Sep
Battle of Alberta centres around QB
Courtesy Calgary Herald:
Henry Burris doesn’t often dwell on the past.
Bad pass? Bad decision? Suck it up and move on.
But there’s something about last year’s Labour Day Classic, an ugly 37-16 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos, that still sticks in the Calgary Stampeders quarterback’s craw.
He left that game just before halftime with a turf-toe injury; without him, the Stamps were outscored 28-9.
And as he hits the field late this afternoon (5:30 p.m., McMahon Stadium, TSN, QR77 Radio) for another showdown of two of the Canadian Football League’s top quarterbacks, Burris plans to make amends for the home-field humiliation of 2008.
“The fact is, after the game nobody made the point that I wasn’t in the game for (the second half),” he said on Sunday. “Last time I checked, I was a special part of this team and doing some good things in this league. It really p—-d me off, and I voiced my opinion to the team after the game that you’re going to see a much different Henry Burris because people aren’t showing me respect. And this team wasn’t being shown respect. We need to come and show people who we really are and start busting people in the mouth. We were able to do that last year.”
If they want to do the same thing in 2009, it has to start today as the 4-4 Stampeders hope to pull into a tie for first place in the West Division with the 5-3 Eskimos.
While you can talk about key injuries, key players or key situations, at the end of the day, the Classic will be decided by the battle between Burris and Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray.
Those two put on a magnificent show the last time the teams met, on Aug. 13 at Commonwealth Stadium. Burris threw for a career-high 479 yards and three touchdowns, but it was Ray’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Fred Stamps with three ticks on the clock that produced a 38-35 Edmonton victory.
Expect more quarterbacking brilliance today.
“I think it’s obvious what both quarterbacks’ strengths are; they don’t have a whole lot of weaknesses — that’s the point,” said Stamps coach and GM John Hufnagel.
“Playing the position and knowing you’re playing against another great quarterback, in their minds, they want to make sure that they’re out there with guns fully blazing because they know the quarterback on the other side will be in that same frame of mind.”
Both are admirers of each other.
“Well, No. 1, I wish I had his height,” said a laughing Burris.
“He’s a tall guy, and it allows him to have much better vision than I do, and it’s tough for us short guys to be able to see through those trees.
“Other than that, I’d have to say his touch. His accuracy is second to none; the guy has such great touch. I’m a guy who likes to get it in there nice and tight to the guys, and he has great touch, and that’s one of the things I’ve always marvelled about Ricky.”
Which of Burris’s many tools does Ray covet?
“I’d love to have ’em all,” he said. “I’d love his arm strength, I’d love his ability to move in the pocket and use his legs. He’s one of the most, if not the most gifted quarterback in this league as far as the total package goes. I’d love to play in his body for a few games just to feel what it’s like.”
A year ago, Burris used those perceived Labour Day slights as motivation; in the rematch four nights later at Commonwealth Stadium, he played through his toe pain to throw for 323 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-33 victory, and Calgary won nine of its next 10, including the Grey Cup game in Montreal.
And you can be sure that despite his individual brilliance, the fact the Stamps lost in Edmonton overshadows everything.
“The fact we lost doesn’t help things at all,” he said. “I was p—d off the whole three-hour bus ride home. It’s not fun when you’re riding on a bus at two in the morning after a loss.
“But it’s in the past. We want to do whatever it takes to make sure we get the victory. Even if I throw for 10 yards, it doesn’t matter. We just want to make sure we win the game.”
Burris isn’t a chest-thumper, by any stretch of the imagination. And he’ll never tell you the Stamps would have won had he been healthy for all four quarters last Labour Day.
But, he said, at least give him enough credit to believe they might have.
“Through all you’ve done, you should at least receive that level of respect where, if you’re not in the game, there will be a difference,” he said.
“As compared to last year when people were saying, ‘You guys just got beat, what are you going to do next week?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, shoot, I wasn’t in the game. I think that makes a difference.’
“And, he added with a smile, “I will be in this game.”
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