Mike Goodpaster does an outstanding job of covering football and boxing in The Grueling Truth. He takes a close look at the Canadian Football League and in this piece presents what he considers to be the Top 10 best Grey Cup games ever played. He has painstakingly watched through countless hours of game film and did it all over again following the 2016 Grey Cup game which became an instant classic. Check out the films from the games on his list and the reasoning behind his choices!
I wrote my original Top 10 Grey Cups back in March. Since then I have watched every game in my top 15 to see if I made any mistakes. With this year’s Grey Cup being such a great game I figured it was time to revise the list.
10) 1958: Winnipeg 35 Hamilton 28
Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback, Ken Ploen, was hurt, forcing Jim Van Pelt into action.
Sure enough, Van Pelt brought the Bombers from behind, scoring two touchdowns and kicking two field goals, while Norm Rauhaus recovered a blocked kick for another Winnipeg major.
This game was widely considered the greatest Grey Cup game played until the shootouts of the 80’s.
9) 1976, Ottawa 23 Saskatchewan 20
Tom Clements to Gabriel — anyone who saw it won’t soon forget one of the most exciting plays in CFL history, and the play that lifted the ’76 game to legendary status.
This game makes the list with a truly amazing final 20 seconds.
8) 1981, Edmonton 26 Ottawa 23
Who’d have guessed that an apparent mismatch between a 14-1-1 power like the Eskimos and an also-ran like 5-11 Ottawa would produce a CFL classic?
The Rough Riders had a dreadful regular season. They were supposed to get blown away. And they played a great game. They led at the half. And the Eskimos came back from a 20-1 deficit to win it. It was a great game, a great crowd at Olympic Stadium.
Read the rest of the article from The Grueling Truth by Mike Goodpaster.