Courtesy Hamilton Spectator:

It may just be a meaningless preseason tussle in the larger picture.

But every Tiger-Cat fan knows the club’s final exhibition battle Thursday night in Toronto against the Argonauts will be a special test for one truly remarkable Tabbie.

Head coach Charlie Taaffe has confirmed Ticat tailback Jesse Lumsden will play, at least one quarter.

It will mark Lumsden’s first full contact game experience since his superlative 2007 Canadian Football League season ended Sept. 29 when he suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder in Winnipeg.

The 25-year-old Burlingtonian was placed on the nine-game injury list a week later, setting the stage for his Dec. 12 off-season surgery to repair the shoulder.

Lumsden, in his first full season in Hamilton, was dominant. He rushed 98 times for 743 yards and an impressive 7.6 yards per carry average.

The former McMaster Marauders star added 26 catches for another 348 yards.

It’s likely overstating the case to suggest the fortunes of the Tiger-Cats’ 2008 season rest on Lumsden’s broad shoulders. But if his surgically-repaired left shoulder buckles under the contact, so too will the club’s hopes for its first post-season berth in four seasons.

The first test comes Thursday.

So with No. 28’s first major challenge in the offing, we felt it was timely to challenge fans’ knowledge of their ace backfield star with 28 questions. Call it ‘Tackling Lumsden.’

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