thousands of your comrades cheer, dance, scream for joy and rapidly talk through plans about how to make it to the Grey Cup game. Your mind is completely jumbled with chaos: a word you will live many times during the course of the upcoming week.

It’s important to first celebrate the victory. After all, capturing the Eastern or Western Division Championship is quite an accomplishment. Quickly though, it has to be left behind to focus on the new task at hand… planning, preparing and playing in the Grey Cup.

Your mind is completely jumbled with excitement for the week ahead, but also cluttered with many unanswered questions. The next few days become a flurry of activity as wives pack up their husbands, make arrangements for kids and pets staying at home and also coordinate with other wives, the logistics of when and how they are leaving. The chaos continues.

One of the first hurdles occurs at the players’ meeting following the final playoff game.  Information is shared with respect to available complimentary tickets, extra tickets for purchase, transportation costs and location of hotels provided by the club for families, number of rooms set aside, events necessary to attend… and this is just the start.

The players then scurry to pass this information on to their awaiting wives and families at home. This is the first hint that it is much more than just a game.  Instantly they feel the pressure to accommodate the people who are coming to support them. They have just been launched into the travel industry! 

It seems obvious that the coaches’ immediate interest has to be figuring out the game plan to defeat the upcoming opponent. A week full of obstacles and distractions looms ahead, so it’s of utmost importance to keep the players as focused as possible throughout. 

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy with the many procedures and protocols which must to be adhered to.  The CFL provides a manual outlining every ounce of information necessary for the week ahead.  It’s a play book in itself!

The manual is sent several weeks in advance so teams can familiarize themselves with what might possibly lay ahead.  Tom would always tell me when “it” arrived.  He would ask if I wanted to know what hotel we would be staying at or when certain events were happening. “Hell no” was always my standard reply, although secretly I was dying to know.  I was always fearful of the evil curse of knowing too much before we knew we were going.

The team departs from their home city on Tuesday.  It’s sheer exhilaration to arrive at the airport in the Grey Cup city.  You are met with a media blitz of reporters and camera flashes and sometimes even the sound of a band greets you.   The effect is similar to what you would imagine a paparazzi ambush to feel like. The team is ushered quickly through the gaggle of fans and whisked away on the team busses, which will be used for their sole occupation all week. 

The first big meeting takes place on Tuesday night when team management and head coaches convene with CFL personnel. All aspects of the week are laid out with respect to logistics and time management, including practice times and sideline security, as well as the length of the half time show. Other items of interest would be which locker rooms each team will occupy, the home or away jersey they will wear, how the Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian will be awarded, planned presentation of the Grey Cup, as well as the many media interviews the team will be expected to participate in. The organization for only a few days and a couple of teams is mind boggling.

For the most part, the teams know they are expected to prepare and play a football game but it is sometimes hard to keep that the focal point as interviews and commitments for public events get jammed into their schedules. There will be a media breakfast or lunch for each team at different times, many pre or post practice individual interviews, player awards and private functions to attend, such as the Athletes in Action breakfast. 

By the end of the week, families start arriving just in time to fully participate in the social phase of the Grey Cup.  Often clubs will arrange for a team get together, sometimes before the game, but always after.  There are often several hundred in attendance as families are brought together for such a special time.

There is not much time for coaches and players to participate in the many public events put on by Grey Cup committee. However most of them try to sneak out and partake in a glass of grog, meet up with friends and enjoy just a tad of merriment along the way.  It is truly a party for them and it would be a shame to not enjoy it.

All too quickly game day arrives and the families’ attention is on the practicalities of transportation to the game, seat location and more often than not, how to stay warm, unless of course it’s an indoor game.

The mammoth chaos of the week sidelines itself for all involved once the game begins. 

I wouldn’t hesitate to say that those who have walked this path and those who would wish to walk this path, would all agree this past week of intrinsic chaos is welcome!