Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback Zach Collaros throws a pass against the Montreal Alouettes in the second half of their CFL playoff football game in Hamilton November 23, 2014.Fred Thornhill/Reuters
Nik Lewis holds court.
Of course Lewis holds court. Holding court is what Lewis does. He talks jive. He laughs. He's thoughtful. Lewis, 32, is one of the best receivers in CFL history. But he's struggled the past two seasons – almost a singular symbol of the struggles of the entire CFL. One step slow. Not quite what it once was.
Wednesday, midday, Lewis is at BC Place, at the end of one end zone, holding court. He knows, with only one Grey Cup ring, this is the chance for redemption for the best CFL team of 2014. "We have been underachievers, in my career here," says Lewis of the Calgary Stampeders, "as a team."
Lewis, too, one of the voluble and spectacular stars of the past decade, knows this is the chance for a new star, or two, to emerge from the hero factory of a championship game. The CFL desperately needs new heroes. The league cannot even sell out the Grey Cup, still some 4,300 short of a capacity crowd of around 53,000.
It is 24-year-old Bo Levi Mitchell, the Texan quarterback of the Stampeders, and 26-year-old Zach Collaros, the pivot for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats from Ohio, who are poised. Two young men who can make their names on Sunday, at the 102nd Grey Cup; for each, it is their first title shot. Mitchell has guided the Stampeders through a superb season. Collaros struggled with concussions before he retook the helm, and all-in, was 8-5 in his first season as a starter, giving his so-so team a shot at the title.
Mitchell is listed at 6-foot-2. Collaros is 6-foot. Both are probably an inch shorter. It doesn't diminish the potential star quality. Collaros strides in the back concrete hallway of BC Place with an easy gait, an easy smile, his dark hair well kept, a little like Clark Kent. Big arms. A couple inches taller, maybe he's a NFL quarterback. He exudes an all-American feel. Mitchell, meanwhile, sports a wispy red-orange beard. Striding up to a scrum of reporters, he wears a grey Stampeders tuque, the image of the white horse emblazoned on the front, the trim pink and white. Grey sweats. His black jersey. "What's going on?" he asks.
The first question happens to be something from what Lewis jawed out. Lewis invoked the name of a legend, the recently retired Anthony Calvillo. Granted, Lewis is prone, at times, to hyperbole, but he didn't speak the words with undue hubris. It felt as if Lewis meant them. And for the CFL, for people who watch three-down football, it's an enticing harbinger: "At his age," Lewis said of Mitchell, "if he can stay healthy, I would say Anthony Calvillo's records [have] somebody who can actually take them down."
Mitchell, of course, parries the prediction. It's his first Grey Cup, as it is for Collaros. Mitchell, asked about Lewis's envisioning of this fate, said: "That's in the future, man. I'm more about winning. Man, we've got a very big business trip coming up right now."
Business trip. It is, in the parlance of sports, a somewhat new fixture in the clichés of these games. It was memorably invoked by Peyton Manning before he won his only Super Bowl for Indianapolis in 2006 against the Chicago Bears. "This is a business trip," declared Manning.
"That's what it is to us," says Mitchell on Wednesday. "Everybody's focused up. Staying out of treats, staying out of festivities. I know it's hard. You know, this is what you work for, so you want to take part in those kind of things. We have a goal. We have a very big goal right now."
Mitchell, who is 16-2 as a starter in the CFL, has stoked the respect of opponents. Simoni Lawrence, a linebacker on Hamilton's tough defence, is quick with an answer.
"I've said Bo Levi Mitchell was the man. I love his game. I love watching his game. He's a great quarterback."
Lawrence loves his man, too.
"Zach Collaros, he's a baller. He's definitely going to be here for a while, doing a great job."
Brandon Stewart, a Ticats defensive back, likewise provides some equal credit. "They definitely have star power, both of those quarterbacks."
The CFL, facing the retirement of the legend Wally Buono, has a problem. Where do the next generation of quarterbacks come from? Who develops them? Well, in Calgary, with head coach John Hufnagel and his successor, offensive co-ordinator and assistant head coach Dave Dickenson, and in Hamilton, with head coach Kent Austin and offensive co-ordinator Tommy Condell, it is no coincidence such mentors guided two young men, Grey Cup first-time starting quarterbacks, to this point.
"The game's not too big for Bo," said Hufnagel of his quarterback during a Wednesday morning session with both teams' coaches. Austin, then: "Zach is very similar in the sense that the game's not too big for Zach either. I mean, Zach's played in a lot of big games. He's a proven winner at every level."
Game on. The hero factory of Grey Cup, on Sunday, awaits – and three-down football awaits to anoint a new generation.