Parade musings

WINNIPEG: For players on both teams, Saturday night is just like Christmas Eve. Dreams of the shiny Grey Cup dance in their heads.
The Grey Cup parade was essentially a football-themed Santa Claus parade, which started on Sherbrook, turned onto Portage Avenue and ended at The Forks. It started just before 4 p.m. When the sun sank in the horizon less than an hour later, the above-zero temperature plunged and winds kicked up.
B.C. Lions were represented by the Booze Brothers, Felions and Leo the Lion. Halifax still dreams of a team, so the Atlantic Schooners' boosters marched. There was even representation from the Baltimore Stallions' Fan Club. The current incarnation of the Montreal Alouettes was actually born in Baltimore during the CFL's southern expansion and moved to Montreal in 1996.
B.C. beat Baltimore in 1994's Grey Cup at B.C. Place Stadium. Ex-Lions' head coach Don Matthews was Baltimore's sideline general. Baltimore became the only non-Canadian Grey Cup winner in 1995 when they beat the Calgary Stampeders at Taylor Field in Regina.
Vancouver's 2005 Grey Cup parade, produced by Patrick Roberge, remains the best in the modern era. And not just because Pamela Anderson was the grand marshal.
--Bob Mackin