Veteran Ottawa quarterback Burris feeling no pressure heading into East final

OTTAWA — Henry Burris isn’t feeling the pressure of returning the Ottawa Redblacks to the Grey Cup.

Ottawa hosts Edmonton in the East Division final Sunday afternoon in a rematch of last year’s Grey Cup contest, won 26-20 by the Eskimos. But Burris isn’t overwhelmed by the weight of expectation because he’s convinced that many football pundits never expected him to be in this position.

“I just knew people were out there ready to write me off,” said the 41-year-old Texan. “I feel no pressure going into this game because I’m not supposed to be out here playing.

“For me, I’m out there playing (and) I’m not supposed to be there so why should I even care? Let’s just go out and play, execute and enjoy this moment.”

Burris enjoyed a stellar 2015 season, leading the Redblacks atop the East Division with a 12-6 record and capturing the CFL’s outstanding player award. Burris led Ottawa to its first Grey Cup appearance since ’81 and came precariously close to earning the city its first league championship since 1976.

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Burris opened 2016 as Ottawa’s starter but suffered a finger injury and watched Trevor Harris rally the Redblacks to their season-opening 45-37 overtime win over Edmonton. Burris missed four starts before returning after knee and ankle injuries sidelined Harris.

However, Burris made just three starts before Harris came back as the starter. But since replacing an ineffective Harris (12 of 21 passing for 120 yards with a TD and interception) in a 32-30 loss to Saskatchewan on Oct. 7, Burris has remained Ottawa’s No. 1 quarterback.

 “I think the toughest part for me was even from an organizational standpoint I felt that way (being written off),” Burris said. “But the thing I knew was I just needed to get healthy and get my hand to where I could actually feel the ball coming off my pinky which I couldn’t when I was playing then.

“You could put Superman in here but this is still my team.”

Ottawa (8-9-1) became the first team in CFL history to finish atop a division with a sub-.500 record but Burris was 4-3 as its starter. After posting a 70.9-per cent completion average last year, Burris was 180 of 264 passing (68.2 per cent) in 2016 for 2,419 yards with 12 TDs and nine interceptions.

Edmonton starter Mike Reilly, last year’s Grey Cup MVP, said players often feel they must prove themselves each time they step on the field. But Reilly said Burris’s impressive resume — two Grey Cup titles, two CFL MVP awards, over 50,000 career passing yards — stands alone.

“He doesn’t have anything to prove to me,” Reilly said. “I know the great player that he is.

“It’s impressive to be able to play at such a high level this late into his career. It’s tough to play this game for as long as he has, damn near impossible.”

Edmonton head coach Jason Maas, who was Ottawa’s offensive co-ordinator last season, echoed those sentiments.

“Ultimately, you have to make plays against him,” Maas said. “He’s not going to be rattled … he’s been in every situation you could possibly imagine.

“As much as I know about Henry, as much as I love the guy and have so much respect for him, I think we all know what he’s about. He’s a future Hall of Famer.”

Ottawa was 2-6-1 at TD Place but 2-0 versus Edmonton. However, the Eskimos, who have won three straight and six of their last seven games, are favoured Sunday to become the first crossover team to reach the Grey Cup.

“We’re still the Eastern division champions, regardless of how you cut it up,” Burris said. “Yeah, we might’ve lost some home games but we found ways to win games on the road (6-3 away from TD Place), which we didn’t do last year as consistently as we did this year.

“You give this team one game to have success, I expect the good guys to show up and play the right way.”

Sunday’s weather forecast calls for a 90 per cent chance of precipitation with a high of 3 C. But in Burris’s mind, that’s downright balmy compared to the frigid conditions he faced in Calgary’s 20-16 West Division final loss to Saskatchewan in 2010 at McMahon Stadium.

It was -18 C that day, although Burris felt it was much colder.

“It was -38 C … and one of the worst weather days ever,” Burris recalled. “It was windy, it was cold, it was brutal.

“I’ve heard it will be nasty (Sunday) but it won’t be -38. Shoot, our guys will be wearing short sleeves out there.”

Notes: Ray Early will handle field goals and punts while Zack Medeiros will do kickoffs Sunday for Ottawa with veteran Chris Milo injured … Veteran Calvin McCarty starts at fullback for Edmonton while quarterback Thomas DeMarco, signed earlier this week, goes on the one-game injured list.

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press