GREY CUP NOTEBOOK

Grey Cup week in Regina kicked into high gear with Tuesday’s arrival of the CFL championship combatants.

The Toronto Argonauts touched down in Saskatchewan’s capital city an hour ahead of the two-time defending champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The Bombers will pursue a three-peat Sunday at Mosaic Stadium, while the Argos are looking for their first title since 2017.

Winnipeg linebacker Adam Bighill’s hands glittered with three Grey Cup rings. He won in 2021 and 2019 with the Blue Bombers and in 2011 with the B.C. Lions.

“It’s a reminder of why we’re here, how important this week is, how much hard work goes into these moments,” Bighill said at the Regina airport.

“Playoffs, I always wear these just because of that reminder all the time. There’s a lot that goes into getting one of these. It’s time to sacrifice everything you have in this week. The difficulties that lie within it, you’ve got to make it work for you.”

The last team to win three in a row was Edmonton during a run of five straight from 1978 to 1982.

“I think we’re an underdog, any time you’re playing the back to back Grey Cup champs right?” Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie said. “To be the best you’ve got to beat the best. The pressure is on them, not really necessarily on us.”

Regina is a Grey Cup host city for the fourth time since 1995, but it’s the first time at the new Mosaic Stadium that opened in 2017.

Regina was to host in 2020, but that season was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sunday’s game will be the earliest Grey Cup since 2006 when Winnipeg hosted Nov. 19. The forecast is for a mix of cloud and sun and a high of minus-5 C.

Snow is predicted for Wednesday to Friday. While an indoor facility is available to both teams, the Argos and Bombers intend to practise outside.

“We’ve got to get acclimated to the weather,” Dinwiddie said.

The host Saskatchewan Roughriders and CFL jointly announced a sellout back on Sept. 28, which would put more than 33,000 people in the stadium Sunday.

The CFL announced earlier this month that three country music artists – Jordan Davis, Tyler Hubbard and Josh Ross – will collaborate in the halftime show.

Winnipeg (15-3) is the betting favourite over Toronto (11-7) and will likely have more fan support thanks to travellers from neighbouring Manitoba.

A CFL team on the verge of the first three-peat in 40 years is just one subplot of the 109th Grey Cup.

The state of Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros’s right ankle is another.

The West Division nominee for Most Outstanding Player twisted the ankle late in Sunday’s division final victory over the Lions and was seen limping slightly at the end of the game.

Collaros, who didn’t speak to media at the airport, grabbed the railing while walking down the stairs from the plane, but wasn’t limping as he collected his suitcases.

“I think he’ll be good,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea told reporters. “You’re not going to get much more than that. It’s that time of year.”

Zach Collaros of the Grey Cup-bound Winnipeg Blue Bombers headlines the CFL’s 2022 all-star team.

The 27-player all-star roster was released Tuesday by the CFL in advance of the league championship this Sunday in Regina.

Collaros had a league-leading 37 touchdown passes and was second with 4,183 passing yards this season. The reigning CFL outstanding player is a finalist for this year’s award.

He was one of six Winnipeg players honoured as the Blue Bombers try for a third straight Grey Cup victory. One of his favourite targets, receiver Dalton Schoen, was also named after posting 1,441 yards and 16 touchdowns in his rookie season.

The Calgary Stampeders, who lost to B.C. in the West Division semifinal, had a league-high eight players named to the team, including league-leading rusher Ka’Deem Carey (1,088 yards) and kicker Rene Paredes.

Paredes, from Pierrefonds, Que., was named a CFL all-star for the fifth time after hitting 90 per cent of his field goals (54-for-60).

The Toronto Argonauts, who will meet Winnipeg in the Grey Cup, had three representatives, tied with Hamilton for most in the East Division.

Six Canadians were named to the team: Paredes, Toronto receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr., Calgary centre Sean McEwen, Hamilton guard Brandon Revenberg, Winnipeg guard Patrick Neufeld and Calgary linebacker Cameron Judge.

