He proved he can win the big game. Now Henry Burris has the chance to show he can win the biggest one of all.
The talented quarterback exorcised his playoff demons Saturday when he led the Calgary Stampeders past the B.C. Lions 22-18 in the West Division final. The win ended talk that Burris couldn't lead the Stamps to a big win after the team was bounced from the opening round of the CFL post-season in the three previous seasons.
But Burris says the monkey isn't completely off his back. Only hoisting the Grey Cup trophy above his head can effectively do that.
"To me, that's the true respect that you can earn by winning a championship," Burris said. "There's nothing better than that.
"To beat a Montreal team in its home town, a great team that showed its true colours by coming out and playing a great game against Edmonton, that's going to be tough. But if there is a group of guys I feel comfortable with it's the guys in our locker-room."
Calgary will face the Montreal Alouettes in the CFL championship game next Sunday (TSN, 6 p.m. ET) at Olympic Stadium after the Als dispatched the Edmonton Eskimos 36-26 in the East Division final.
Burris and Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo were already destined to meet during Grey Cup week as finalists for the CFL's outstanding player award. Calvillo was second among league quarterbacks with 5,633 yards passing with a league- and career-high 43 TD passes. Burris was third in passing (5,094) and second in touchdown passes (39) but each was a career high.
Montreal will definitely have home-field advantage for the game -- for the first time since '79 -- but also the pressure that comes with being the hometown team with a championship on the line. The Alouettes will attempt to become the first team since the '94 B.C. Lions to win the Grey Cup as the host city.
"It means to me that we're going to have our fans to help us, which is huge," said Ben Cahoon, Montreal's all-star slotback. "They played a big part (in East Final).
"They were loud when they needed to be loud and they were quiet when we had the ball. Hopefully, we can have a bunch of Montreal Alouettes fans in the stands and they can do the same next week."
Montreal will also be looking to buck its dubious Grey Cup past. This will mark the Alouettes' sixth appearance in the CFL title game since 2000 but the club has just one victory (2002 over Edmonton) to show for it.
Calgary will make its first Grey Cup appearance since upsetting Winnipeg in the 2001 CFL final.
But Calgary head coach John Hufnagel wasted little time beginning his Grey Cup preparation. On Sunday, he and the players gathered to begin talking together about what lies ahead for them.
"In our meeting that we just had, players who have been involved in Grey Cups stood up and talked to the team about what to be expecting and their past experiences, what was good about it, what wasn't good about it," he said. "You can always derive information from those type of things.
"You want to try and obtain as much information from all sources and probably the best source is experiences from the players that are in that locker room."
But the Burris-Calvillo matchup, along with the two clubs' previous Grey Cup history are just two of many interesting storylines heading into next weekend's game. For example:
-- Hufnagel and Montreal's Marc Trestman are both first-year CFL head coaches.
-- Calgary and Montreal were both the class of their respective divisions. The Stampeders were atop the West Division with a league-best 13-5 record while the Als were first in the East at 11-7.
-- Montreal and Calgary boast the CFL's top offences. The Als were first in scoring (32.4 per game), total yards (429 per game), passes made (495), tried (712) and fewest sacks (22). The Stamps were second in scoring (31.6), total yards (412), yards rushing (135 per game), average per rush (6.4 yards) and fewest interceptions (14). They also have the league's top receiver in Ken-Yon Rambo (100 catches, 1,473 yards, eight TDs) and leading rusher in Joffrey Reynolds (1,310 yards). Montreal slotback Ben Cahoon had a league-best 107 receptions and is a finalist for the league's top Canadian award.
-- Calgary and Montreal were the CFL's stingiest defences. The Stamps allowed a league-low 21.5 points per game while the Als were second, giving up 23.5 points. Calgary held B.C. to no TDs and six field goals in the West final while Montreal forced three turnovers and had two sacks in holding Edmonton's offence to 319 total yards (82 yards below its season average) in the East final.
-- Calgary kicker Sandro DeAngelis led the CFL in scoring with 217 points, 17 points ahead of runner-up Damon Duval of Montreal, who missed the Als' regular-season finale with kidney stones.
-- Jim Barker, Calgary's senior vice-president of football operations and director of player personnel, was an offensive co-ordinator with Montreal when the Als captured the '02 Grey Cup.
-- Calgary defensive co-ordinator Chris Jones spent seven years as an assistant with Montreal -- including five as the club's defensive co-ordinator -- before signing with the Stampeders after the '07 season.
But it's Calvillo who has been one of the CFL's top feel-good stories this season. Late last year, he left the Alouettes after his wife was diagnosed with cancer.
Fortunately, Calvillo's wife responded well to treatment, allowing him to resume playing football. And he returned with a vengeance, efficiently leading quick-release offence, all the while gaining a new perspective of both his and the team's accomplishments.
"People said it would be difficult to get there (to Grey Cup) and it was," Calvillo said. "Now they're going to say it'll be difficult to win and it will be difficult.
"But we have the talent in this room to beat any team in this league."
Stampeders linebacker Jojuan Armour, who played in the '04 Grey Cup with a B.C team that lost to Toronto, said getting to Calvillo will be a key for Calgary's defence.
"The thing about A.C. is he's a seasoned veteran," Armour said. "We're going to try to make him run a little bit, make him move around the pocket, just make him as uncomfortable as possible.
"I love the fact that we're playing Montreal in Montreal in front of their fans, at their place. That's the same thing that we've faced all year. Every time that we're faced with adversity, we step up. We don't plan on things changing."
