WINNIPEG — The Ottawa Redblacks were denied their touchdown celebrations for the 103rd Grey Cup.
The Algonquin Loggersports Team traditionally slices a "wood cookie" off a log in the west endzone at Ottawa’s TD Place to mark a Redblacks touchdown.
But their chainsaw wasn’t welcome at Investors Group Field, where the second-year Redblacks were to take on the Edmonton Eskimos on Sunday in the CFL championship game.
"The league supports and encourages the presence and participation of the Algonquin Loggersports Team on the field at the Grey Cup game," the CFL said in a pre-game statement. "However, in response to concerns raised, and as the game is intended to be at played at a neutral site, the touchdown celebration that normally occurs at Redblacks’ home games will not be allowed between kickoff and the final gun."
The league did not immediately respond to a query on who raised the concern.
The plaid-clad Algonquin College loggersports team, based out of the school’s Pembroke campus, participates in intercollegiate lumberjack skills competitions.
It’s not the first time a Grey Cup team has had to do without a touchdown celebration.
In 2012, the Calgary Stampeders and league came to a compromise on the team’s mascot for the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto. One of the Stampeders touchdown horses was allowed on the sidelines at the Rogers Centre but wasn’t permitted to gallop along the sidelines when Calgary scored due to safety concerns and a lack of space.