the front page picture:
[url=http://www.torontosun.com/FrontPage/2005/11/27/1326805.html]http://www.torontosun.com/FrontPage/200 ... 26805.html[/url]-- One day, someone may write a book or make a movie to try and explain all that happened in the 2005 Grey Cup game.
It would take that long and be that twisted.
It would be that difficult to comprehend and follow in any kind of logical sequence -- even by the normally carefree standards of the Canadian Football League -- all that occurred at a sold-out B.C. Place yesterday.
"That was wild," said Danny Maciocia, the rookie and now championship head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos. "Absolutely wild."
The 38-35 overtime win by the Esks over the Montreal Alouettes last night was odd and breath-taking and dramatic and emotionless early and in need of context when it came to its overtime ending.
"I've never been in a game anything like that, never been through a game like that," said Esks' Ricky Ray, the game's most valuable player, who started and finished at quarterback. "This was the most exciting game of my life. It was all so spur of the moment. One minute we're leading, the next minute we're about to lose, the next minute we're celebrating.
"You didn't know what to feel while it was going on."
After a whirlwind game, in a whirlwind locker room, and after a season in which he became a central figure in an ongoing quarterback debate, Ray finally seemed at peace.
"I can't explain what I'm feeling right now," he said. "I just know it feels great."
It was an amazing ending to a game with so much amazement about it. And right until the final gun sounded, with the referees still huddling about a penalty call -- the Eskimos celebrating and the Als slowly walking off the field -- no one was exactly sure what was going on or why.
Even Maciocia,, who sometimes seems so sure about himself, threw his headset up in celebratory glee one play before the game was over. Even he wasn't certain of the circumstances that brought the game to an end in the CFL's version of a shootout.
In no particular order, there was a late Edmonton touchdown, a big-time gamble by the kid coach, a two-point convert, a late Montreal field goal and two touchdowns in overtime before the Eskimos scored a field goal and the Alouettes failed to reply.
And all of that happened in what seemed to be a matter of seconds.
This was the first overtime Grey Cup game since 1961 and that was so long ago that Bud Grant was coaching the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Kenny Ploen scored the game-winning touchdown.
Last night's overtime came from a game that started with so little life that fans at B.C. Place seemed more consumed with rather healthy women kissing in the stands and eventually being removed from the stadium for displaying their advantages -- not that there is anything wrong with that.
But the game itself came to life in the fourth and fifth quarters and from then on hearts were pounding.
This was a newer CFL, more like the NBA, with a frenzy of baskets and dunks and scoring plays in the final minutes of play.
"At times you had to catch your breath," said Ray, who late in the game admitted to be screaming from the sidelines. In overtime, Anthony Calvillo threw what appeared to be the game-winning touchdown pass, only two things went wrong with it.
One, Calvillo threw two forward passes on the same play, which happens to be illegal. Two, Kerry Watkins dropped the pass, which didn't in the end matter, but the fans at B.C. Place didn't know it.
"I screamed: 'That's illegal,' when he threw the pass," Ray said. "I guess he was just trying to make a play."
Just trying to win a championship game in overtime.
"He made a great play on it," Ray said of Calvillo. A great play but the wrong play.
It was that kind of Grey Cup. Great and wrong. Memorable and frenetic. Just wild.