Scott Radley: Mike Daly gets the call to play in the Grey Cup at ‘home’

He could lie and pretend he acted cool and kept things chill when head coach Orlondo Steinauer told him he would be playing on Sunday. Kept a straight face and reacted like it was just another day.

He could. But what's the point?

No, not at all," Mike Daly says. They knew right away that I was excited."

It wasn't just because it's the Grey Cup game, though that was certainly part of it. It wasn't solely because he played university football at McMaster and then joined the Tiger-Cats so Hamilton is basically home and the game is here. Yet that was absolutely part of it, too.

The biggest thing was that just a few weeks ago, he was scared he might not play again. At all.

It was back in the second game of the season that he tried to cover on a screen and smashed his head into a lineman. Things weren't too bad at the moment and he finished the game but the next day, his neck was bad. Then worse the day after that.

Turns out he'd injured a nerve in his neck. Which led to other problems.

Essentially, it stopped my arm from working at some point," he says.

That's not hyperbole. He's being literal. For weeks, he couldn't lift his right arm at more than a 45-degree angle from his body. As a guy who runs into people for a living, he's used to sprained ankles or twisted fingers or banged up knees. But those parts all work, they're just sore. This was different.

The medical staff worked on him but the injury forced him out of the next week's game. Then the game after. Then the one after that, the one after that and the one after that.

At a certain point he started to wonder how long this stupid thing was going to take to get better. And by extension, when he'd be able to get back on the field. And back to normal.

There definitely was a time there where I was nervous," he says.

By Game 9, things had taken a turn for the positive and he was back to his old self so he was inserted back into the lineup. Where he stayed until a week later when he re-aggravated it.

Now he was genuinely concerned.

That was probably the scariest part," he says. It's like, what the heck is actually going on?"

At that point, he wasn't thinking about what might happen if the Ticats made it to the Grey Cup and whether he'd be ready to play. That was too far off. He was only thinking about this injury because it was getting scary.

Didn't mean the idea of playing the biggest game of his life here was never a thought.

Daly is a Kitchener native who has adopted this city. He won a Vanier Cup with McMaster, joined the Ticats - he lived with a bunch of Marauder teammates in their house through his first two years of pro ball - and became part of this community.

On Friday night, he was named winner of the Tom Pate Award, given to a player with outstanding sportsmanship and someone who has made a significant contribution to his team, his community and association. While accepting the award, he expressed his appreciation for his adopted city.

It's pretty cool to be able to stand up there and say thanks to Hamilton for everything it gave me, whether it was at Mac or now with the Ticats," he says.

He's been around the team all through this recovery. For weeks he's been on the sidelines doing what he can to help the other defensive backs. But he's a player. Players want to play.

So when things started to feel better again a few weeks ago, he started to think about going back in. He didn't get the call but he was ready. After beating Toronto last weekend and advancing to the Grey Cup at home, he was really thinking about it.

On Tuesday, he finally got the thumbs up.

Once I got the news I was going to play, I mean, it was fantastic," he says. I was over the moon."

How did he celebrate?

Oh boy," he remembers thinking almost immediately. Now we're going to meetings. You've got to prep."

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com