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About a year ago at this time, Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman Patrick Neufeld wanted nothing to do with the Grey Cup game in Edmonton.
His Bombers had just lost to the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL’s West Division final, and he was still heartbroken over the missed chance to play for a championship.
“I didn’t watch the game, I didn’t listen to the game. That weekend, I drove out to Calgary with my girlfriend and we stayed at my uncle’s house in the mountains. And we just kind of secluded ourselves and didn’t even pay attention to it at the time,” he said.
A year later, he and the Blue Bombers have a chance to win the CFL championship for Winnipeg for the first time in 29 years.
The Bombers are to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Grey Cup game Sunday at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium. Kickoff for the game is at 5 p.m.
Neufeld, a product of Regina and a graduate of the Luther Lions high school football program, is using last year’s tough loss to remind himself how few CFL players are afforded a chance to play in the big game.
“There are guys who played 10- or 12-year careers and never played in a Grey Cup game, let alone won one … You just never know when you’re going to be in this game again,” he said.
To that end, he knows where he’s keeping his focus throughout Grey Cup week celebrations in Calgary.
“You’re going to take in what you can, but you’re focus is ultimately on that Sunday game,” Neufeld said.
He does have past experience playing for a championship: He won the Regina and provincial high school football titles with Luther in 2005.
Now in his sixth year with the Blue Bombers (and his ninth in the CFL, after a three-year stay with the Saskatchewan Roughriders), Neufeld thinks this squad is best poised to win the title.
“You know 2014 and 2015 were tough years,” he said, referencing back-to-back years in which Winnipeg didn’t make the post-season. “But I think those were the foundation-setting years for this organization, especially when (head coach Mike) O’Shea came in. He started bringing characters guys that he could build a locker room around.”
Neufeld credited his head coach with building the team’s culture “from the ground up.”
It’s now culminating in this year’s Grey Cup berth, he said.
“We felt like last year we were really close. Finally we got over that West final hurdle in hostile territory, and that gave us that boost that we needed,” Neufeld said.
“I think we just have the horses that got us to this game, and we’re excited for that opportunity.”
— With files from 980 CJME’s Jamie Nye