Steve Milton: Tiger-Cats and Blue Bombers launch Grey Cup Week at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats addressed the national media at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum Tuesday afternoon and just like that, the 108th Grey Cup week began.
The two opposing teams in Sunday's Grey Cup made their first official appearances of the week at the museum because the Bombers' flight from Winnipeg had just landed at the Hamilton International Airport.
And what a week this is for Gen THF.
That would be the Tim Hortons Field Generation, the five Hamilton Tiger-Cats who've been with the team ever since it moved into the city's new but still unfinished stadium on Labour Day, 2014.
Defensive tackle Ted Laurent, linebacker Simoni Lawrence, wide receiver Brandon Banks, quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and safety Mike Daly.
The patient quintet have finally got a Grey Cup game at the boisterous crucible they've called home, and their own team happens to be in it with three of them - Banks, Lawrence and Laurent - starting. Lawrence, Banks and Masoli are in their fourth Grey Cup for the Ticats, but still searching for their first trophy hoist.
It's a lot more calm feeling," Lawrence said Tuesday, echoing head coach Orlondo Steinauer's observations on not facing the sudden frenzy of arranging Grey Cup travel and accommodations for friends and family, then make the often-long trip as a team.
Everything felt kinda normal. We woke up, got to got to work at Tim Hortons Field. I'm enjoying the fans, and how hyped they are about this, on Tim Hortons Field."
It's particularly gratifying for Banks, the league's most outstanding player in 2019 when the Ticats set a franchise record for wins with 16 overall but lost the Grey Cup in Calgary to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who are also the opposition this time around.
Banks missed four games with injury and in many others was playing with rib pain that made him wince on every play. After scoring 24 touchdowns over the previous two years, he didn't score his first major until the third-last game of the regular season. He wasn't getting open as often or as cleanly as in the past and when he was, quarterbacks weren't finding him enough.
But Banks was contributing in a number of other areas: attracting extra defenders with his well-executed pattern to clear space for others; he brought a professional hard work attitude to every practice; and worked on with new CFL receivers Tim White and Steven Dunbar Jr., whom he's advised to not make the moment bigger than it is" in Grey Cup week.
It's a great gift," the 33-year-old Banks said of the Ticats at home for the Grey Cup. What better way to write a story? I'm older, obviously, so the window is getting really tight (to win a Cup) and I'll take advantage of this."
And he's been having a bigger impact recently with three touchdowns in the last five games, including one in the division semifinal that shook the stadium like an earthquake. And for the past six weeks he's generally contributed at least 60 yards in receptions. His savvy route adjustment in the East final rescued scrambling Dane Evans from a critically harmful sack.
It took a little longer with the injury," Banks said. And it didn't work out as well stats-wise but I' think I'm playing, obviously, my best ball of the season."
Already near-delirious with the hometown team in the hometown Cup, Ticat Nation has to love his sense of timing.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com