Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

CALGARY -- Chilliwack is pounding away on stage at the Spirit of Edmonton Friday night, banging out Fly At Night for, oh, about the 10,000th time since the tune came out in 1971.

Four men in a rock 'n' roll band,

Fly at night, in the morning' we land ...

Bill Henderson, the original front man of the group, could play most of these tunes in his sleep now. Lonesome Mary. Arms Of Mary. Give the man another Bloody Mary…

(We always thought there should be an exchange program for old Canadian bands like this one. If Trooper, Streetheart, April Wine and Chilliwack all traded set sheets, at least they wouldn't look so bored playing those old hits over, and over, and over, and over…)

Then again, this IS Grey Cup, where there is always going to be a certain element of Groundhog Day in play. The fans are middle-aged, and the same ones in the same jerseys show up every year, with name plates on the back that say "Ryan Ginger" and "Whisky Dick."

Here, it is always fair to ask the question: "Dancing? Or an injury waiting to happen?" And you can only laugh at the sight of the Hamilton guy and the Argos guy shaking hands, settling their differences, and promising in unison, "Next year, man."

If you ever wondered whether The Big Guy had a mischievous sense of humour, how about a rain/snow storm on Friday afternoon of Grey Cup week that coated the streets and sidewalks of Calgary in ice. Just in time for the hardest drinking weekend on the sporting calendar, thousands of folks who might tip over on a good night, now an accident waiting to happen.

So the 97th Grey Cup week will be remembered as a slippery one, which also happens to be the apt description of CFL commissioner Mark Cohon's annual State of the Union address. Moments after dismissing the media, Cohon was seen in the lobby of the Calgary Hyatt, spelling out his email address to a fan in a Stampeders jersey.

Funny, when he was speaking to the press there was no such glasnost.

"The key word is that we're stable," he said. "We've weathered the recession. The fans bought our tickets and watched our games on TV."

But what about the league's threat to reduce the numbers of Canadians on its rosters? Sorry folks, Cohon isn't talking about that one.

As commissioners go, Cohon fits the mould of the slick-in-a-suit league spokesman, who sends a sportswriter home with a notebook full of, well, not much really, once you re-read your notes. But what this week has reminded us, after a couple of years away from Grey Cup week, is that whatever little meat might exist on the bones of the administration, the players on a CFL roster provide an endless supply of fascinating tales.

The Roughriders are getting copious amounts of credit for grooming quarterback Darian Durant, despite the fact the team nearly gave up on him three years ago.

"It was maybe a couple of hours before I was leaving (Regina). I was packing up things in my apartment, heading home," he recounted this week. "Mr. Tillman (Saskatchewan general manager Eric) gave me a call and he said, 'Don't you leave, I'm coming.' He came over and sat down with me and reassured me about my place in Saskatchewan, said he wanted me here -- and I thank him a lot for that."

Same thing with the other QB. Montreal's Anthony Calvillo broke in with the Las Vegas Posse, where he and his teammates would walk in full practice gear through a Vegas casino to cash their pay checks at the cashier's window. He figured it was normal in the CFL.

He was nearly done after a stint in Hamilton, and had Calvillo not found a home in Montreal there would be one less bust in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame one day.

"It just blows me away, because I know where I came from, in La Puente, Calif.," the CFL's Most Outstanding Player for two years running said. "This little Mexican kid, about 145 pounds when I came out of high school, who never knew anything about the Canadian Football League until somebody gave me a call to say, 'Why don't you come try out for us?'"

Hey, we didn't know Grey Cup was this much fun either, until a buddy named Ronald McDonald gave us a call about 22 years ago and said, "Spec, why don't you come to Grey Cup in Vancouver with us?"

That was 1987 -- exactly a half a lifetime ago for this 44-year-old.

Now, between Super Bowls, World Series and Stanley Cup finals, a week at Grey Cup is still like a trip home for the holidays.

It's comfortable. Everything but the headache, that is.