MONTREAL -- Sandro DeAngelis accomplished the Canadian dream.
Undrafted after a career at the University of Nebraska, DeAngelis signed a free agent contract with the Calgary Stampeders in 2005 and a year later was named the Most Outstanding Special Teams Player in the Canadian Football League.
On Sunday, he nailed five of five field goals, including a 50-yarder, in the Stampeders’ 22-14 win over the Montreal Alouettes in the 96th Grey Cup and was named the Most Outstanding Canadian in the game.
"I’ve been dreaming about this day since I was a four-year-old kid," the 27-year-old native of Niagara Falls said. "I had 21 family members and coaches from the past show up to the game and to see your dream realized right before your eyes, I tell you what there’s no greater feeling in the world. I’m truly blessed, truly truly blessed, and very very happy. I’m speechless. I really am. This is one of the greatest days of my life."
He said he rehearsed that 50-yard kick in his mind and did it a million times in practice, kicking it in the back yard and the local high school down the street.
"This is the stuff dreams are made of," he said.
He bristled when asked if he didn’t mind losing the Special Teams Award on Thursday to Toronto’s Dominique Dorsey if it meant he could win the Cup.
"I’m a greedy bastard, I want both," he said. "I work my ass off to do what I do. Am I pissed off about the awards? Damn right I am, but I just ask that (voters) do their research, and I felt the research wasn’t done. To kick 50 of 58 field goals, I can’t do much better than that. If I would have made 52 out of 58 would it have made a difference?
"I know I got absolutely slammed in the voting. I got crushed. It wasn’t even close. It pissed me off, of course it did, but that being said this game was about skill and not somebody’s opinions.
"It lit a fire under my ass (losing the award), absolutely. I’m a pretty fiery guy; I’m a pretty intense guy. I’m a greedy guy, but I got the one I really wanted."
When asked if he was being serious or just being facetious, he responded: "I’m dead friggin’ serious. I’m a very self-motivated guy. This is what I wanted to do my entire life and I know kicking’s not the most exciting position in the world, but I want my resume to be disgustingly gaudy and when it’s all said and done I want people to say, ‘DeAngelis was the best person that ever did it.’ I’m going to always strive for that.
"If I don’t reach it, I’m going to be damn good, though. I’m damn greedy because I work hard to be greedy. The hard work is put in when nobody’s watching. Tonight was the easy part. It’s going out and doing it. It’s the hard that you do in the off-season, the hard work when nobody’s watching. So I’m not being facetious when I say that, I’m being dead serious. I wanted both, didn’t get ‘em but the one I wanted more I got."
