Grey Cup an emotional time for many as football, life intersect

Photo courtesy: CFL

Brent Piaskoski credits his father for instilling his passion for the CFL at a young age.

“I was ten years old and my dad took me to a Montreal Alouette-Calgary Stampeder game,” Piaskoski told 3DownNation via telephone. “I remember going and stepping out of the concourse and seeing the field. It’s one of the few times my breath was literally taken away. I couldn’t believe how big and green the field was.”

Piaskoski was raised in Calgary but left the city to pursue a career in television. He has since written and produced several sitcoms, most of which were made for teenage audiences.

He has followed the Stampeders since moving to Los Angeles twenty years ago, rarely missing a game. He enjoys engaging with CFL fans via his Twitter account since the league isn’t popular where he lives.

“There’s not many people to talk to after the game,” Piaskoski laments. “I can’t arouse my neighbors into a good talk of CFL.”

Piaskoski and his brother accompanied their father, Joseph, to many games over the years. Joseph worked in the oil industry, so he would often get tickets from business associates. When he got three tickets, he would take both of his sons; when he only got two, the boys would trade off.

“He loved being with his kids. He wasn’t home a lot because … he’d be up on rigs and everything and so when he came home, this was his thing. He loved having those tickets.”

Piaskoski and his father watched Calgary games on television together until he left the city as an adult. They would often be forced to watch in the basement because their screaming bothered Sonya, Brent’s mother and Joseph’s wife.

Joseph eventually stopped watching some games in his later years out of fear for his health.

“He had to stop watching because of his heart,” said Piaskoski. “Sometimes the Stampeders were too much for him, so he decided it would be better to live another day than to scream and watch a close game.”

Sadly, Joseph passed away on February 15, 2015 at the age of 85.

Calgary’s Grey Cup victory in 2018 was an emotional one for Brent — his team had captured a championship, but he was unable to celebrate it with his father.

Brent and Joseph always spoke over the phone following Grey Cup victories. It was just something they did — even when the Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989.

“You feel like picking up the phone. You know better, but you go, ‘Yeah, I’d like to talk to my dad about this.'”

Sometimes it’s the little things we miss most about those who are no longer with us — be it a phone call, an inside joke or a souvenir hat.

“He was always the guy, too, that when I needed someone to go to The Stamps Store to pick me up a championship hat, he would always do that. And [2018] was the first year I had to get it on my own.”

One of the striking things about this year’s Grey Cup is how it has affected people in Hamilton and Winnipeg emotionally.

Fans are always excited about their favourite team making it to a championship game, but the impact seems stronger this year. Grey Cup trips have been few and far between for the Tiger-Cats and Blue Bombers in recent years and neither club has won the game in two decades.

Many of the people who last celebrated a Hamilton or Winnipeg championship — grandparents, fathers, mothers, siblings, friends — are no longer with us. You can see evidence of it all over social media as fans wish more of their loved ones were around to witness Sunday’s game.

It’s one of the beautiful ways in which sports and life intersect. For many people, the CFL serves as a foundation upon which many of their relationships are built.

This is certainly true for me. Most of my family members and friends — some of whom I met through CFL circles — care about the league a great deal. Grey Cup can be an emotional time as we reflect on how life has changed over the years, pouring over memories associated with the league’s championship game.

It can also be hard not to think about those who are no longer here. We mourn their loss and lament their absence during key moments of our lives.

We think about past Grey Cup celebrations — the laughs, refreshments, and camaraderie. The ecstasy of victory and the agony of defeat. We hope to create new such memories without forgetting those from the past.

Let the memories of those we’ve lost live on in the glory of Grey Cup Sunday — a day for celebrating the lives of those we’ve lost along the way.