Defeated Ticats return home

Grey Cup 2013 has come and gone and there will be no big celebrations in Hamilton. It was a brutal, and bitter loss for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Sunday as they faced not only a formidable challenge from the Roughriders but endless hostility from Saskatchewan fans.

Scot Urquhart has more from the Cat’s lair on Jarvis Street where the team was warmly welcomed earlier Monday, by some fans of a different “stripe”

The Cats came back “without” the one piece of baggage they really wanted to bring home to Hamilton. But with a little distance from the hostile environment of Regina, the team was able to gain a little bit of solace in the comforts of home.
It was a long plane ride from Regina. Long enough to gain some perspective, on a very painful loss.

Tiger-Cats Centre Marwan Hage: “Mixed emotions you know. You want to be angry and you want to be frustrated, but you gotta remember we’re very privileged to do what we do.”

Although things fell apart on the field; they did not fall apart on the sidelines, or in the locker-room and that means a lot to veteran Henry Burris: “This is the best locker room I’ve ever been involved with. I mean, so many great guys, and the fact that we went out there week, after week to play for each other. I mean that’s what we believed in. We didn’t want to let each other down as players and honestly, when you have a locker room that doesn’t care about the materialistic things and only care about each other you know you have something special.”

The small knot of fans, like Rich Whyman, that managed to gather for the team’s return seemed to feel the same way, win or lose: “14 years we’ve been waiting to get back to the Cup and I just wanted to come down and booked a day off to celebrate. But I’m still happy with an awesome season these guys had.”

Bruce Inch, fan: “We bleed black and gold buddy. We’ve been there every day for practices this year, and you know we came from last place to first place, so you can’t say one bad thing about us. Not one.”

Pete Dyakowski will be spending the off season re-habbing the knee that was injured. But just feeling the love from the family and friends that care about the Cats, helps to take the edge off a tough loss and he says he’s already set another goal, for next season: “We need to win one. We need to win one for Hamilton, and we got close this season, and we’re gonna get there next year.”

It was clear Monday afternoon that the team was hurting in more ways than one. They really wanted to have that “Cinderella” finish to the season, not only for the fans, but each other. There were lots of hugs and handshakes on Jarvis Street on this afternoon. And it’s clear that the players really do care for each other. And if nothing else, this season of challenge and adversity may have welded them together, into a stronger unit. And that can’t be bad thing, going into a new season, in a new stadium next year.