96th Grey Cup


The 96th Grey Cup was held in Montreal, Quebec at Olympic Stadium on November 23, 2008. The East Division champion Montreal Alouettes hosted the West Division champion Calgary Stampeders. The Stampeders won the game 22–14, with quarterback Henry Burris winning the MVP award. It was the first time Montreal had hosted the Grey Cup since 2001, the first time since the 2002 Grey Cup that the host city played for the Grey Cup, and the first time since the 58th Grey Cup in 1970 that the Alouettes and Stampeders had met for the national championship. Hoping to break the record for highest attendance for a Grey Cup game, the organizers expanded Olympic Stadium to almost 70,000 seats. A crowd of 66,308 attended the game, failing to break the record of 68,318 set in 1977, but good enough to be the second-highest attended Grey Cup game of all time. Montreal has now played host to the four highest-attended Grey Cup games in history. It was the last time a Western-based team has won the Grey Cup in Eastern Canada until the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the 108th Grey Cup against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton in 2021.

Broadcast

This was the first Grey Cup not to be broadcast on CBC Television since they started broadcasting the Grey Cup in 1952. In Canada, the game was telecast solely on the cable channel TSN and its French-language sister network RDS. Internationally, both Versus, telecasting in the United States, and Canadian Forces Radio and Television, broadcasting to Canadian forces internationally, used the TSN feed and graphics.
The game was available in HD on both TSN HD and RDS HD and shown in HD in the United States on Voom HD Networks's WorldSport. It was also seen online at ESPN360.com.

Events

Much like in 2001, there was a Grey Cup Village at the Dorchester Square. Musical events included Porn Flakes, Kellylee Evans, Rock Story, Véronique Labbé, Guy Bélanger, Take the Boys, White Faze, Marc Parent et Wang Dang Doodle, Angel Forrest, Young Soul, and Sylvie Desgroseilliers. There also was the annual Montreal Christmas Santa Claus Parade on Saturday November 22/2, 008.
The Montreal Canadiens' decision to retire the jersey of Patrick Roy the same weekend caused controversy, as some felt that the hockey team — the city's dominant sports franchise — was trying to take attention away from the Montreal Alouettes and the CFL during their championship game weekend.

Attendance

The organizers of the 96th Grey Cup hoped to break the 70,000 attendance mark. The current record for highest attendance was set at the 1977 Grey Cup, also at the Big O in Montreal. The attendance was reported at 66,308 during the TSN broadcast of the game. In so doing, the 2008 game displaced the 2001 Grey Cup, for second-best attendance.
Tickets were priced from $84 in the balcony to $274 in the platinum section. Tickets had three pre-sale days, one during the 95th Grey Cup, one in December and one during Super Bowl XLII. Regular tickets went on sale in March 2008.

Game summary

Calgary Stampeders - TDs, Brett Ralph; FGs Sandro DeAngelis ; cons., DeAngelis.
Montreal Alouettes - TDs, Avon Cobourne; FGs Damon Duval ; single Duval ; cons., Duval.
;First Quarter
;Second Quarter
;Third Quarter
;Fourth Quarter
Calgary quarterback, Henry Burris threw for 328 yards and one touchdown, leading all rushers with 79 yards, while kicker Sandro DeAngelis kicked five field goals as the Calgary Stampeders rallied for a 22–14 victory over the Montreal Alouettes to win the Grey Cup, in front of the 66,305 Montreal faithful at Olympic Stadium.
For his efforts, Henry Burris was named the game's Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player, while kicker Sandro DeAngelis kicked five field goals, connecting from 44, 12, 21, 30 and 50 yards out and took home the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian honours.
The game got off to a slow start with a Damon Duval 14 yard chip shot field goal for Montreal representing all the scoring in the first quarter. The drive was highlighted by a 55-yard completion from Alouettes' quarterback Anthony Calvillo to Jamel Richardson. Sandro DeAngelis answered back in the second quarter with a 44-yard field goal to put the Calgary Stampeders back on even terms at 3-3.
However, the Montreal Alouettes responded when Montreal linebacker, Reggie Hunt intercepted a Henry Burris pass, giving the Alouettes the ball near midfield. The Alouettes offence drove the ball deep into Calgary territory before running back, Avon Cobourne scored the game's first touchdown in the second quarter on a 16-yard run. Then, special teams standout Larry Taylor gave the Alouettes great field position again with a 42-yard punt return. Duval again stepped in and made good on his 19-yard attempt to extend the Montreal lead to 13–3.
With momentum on the home team's side, the Calgary Stampeders responded late in the first half when Henry Burris threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Brett Ralph, cutting the Montreal lead to 13-10 heading into halftime and taking momentum away from Montreal.
In the second half of the game, it was all Calgary Stampeders. In the third quarter, Sandro DeAngelis kicked his second field goal of the game to tie the game 13-13. Montreal took a 14–13 lead after Damon Duval added a punt single, but that was all the offence that Montreal was able to muster in the second half of the game.
On Calgary's next possession, Henry Burris put together a 75-yard drive, including runs of 14 and 29 yards for first downs, which led to a short field goal kick from DeAngelis to give Calgary a 16–14 lead.
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Montreal's offence started to threaten, but the Calgary defence responded. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Anthony Calvillo was intercepted by Calgary's Dwight Anderson that led to another field goal by DeAngelis to give the Stampeders a 19–14 advantage. Then midway through the game, the Alouettes threatened to regain the lead before an errant Calvillo pass was intercepted by Shannon James, which quieted the Olympic Stadium crowd. Sandro DeAngelis then kicked a 50-yard field goal to extend the Calgary lead to eight points and seal their victory, becoming Grey Cup champions for the first time since 2001.
Stampeders wide receiver, Nikolas Lewis chipped in with 11 catches for 122 yards for the Calgary offence, while Montreal's Jamel Richardson led all receivers with 123 yards and Ben Cahoon was able to catch for 95 yards through the air. However, Anthony Calvillo, who edged out Henry Burris to become the regular season's Most Outstanding Player threw for no touchdowns, got intercepted twice and dropped to a 1–5 record in his Grey Cup appearances.

