By Perry Lefko, Sportsnet.ca
The Banjo Bowl it is.
Winnipeg kicker Troy Westwood might call it a business trip, while others will refer to it by its more formal name – the 95th Grey Cup – but for most everyone else, this Sunday’s championship game between Westwood’s Blue Bombers and their Prairie cousins, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, is the Banjo Bowl.
It is the first time in the game’s history that the two teams have faced each other in the Grey Cup, mostly because they have both played in the West Division. The Banjo Bowl moniker is one Westwood helped create in 2003. Winnipeg and Saskatchewan were matched up in the West semi-final and Westwood jokingly called the Saskatchewan fans a bunch of banjo-picking inbreds. He followed that with a tongue-in-cheek apology saying he didn’t think anyone in Saskatchewan could actually play a banjo. The following season, the two teams’ game in Winnipeg was coined the Banjo Bowl and the name stuck.
In good Canadian fashion, it has been accepted good-naturedly, with the Bombers marketing department creating a trophy and a newspaper chain providing a $10,000 cheque for charity on behalf of the winning team.
When apprised of the Banjo Bowl theme, Westwood said, "I thought it was called the Grey Cup that we’re playing on Sunday."
He was only partly joking, but Westwood had better get used to the spotlight this week.
He has always stood out from the crowd. With his long hair (a tribute to his fascination with native Canadian culture), his warrior tattoos, his acclaim as a successful recording artist in Aboriginal music and previous stints in boxing and tap dancing, Westwood has been portrayed in a variety of ways, not all of them complimentary. His penchant for making comments, notably his much-ballyhooed banjo statement, has added to his CFL folklore.
For most of his career he wore a helmet with a single-bar facemask that pointed downward, making him look nothing like a football player even if his biceps are as big as any defensive lineman. He finally changed his face gear this year with two bars that look normal, claiming he was getting poked in the eye when he had a single bar.
Strip away all those personality quirks and Westwood is a proud athlete who goes into Sunday’s game with the goal to win what was eluded him on three previous attempts in 1992, 1993, and 2001.
His latest trip to the Cup comes in a year in which he has had his struggles. Not only was his accuracy in doubt, making him a healthy scratch for the first time in his career, but the punting duties he had full-time in 2006 were taken away to start the season. He only resumed punting in the playoffs.
"I’m excited to be back into the Grey Cup," he said in an exclusive interview with Sportsnet.ca. "I cherish these opportunities now, for sure, and also I feel so honoured as a Prairie boy to be a player in the first time in the history of the league that the Bombers and the Roughriders have met in the Grey Cup. That’s maybe the coolest thing in the whole world. As a Prairie boy who’s always loved football, it’s really neat."
Though he was born in Dauphin, Manitoba 40 years ago, his mother’s family is from Saskatchewan.
"The Roughriders have always been my second favourite team since I was a kid," he said. "In mid-season when we were in first place and they were around first place, I thought out loud, ‘Wouldn’t it be something else (to have both teams in the Cup)?’ and it ended up being the two of us. It seemed like a distant dream at the time, but it’s come true at this point."
Westwood said that when the two teams play, his mother’s side of the family has divided loyalties, hoping he plays well, but that the Roughriders win.
"They’re green and white through and through, so they hope I play well, but they want Saskatchewan to still win."
Westwood never lived in Saskatchewan, but spent a lot of time there, enough to know what this game means to the Rider Nation.
When he made his "banjo-pickin’" comments, he effectively threw fire on to a smoldering feud that could only be appreciated in the Prairies. He became an object of scorn among the folks of Saskatchewan, who felt he was making fun of them.
"The way it all worked out was great, but I typically don’t talk about other teams or players or provinces," he said. "It was just a fun-loving statement because of the environment, I think, that I grew up in and always being around people who were cheering for Saskatchewan. It was really that simple. I was just having fun and didn’t realize the fervour it would cause.
"The fans, more so than anything, and the marketing department of the Bombers, for sure, have embraced the whole playfulness of it and I think it’s done wonders. It’s helped to give birth to the Banjo Bowl, which now ensures us essentially a sellout once a year."
