Hamilton homecoming

HAMILTON -- In someone's dreams, they'll be naming another breakfast cereal after him any day now.

But Andy Fantuz understands better than anyone else that he's not in Kansas -- or Saskatchewan -- anymore.

Consider the setting for the press conference that introduced him as a Hamilton Tiger-Cat on Tuesday morning. The home team's dressing room at Ivor Wynne Stadium, which in less than a year will fall to the wrecker's ball, is lined with reminders of the franchise's glorious past -- and the funky, cramped confines themselves might as well be a museum exhibit of what football looked like in the 1950's. Less obvious are signs of a glorious present, which is the situation Fantuz is being paid big dollars to change.

This winter, the Ticats have gone all in. Full credit to their owner Bob Young, a man who clearly puts his money where his heart is. They hired head coach George Cortez away from the staff of the Buffalo Bills, one of those places where CFL franchises can spend a bit extra without it showing up under the salary cap; and they have recast a roster that finished last season one win away from a Grey Cup berth by bringing in Henry Burris, Martell Mallett and Greg Peach, while sending Kevin Glenn and Avon Cobourne packing.

Fantuz is the biggest puzzle piece because he is a Canadian capable of being a number one receiver, just now entering what should be the prime years of his career. But he's also going to have to be more than that. For the grand plan to come together just about the time the new Hamilton football stadium is up and running in 2014, Fantuz is going to have to become an honest to God star.

That's problematic, because this is the Canadian Football League and this is Southern Ontario, the most populous part of the country, and also the part most oblivious to the charms of the three down game.

The polar opposite of Regina, where the Roughriders are even more of a local obsession now than they were in the days when Ron Lancaster and George Reed were prairie icons. Fantuz's celebrity there was the equivalent of hockey star celebrity anywhere else in Canada, hence Fantuz Flakes, and hence the hand-wringing when he first opted to try his luck in the National Football League, and then turned down more money to sign with Hamilton as a free agent.

So no more of life in the Regina fishbowl.

"When you're out there, it's good and it's bad," Fantuz says of living every minute of every day in the limelight. "But in the end I wouldn't want to be a guy who wants to not get noticed."

Here, buying groceries or filling the tank without being bothered by autograph seekers won't be an issue. He comes to a place relatively close to his hometown of Chatham, Ont., close to Western University in London, where he was a star (and where the Ticats will likely play a few home games while their new park is being constructed), to a city in which football is a strong historic and cultural reference point and a pillar of local identity, but somehow still not on the front burner.

Coming home was a big part of the equation, Fantuz says. He grew up in a Ticat-loving household. And the fact that Hamilton seems on the brink of returning to the Grey Cup for the first time since they last won it in 1999, while the Riders may be in for a longer rebuild (though in an eight team league, things can change fast), also influenced his decision.

"It definitely wasn't about the money," he says. "It's about winning championships … I think it’s pretty clear to the entire league, to the entire country, that Hamilton is on the verge." (yes, you've heard that before, but since Fantuz apparently did leave money on the table in Regina, it’s hard to argue.) Deliver that championship, and there's the chance to be a local hero. Whether Fantuz can be even more than that remains the open question. It's not like the Ticats haven't gone the big-name-signing route before. Jesse Lumsden couldn't do it (because he got hurt). Casey Printers couldn't do it (because he was awful and his teammates hated him.)

"I think that Hamilton fans are as close as you can get to Saskatchewan fans as far as being passionate about the team," Fantuz says.

Close, but not so close. Bob Young and company will be thrilled if he can just narrow the gap a bit.