Notable game facts

officiated in his 15th Grey Cup game. This also marked his final game as an official after calling 555 games in his 30-year CFL career.

2008 CFL playoffs

Division Semi-finals

East Semi-Final

Date and time: Saturday, November 8, 12:00 PM Central Standard Time
Venue: Canad Inns Stadium, Winnipeg, Manitoba
TeamQ1Q2Q3Q4Total
Edmonton Eskimos3188029
Winnipeg Blue Bombers870621

The Edmonton Eskimos claimed the victory on a cold, windy afternoon at Canad Inns Stadium before 27,493 spectators by defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 29–21 to become the first West Division team to earn a playoff win as a crossover squad since the CFL adopted the concept in 1997.
In the first quarter, Winnipeg took an early 8–0 lead when quarterback Kevin Glenn threw a 78-yard touchdown pass to Romby Bryant, while kicker Alexis Serna earned one point on a missed 23-yard field goal attempt. Before the end of the first quarter, Noel Prefontaine kicked a 23-yard field goal to make it 8-3 Blue Bombers, which eventually led to the Eskimos offensive burst.
The Eskimo charge began in the second quarter after a poor Serna punt into a gusting 30-km/h wind caused a 25-yard return by Tristan Jackson to the Blue Bombers' 32-yard line, which eventually led to an A.J. Harris 1-yard rushing touchdown to make it a 10-8 Edmonton lead. Two minutes after Edmonton took the lead, the Blue Bombers answered back with a touchdown on a Jason Armstead 93-yard punt return, a franchise record to give Winnipeg a 15–10 lead. However the Eskimos took the game over after that point. Right after a 28-yard field goal by Noel Prefontaine, Eskimos' defensive end Fred Perry tipped and intercepted a Kevin Glenn pass for a 31-yard interception return to give the Eskimos a 20–15 lead, which proved to be the turning point in the game. At the end of the second quarter the Eskimos had scored 18 unanswered points and never looked back.
At the six minute mark of the third quarter, A.J. Harris scored his second rushing touchdown of the game, which ended Edmonton's scoring in the game and gave them a 29–15 lead. Eskimos' quarterback Ricky Ray effectively used a short passing strategy to finish the game going 27-of-37 for 303 yards with no interceptions and ran for 25 yards. Ray's favourite weapons in the game were running backs A.J. Harris who rushed for 33 yards on 13 carries and made four receptions for 38 yards, while Calvin McCarty had seven catches for 52 yards. However, the Eskimos defence was the main reason for their victory on Saturday.
Going into the game, the Blue Bomber rushing duo of Fred Reid and Joe Smith was touted to give the home team an edge in the game, but neither of them were able to find the end zone after rushing for a combined 119 rushing yards. Even when Winnipeg had a promising drive going late in the third, the Eskimo defence were able to snuff it out after Lenny Williams forced Joe Smith to fumble the ball after a 21-yard gain, which was eventually recovered by Edmonton's Jason Goss. In addition, when Winnipeg had the wind advantage in the fourth quarter they only managed two Serna field goals to round up their score to 21.
Winnipeg quarterback Kevin Glenn only managed 15 completions on 34 attempts for 233 yards and threw for one touchdown and the costly interception to Fred Perry. Milt Stegall managed 56 receiving yards on five receptions, in his final appearance in the CFL.
While the Winnipeg season comes to an end, Edmonton will now head to Montreal to face their long-time Grey Cup rivals, the Montreal Alouettes, but this time it is for the right to play in the Grey Cup.