Mission accomplished. Calgary Stampeders fullback Rob Cote, with the help of his teammates, finished what he set out to do: win the Grey Cup as a playing member of the team in the big game.
Mission accomplished.
Calgary Stampeders fullback Rob Cote, with the help of his teammates, finished what he set out to do: win the Grey Cup as a playing member of the team in the big game. With their 20-16 Grey Cup win over Hamilton Tiger-Cats Nov. 30 at Vancouver's B.C. Place Stadium, the Stampeders put Cote's name in the books and on the venerable trophy signifying Canadian pro football supremacy.
Heading into the 102nd Grey Cup game, the eighth-year Stampeders fullback had watched from the sidelines in 2008 as his team won a Cup 22-14 against Montreal. He played in 2012's 35-22 Cup loss to Toronto. All that was left was for the 28-year-old to “be on the field when we win one of these things. ”
Done.
“Unreal. Unreal, man, ” an elated, celebration-weary Cote said as he and his teammates collected their bags from beneath the three motor coaches delivering them, and the trophy, to the team ‘s McMahon Stadium headquarters Dec. 1. “This is what we've been working for all year long and what I've been working for my whole career. To get it accomplished is just an amazing feeling. ”
It looked like a cake-walk in the game's early stages as the Stamps appeared ready to run away with the team's seventh-ever Grey Cup win. Calgary galloped out of the chute, rolling up a 17-7 first-half lead. Stamps quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell was on his way to rewriting the Grey Cup passing record books, going 23-25 with 300 yards in the game's first 37 minutes. Calgary led 20-7 after three quarters.
“We had built up a little cushion for ourselves, ” Cote recalled. But Hamilton kept coming, scoring nine fourth-quarter points to tighten the match up.
“And we just have to keep the faith, ” Cote said as the Ticats made it a game. “We knew our defence was going to stand up for us. ”
But it's hard to watch. Even when your defence is as good as it is.
“You're standing on the sidelines and you want to get back in there and do what you can to help win, ” Cote said. As the team's starting fullback and special-teams ace, the 2004 Cochrane High School grad was tasked with taking care of the details ensuring the other 11 Stamps on the field could focus on their jobs. He pass-protected for Mitchell, and he run-blocked for Drew Tate's two first-quarter touchdowns.
“I played my little role. I tried to get the boys ready as best I can, ” he surmised, standing on the frozen tarmac of McMahon Stadium's south parking lot. “I don't know what else to say, other than we did it. We did it. And it's a good feeling. ”
