Cody Fajardo called out ex-teammate Tyler Snead for 113th Grey Cup guarantee

Photo courtesy: Thomas Skrlj/CFL.

Cody Fajardo isn’t going to let any piece of bulletin board material slide during Grey Cup week.

The Edmonton Elks starting quarterback revealed after his arrival in Calgary on Tuesday that he had already reached out to his former teammate, Montreal receiver Tyler Snead, who guaranteed an Alouettes victory in an interview with 3DownNation on Saturday.

“Yeah, I sent it to him. You guys know me; I think any way you can motivate yourself,” Fajardo said, indicating that Snead had chosen not to engage in further trash-talk.

“It’s pretty one-sided and pretty quiet on the other side. It’ll be interesting when we cross paths.”

Snead made the proclamation in the aftermath of Montreal’s 33-23 win over Winnipeg in the East Final, responding to a question about the upcoming matchup by saying, “We’re gonna win it. We’re going to go in there and win it. That’s all I can say.”

Alouettes head coach Jason Maas was unwilling to double down on his receiver’s bravado when asked, but expressed no concerns about what was said.

“Anytime you hear a player excited about getting to this game, and someone throws a microphone in their face and asks them about what the result’s going to be, of course they’re going to be confident to say they can win it. Nobody in our organization — I’m looking at all our players coming off the plane — I don’t think anybody in here doesn’t believe we can go in and win this game,” he said.

“That’s just how we’re built, but it takes a lot of preparation to do that. I’ll be more confident when we’ve put all the work in by the end of the week before I would ever say that. But I’m glad our players feel that way because you’re coming here for one reason and one reason only. We’ve been doing this for one reason, one reason only, for an entire year, an entire six months. It’s not to come here and lose. It’s with the expectation that you’ve done what you could do up to this point, and you still have work to do, but that work will be done confidently with the expectation that you do win.”

The last time that the Alouettes and Snead accomplished that feat was in 2023, when Fajardo was serving as the team’s starting quarterback. The 34-year-old famously fired his team up with an expletive-laden speech, then completed 21-of-26 passes for 290 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception to be named the game’s MVP.

Just over a year later, Fajardo was out in Montreal and replaced by Davis Alexander. He landed on his feet in Edmonton and, with the two teams set to face off for the title on Sunday, is all too happy to embrace the narratives that come with the reunion.

“To build it up and to play that part in the media, it’s fun and helps get more eyes on this league. That’s my goal as a player in this league is try to get this league as high and as exciting as possible,” Fajardo said. “When you have storylines like that, and when you have opportunities to call people out, and it gets X amount of views on social media, that’s just great for the league.”

The Nevada product has never hidden the chip on his shoulder, recently dubbing himself the CFL’s most disrespected player and calling out CFL on TSN panelist Henoc Muamba for his takes after the West Final. However, playing the media game can be a delicate tightrope to walk with the ultimate prize on the line.

“We’ve got to manage the distractions. That’s what this whole week is about,” Elks head coach Mark Kilam noted after deftly avoiding a question about Snead’s guarantee.

“The things that win and lose football games are the same things that win and lose football games in a preseason game, in a regular season game, in a playoff game. There’s just more things surrounding it. Once the game kicks off, it’s about playing to our standard in all three phases.”

Fajardo doesn’t disagree, though he does admit to finding the competitive exchanges prior to opening kickoff particularly invigorating.

“I like playing the game because I’m going to miss that (external motivation) when I’m done playing. I like playing the game, building up to it, leading up to it. But when the ball is kicked off, you forget about all that stuff. You’re going out there, you’re trying to execute your X’s and O’s,” he said.

“I’ve got a lot of love for those guys over there. There’s going to be some trash-talking throughout the week, and when we cross paths in the game, but nothing but love outside the 60 minutes for them. Inside the 60 minutes, it’s a steel cage match. It’s anything goes in there, and we’re gonna do everything we can to win a football game.”

The Montreal Alouettes (15-4) and Edmonton Elks (14-5) will meet in the 113th Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Sunday, November 15, with kickoff scheduled for 6:00 p.m. ET.

The Alouettes and Elks split their two meetings during the regular season. In June, Edmonton won 32-29 in overtime at Commonwealth Stadium, as running back Justin Rankin recorded 230 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. In August, Montreal won 48-30 at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium, led by a 131-yard, three-touchdown performance from Tyson Philpot.

The weather forecast in Calgary calls for a high of 10 degrees with a mix of sun and cloud. The game will be broadcast on TSN, CTV, RDS, and Crave in Canada, and CFL+ internationally.