‘I don’t believe in that’: Cody Fajardo knows from experience CFL season can’t ‘start’ on Labour Day

Photo: Edmonton Elks

Labour Day weekend has long marked the proverbial “start” of the CFL season, according to armchair quarterbacks across the country. However, the Edmonton Elks’ actual QB knows that to be a fatal fallacy.

“That’s why we were so critical about starting fast, because last year, everyone talks about the season doesn’t start ’til Labour Day –well, we started on Labour Day, and we still missed the playoffs,” Cody Fajardo told the media this week.

“I don’t believe in that term. I think the season starts Week 1, and so for us, we’ve built up a great bank of wins. The second half of the season is where the great teams separate themselves from the good teams, and we have to show out throughout this next handful of seven games and take it one week at a time.”

Fajardo lost his first Labour Day Classic as the Elks’ starter in 2025, falling 28-7 against the rival Calgary Stampeders. He exacted revenge in the Battle of Alberta rematch the following week with a 31-19 upset at home, but Edmonton won just two more games the remainder of the season and finished 7-11.

The 34-year-old pivot appears to have forgotten that the Green and Gold’s hottest stretch of play actually came prior to the traditional rivalry home-and-home, when they rattled off three straight wins to end the month of August. However, his point regarding the dangers of slow starts is well-taken, given that the Elks couldn’t recover after going 1-6 to begin the year.

This time around, the Elks have taken care of business over the first two-thirds of the season and sit atop the West Division with an 8-3 record. However, that doesn’t mean that the Labour Day Classic is meaningless either.

“Labour Day is a different beast. A Labour Day game is as close as you’re gonna get to a regular-season playoff game, playoff atmosphere, so we’ve got to make sure that we are on our Ps and Qs,” Fajardo said.

“This is gonna be a huge push. We didn’t get any favours during the bye week; I think every West team won. That puts a little bit more pressure, and we love pressure on this football team, but we’re the drivers of the bus. We control our destiny. If we win football games, we’ve got everything we want in front of us.”

Despite their established status as one of the best teams in the CFL this year, Fajardo notes that the Elks still have much to improve upon, particularly on offence. While the Green and Gold lead the CFL in turnover ratio thanks to their prolific defence, they are middle of the pack with 19 giveaways — 10 of which have been fumbles.

“I think we lead the league in fumbles, and that’s everybody. We’ve found ways to turn the ball over. Our defence is taking it away at an impressive clip, and we’re giving it right back,” Fajardo acknowledged.

“What I think we’ve prided ourselves on offensively is protecting the football, and a lot of those games that we had big wins in and multiple-score wins, we protected the ball really well. The games that came down to the wire late in the fourth quarter, that’s when we turned the ball over. Offensively, we look ourselves in the mirror, and there’s been a lot of fumbles, myself included, and we just can’t turn the ball over.”

Some of those mistakes may have been as a result of attrition, as the Elks were forced to grind through a stretch of 10 straight games without a break. Now, the banged-up group is well-rested following a bye week, but Fajardo is wary of the 17-day gap between contests. With so much on the line, rust may be more dangerous than lack of rest.

“I think it’s easy to step out; I think it’s harder to step back into a rhythm. That’s usually the thing I’ve noticed coming off bye weeks,” he said. “People talk about rest, rest, rest, and that’s great, but sometimes you lose some momentum coming out of these bye weeks, and we had some great momentum.”

The Edmonton Elks (8-3) will visit the Calgary Stampeders (5-6) at McMahon Stadium on Monday, September 7, with kickoff scheduled for 6:00 p.m. EDT. Last week, the Elks were on bye while the Stampeders beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats thanks to a late touchdown run from Dedrick Mills.

The weather forecast in Calgary calls for a high of 20 degrees and sun. The game will be broadcast on TSN in Canada, CBS Sports Network in the U.S., and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on 880 CHED in Edmonton or 770 CHQR in Calgary.