The game that Eugene Lewis has had circled on his calendar for months is fast approaching, but the Ottawa Redblacks’ star receiver isn’t interested in reviving the offseason feud with Edmonton general manager Ed Hervey that brought out the marker to begin with.
“To be truthfully honest with you, all the stuff that was happening before you’ve got to kind of put it all in perspective because of where both our teams are at. They are a team that doesn’t have a win, and we’re a team with one win,” Lewis said in an exclusive phone interview with 3DownNation on Friday.
“We still have never talked and I don’t really feel like we need to. It’s just going to be at a point where you stay over there, I stay over here, and we all good. I’m not going to think about somebody that I can’t play against in the game. It’s kind of irrelevant. He feels how he feels and that is what it is. At the end of the day, it’s all about the wins and the losses.”
Lewis is slated to return to Edmonton for the first time on Sunday after playing the past two seasons for the Elks. His departure in free agency turned acrimonious after the team’s new GM, Hervey, delivered an impassioned rant during a press conference, stating emphatically that he would not pay the receiver anywhere close to the $320,000 mark he’d received from the club’s previous regime.
After signing in Ottawa, Lewis told interviewers that he felt “degraded” by those comments. He also revealed that Hervey never spoke to him personally about Edmonton’s decision to move on, describing it as a poor way to treat a superstar player. Hervey later responded that he didn’t “know any superstar players in the CFL,” kicking off a firestorm of public criticism.
The long-time front office executive was forced to clarify those comments after the CFL Players’ Association issued a statement calling them “insulting and ignorant.” However, Hervey never formally apologized, and it is unclear whether he received supplemental discipline from the league.
If Hervey wants to bury the hatchet in person this week, Lewis said he won’t entertain any conversations pre-game. He’s open to a man-to-man discussion after the final whistle, but insisted it wouldn’t be necessary.
“There’s no need to force it; we don’t have to be best friends. We play for two different organizations,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter what happens. If we don’t talk, it’s still going to be the same thing. If we have a conversation, it might still be the same thing. The bed’s been made; I gotta lay in the bed, and he has to lay in his bed. What you don’t want to do is make a distraction and make that bigger than what the game really is.”
Lewis enters this week having caught 15 passes for 219 yards and one touchdown through four games — one yard shy of Bralon Addison for the Redblacks’ team lead. That is 48 yards more than the Elks’ top receiver, Kaion Julien-Grant, albeit with a game in hand.
Hervey’s strategy of cost-saving at the receiver position in order to pay for pricey defensive upgrades has yet to bear fruit, as Edmonton is the CFL’s last remaining winless team. However, Lewis has found no sense of vindication in those results as the Redblacks have stumbled to a 1-3 start of their own.
“Whatever your team’s record is, that’s the definition of who you are at the moment. That doesn’t mean that’s who you are overall, but right now, our record is what it is and that’s who we are right now,” he said.
“The wins and losses are what make you able to speak your mind on how you want to feel; I understand that. I know what’ll happen with a win and I know what’ll happen with a loss. I know how people will talk, I know what people will say. I know the stories that people are gonna try to bring up, but you can’t make individual things bigger than the team.”
Fortunately for the Redblacks, Lewis will have all the tools needed to make his statement on the field. Starting quarterback Dru Brown has been confirmed to return following a three-game absence due to a hip injury and should provide a boost to the team’s aerial attack.
Commonwealth Stadium has been sparsely populated of late, but Lewis knows he’ll have supporters in the stands from his time in green and gold. It is an obligation to perform at a superstar level for them, rather than a desire to stick it to Hervey, that has him excited to be back in Edmonton.
“I’m gonna do what I always did for the fans, man. I’m gonna make you get out of your seat. I’m gonna do something exciting. I want them to look at me as a player and say, ‘Man, I love going to see Geno play,'” he vowed.
“It’s just an unfortunate situation where they’re gonna cheer for me, but it’s a good and a bad cheer. Individually, we love you, but we don’t want you killing our team either.”
The Ottawa Redblacks (1-3) will kick off against the Edmonton Elks (0-3) at 7:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 6. The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS in Canada, CBS Sports Network in the United States, and on CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on TSN 1200 in Ottawa and 880 CHED in Edmonton.