2022 CFL ALL-STARS

OFFENCE – Quarterback Zach Collaros (Winnipeg); running back Ka’Deem Carey (Calgary); receiver Dalton Schoen (Winnipeg); receiver Eugene Lewis (Montreal); receiver Dominique Rhymes (B.C.); receiver Tim White (Hamilton); receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr. (Toronto), centre Sean McEwen (Calgary), guard Brandon Revenberg (Hamilton), guard Patrick Neufeld (Winnipeg), tackle Stanley Bryant (Winnipeg), tackle Derek Dennis (Calgary).

DEFENCE – Defensive end Lorenzo Mauldin IV (Ottawa); defensive end Shawn Lemon (Calgary); defensive tackle Mike Rose (Calgary), defensive tackle Jake Ceresna (Edmonton), linebacker Wynton McManis (Toronto), linebacker Cameron Judge (Calgary), linebacker Kameron Kelly (Hamilton), cornerback Jamal Peters (Toronto), cornerback Garry Peters (B.C.), defensive back Marcus Sayles (B.C.), defensive back Deatrick Nichols (Winnipeg), safety Loucheiz Purifoy (B.C.).

SPECIAL TEAMS – Kicker Rene Paredes (Calgary), punter Cody Grace (Calgary), return specialist Janarion Grant (Winnipeg).

SURREY, B.C. – Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke believes he has what it takes to play in the NFL. Now he’s heading south to see if there’s a team that agrees.

Days after his season with the B.C. Lions came to a disappointing end, the 24-year-old Victoria native confirmed he’s going to work out with a number of NFL teams.

“I never had a true opportunity at the NFL level, not as a quarterback. And that’s always been something that I’ve wanted to at least try for a very long time,” Rourke told reporters Tuesday.

“I’m fortunate to have an opportunity and see where that goes and understand that I have a heck of an opportunity still here with the Lions. And so, to me, it’s a win-win, really.”

Rourke stunned many in his first season as starter this year, throwing for 3,349 yards with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 10 regular-season games. He proved to be a dual threat, too, adding 304 rushing yards with seven TDs.

The six-foot-two, 209-pound quarterback’s campaign was curtailed in mid-August by a foot injury that required surgery and forced him to miss eight games, but he returned for the final game of the regular season.

The Lions (12-6) made the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and downed the Calgary Stampeders 30-16 in the west semifinal before falling 28-20 to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the west final on Sunday.

The team was a special group that fell short of its goal, Rourke said.

“It’s one of those ones that you would have loved to have seen throughout the end and be able to finish on a better note,” he said. “So certainly a bitter taste in my mouth from that, but there were a lot of great moments that we can look back on and smile and enjoy.”

As attention grew around the Ohio University product this season, Rourke did his best to tune out the noise.

“I told my agent that I didn’t want to hear about any NFL things during the season,” he said. “I wanted to be able to focus and make sure all my chips were on the table and I was doing everything that I could to give everything I had to the Lions until the season was over. That’s the way I treated it.”

As a result, he doesn’t have any details on how many or which NFL teams he’ll be doing workouts with. All Rourke knows is that he’s looking for the right opportunity.

“I think playing is important. And being able to make an impact and trying to win is important,” he said. “I think I have a great opportunity to do that (with the Lions). So it’s going to have to be a good situation (in the NFL). I don’t really know what exactly it looks like in terms of the specifics, but I know that we’ll know when we come across it.”

Selfishly, head coach Rick Campbell wants to see his starting QB return next season. But he also serves as B.C.’s co-general manager and wants to see the young man he picked 15th overall in the 2020 CFL Draft pursue his dreams, too.

“I’m personally rooting for Nathan, whatever happens to him,” Campbell said. “If we start becoming an organization where we’re losing people to other teams, NFL or CFL teams, that means good stuff’s happening.”