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There is a lot of coach speak in sports. There always has been but it seems to be at an all-time high recently. As a result, media rarely get a concrete statement or noteworthy quote. Rarer than that is when a coach admits an iconic play we all thought we understood was ‘a misunderstanding’.
Those were the words Edmonton Eskimos head coach Jason Maas used last week before the East Semi-Final against Hamilton when pressed on the importance of Greg Ellingson’s 93-yard game winning touchdown catch from Henry Burris in last year’s Eastern Final when Maas was the REDBLACKS’ offensive coordinator.
A ‘misunderstanding’ resulted in THAT?!
A play for which there could’ve been an Ellingson statue erected had Ottawa beat Edmonton in the 103rd Grey Cup Championship? A moment which I believe signified the true return of high quality football energy and excitement in our nation’s capital? Yes, that play.
On the one year anniversary of that iconic play, I asked RREDBLACKS quarterback Henry Burris to revisit the play and explain exactly what Maas meant by ‘a misunderstanding’.
Smilin’ Hank, cordial and razor sharp as the edges of the REDBLACKS logo dove deep into his memories of the play with an exactness which made you think it happened days ago. What I learned is that there was no ‘misunderstanding’ as Maas framed it. Rather a veteran decision by a savvy quarterback familiar with the Canadian football field.
“I just flipped it” Burris said Friday.
The play Maas called was to put the three receiver side of the formation to the short side of the field. Burris wasn’t a fan. Even some of the REDBLACKS receivers looked like they knew Burris called the play ‘wrong’ such as Chris Williams, who wandered back to Burris after the huddle broke to inform Henry of his ‘mistake’.
Burris quickly waved off Williams and told him everything was okay, at which point Williams would retreat to the spot Henry intended him to start the play.
“The concept is called delta, everybody runs it in this league. It’s a vertical throw and we were backed up on second and 25 so I knew I had to take a shot. I ran the play Jason gave me but I flipped it to put Greg (Ellingson) to the wide side of the field so he would have more room to make a play.”
And make a play he did. At first, I thought this onion only had one layer. Burris clearly just made an executive decision to give his receiver a better chance for success. Then Henry went as deep into his memory as he did on the pass to Ellingson.
“I remember thinking about Greg running that play earlier in the game to the short side and it was incomplete, I just thought how great it would be to give him a chance in space out there against his old team and a smaller defensive back in (Ed) Gainey. I knew pre-snap Emmanuel Davis was the only guy I had to worry about because if he helped Gainey I was in trouble.”
Kind of like in life, this is where for Burris and the REDBLACKS, the plan was interrupted at the most inopportune time possible. The snap hit Burris directly in the hands but in that moment he admits, “I was watching Emmanuel”.
As a result, the ball popped up in the air for what seemed like an eternity.
Then magic happened.
A football is not designed to rotate randomly and give you the laces as you catch it. Quarterbacks throw without the laces on quick routes all the time but as fate would have it Burris was gift wrapped the laces directly to the fingers on his iconic right hand.
This allowed Burris to get back on schedule. He remembers, “looking up and seeing Emmanuel Davis getting wider out there, which made me think ‘oh shoot’ for a second, but then I realized Greg got into Gainey’s blind spot so I knew I just had to set my hips to that right side and let it rip. I just threw it as far and high to that spot as I could and hoped Greg would make a play.”
Adding to this incredulous moment of capital football euphoria was the fact that despite all the trials and tribulations of this play to that point, the throw almost never happened.
Then Tiger-Cats defensive lineman Bryan Hall rushed off the right side of Burris and despite two blockers assigned to him, came inches away from hitting Burris’ arm nullifying one of the more spectacular plays in recent CFL memory.
Since the moment that throw left Henry’s hand, he has returned to the Grey Cup, his offensive coordinator left for the the team trying to prevent him from making another, he has been injured, benched and has a new voice in his helmet with offensive coordinator Jaime Elizondo.
That play sent shockwaves through not just the ground at TD Place but across the country. As for the possibility of a ‘misunderstanding’ today in the Eastern Final, the 41-year old leader of the REDBLACKS says with his vintage wide smile, “anything is possible”.
