It was the 97th Grey Cup and possibly my first (I think I watched a bit of last years final so I’m not sure if ‘a bit of…’ counts). Anyway, if my reputation of watching American Football finals is anything to go by, I should watch many more. The last two Superbowls and this Grey Cup Final are possibly the only three American Football games I have watched from start to finish and them two Superbowls went down in history as two of the best while this CFL Grey Cup Final must surely be ranked as one of the most incredible also.

I thought last second winning field goals was the stuff of which movies were made and that these movies that depicted the kicker in slow motion sending the ball between the posts to win the game was romantic but unrealistic in the real professional sports world. Well after last night I learned the truth: It does happen.

The Montreal Alouettes, pre-game favorites, scored a 33-yard field-goal from the boot of Damon Duval with zero seconds on the clock on his second attempt to cap an incredible forth-quarter rally to win 28-27 over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

In football/soccer terms it would be like a the 94th minute of a game in which four minutes had been added on when a penalty was awarded to a team that at one point had been trailing say 3-0 at half-time and had brought the game back to 3-3 in the final fifteen minutes of the game. The penalty is missed sending the other team into joyous celebration only for the referee to notice some small infraction, call it back and allow it to be retaken. The retake is scored and it is the other bench that empties onto the field to celebrate the victory.

That is how it was. At one point in the forth Montreal trailed by two touch-downs that would both require two point conversions rather than kicking for the extra point. In other words, a 16-point deficit. They had fallen behind early in the game and were miles back at half-time. They had been awful in the first half and an upset looked to be on the cards. I’m not sure what their coach said at half-time while we were watching Blue Rodeo preform the half-time show, but it must have been good because they came out a different team and every throw was connecting and every run finding gaps. They started scoring and started clawing the game back. They got a touchdown and ran in the extra two points before getting another touchdown. But with minutes on the clock still trailed by two points and Saskatchewan had possession. Then came the comedy of errors that will leave all Saskatchewan players and fans sleepless for days and thinking ‘what if’ for a life-time: They threw and interception when simply running down the clock would have done. Montreal suddenly had the ball and had less than a minute to get to within field goal range and to go for the winning kick. Their speed and skill which marked them as the pre-game favorite started to show and they made the required ground to give it a try.

It was 43-yards out which made it no easy feat and with two seconds on the clock it was the pressure cooker every neutral fan craves at the end of a game. Although it was a neutral venue the stands in Calgary were packed with Saskatchewan fans covered from head to toe in their green colors and I imagine the majority could not watch the kick taking place. But up stepped Damon Duval and sent the ball to the right of the posts. The clocked ticked down and the Saskatchewan fans celebrated. The players jumped up and down on the side lines high fiving one another but the commentator wasn’t screaming, he was trying to inform those still listening that there was some kind of penalty being called. Saskatchewan had fielded an extra player on the defensive unit presumably by accident and had been caught out. The punishment: Kick to be re-taken and moved forward by 10-yards.

The writing was on the wall for Saskatchewan now and everyone knew it. From 33-yards the kick was much easier and Duval proved it by sending the ball right between the posts with zero seconds left. The players jumped on one another cheering and the Roughrider players walked with their heads down, dumbfounded, to the dressing-room.

A gutting way to lose but an unbelievable climax to the game for any neutral, or Montreal, fan. I didn’t hang around to watch the trophy presentation, I went to bed, though I seen the pictures in the morning but that didn’t really matter. All the drama one could hope to have had happened during the play and Montreal capped one of the great comebacks which I can say confidently without even having any prior knowledge of the history of the sport.

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