Westwood will not allow his tongue to get the best of him going into the Cup. As they say, there’s many a slip between the Cup and the lip. In this case, it is something that is profound. He doesn’t want to put either himself or his team in a position of failure by saying something outlandish.
"I’m really focused and locked in right now on what I’m trying to accomplish to make a positive contribution to the success of our team," he said. "With the regular season that I had this year being so hideous and taking every possibility given to me in the post-season to make the most to contribute in a positive way, to fail to do so this coming Sunday will render the last two games invalid and irrelevant. I have to perform at a high level coming this Sunday."
Against the Argos, Westwood proved accurate on his field goals and punted as if he had been doing it all throughout his career, instead of primarily just in 2003 and 2006.
Westwood admitted he trained for months in the off-season, kicking and punting and had a fair degree of success, then was told by the coaching staff he wouldn’t be allowed to compete for the punting job going into the season. The Bombers signed free-agent veteran Pat Fleming, then released him after one game, and traded for Rob Pikula, who had some brief work doing punting and place-kicking with B.C. last year in his rookie season. The Bombers went through a litany of changes with their punters and place-kickers before a combination of injuries forced them to settle on Westwood in the post-season.
"Last year was my second (full) year punting and I did okay," he said, noting he placed fourth in the league in gross average and net average and the team had the lowest punt-return average.
"It’s not like I can’t punt," he said. "I averaged 42.9 yards in Winnipeg, which isn’t that bad."
Not bad at all, considering the wind conditions in Canad Inns Stadium are notorious for swirling in all different directions.
One kick he had in the East Division semi-final simply took off on him because of the crazy conditions. He made an adjustment and kicked the winning field goal.
Westwood said he has a deeper understanding of what’s involved in punting, specifically how he drops the ball. He has studied game film of Argos all-purpose kicker Noel Prefontaine, who is considered the pre-eminent punter in the CFL, and former Bombers’ punter Jon Ryan, who is now in the National Football League with Green Bay.
"To get off the perfect punt, it all starts with your drop," he said. "If you’ve got a bad drop, you’re dead. You can’t spiral the ball with a bad drop."
Westwood is not sure if what he’s doing now has effectively extended his career, which appeared to be on borrowed time at one point this season.
"I’m really focusing on the next task at hand instead of wondering what’s going to happen down the road to me," he said. "I still feel that I can play at a high level. I want to compete and play at a high level. All I can do is make the most of situations that are presented to me."
After his team pulled off the upset win over the Argos, Westwood shared a few special moments tossing around the football with his son, Takeo, who turns four in 10 days. Takeo has various translations: In Japanese it means Strong As Bamboo; in Ancient Greek it means The Swift One; and in Polynesian dialect, which is what Westwood intended, it means Great Warrior.
His son lives in Toronto with his mother, who has a business, while his father stays in Winnipeg for half the year to play for the Bombers.
"The times I get to see him are seldom and he’s at the age now where he knows what’s going on," Westwood said. "He talks to me a little bit about it and he wants to play catch after the games and that sort of thing. It’s such a beautiful time in his life right now and I’m just lucky that we played in Toronto and had a chance to spend some special time with him."
When the Blue Bombers come to Toronto on Tuesday to prepare for Sunday’s game, Westwood will have some added quality time to spend with his son.
"I’ll take advantage of whatever time is available to me to spend as much time as I can," he said. "But this is a business trip, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 17 years here and my three appearances in Grey Cups – and we’ve lost every one of them – is that to get to a Grey Cup and lose is exponentially more painful than missing the playoffs all together. To get that close to what is the ultimate goal for a football player or a coach and to have the trophy snatched out of your hands by an opponent, it’s something that resonates with you for years and years and maybe a lifetime. So this is a business trip, first and foremost, and I’m going to Toronto this week, as the rest of our team, number one to take care of business."
But proving that he is still a character of sorts, Westwood, who was sniffling through a phone interview, was asked if he had a cold.
"I’m just getting over one, kind of makes it sound sexy, huh?"
Let’s not get carried away now. There’s a big game ahead. Get serious, Troy.
