WINNIPEG — Saskatchewan Roughriders' defensive lineman Micah Johnson is no stranger to the Grey Cup and everything that surrounds it, but even a 12-year veteran of the Canadian Football League can’t help but be excited for what’s ahead.
The key is making sure nothing distracts from the mission at hand, and by his own admission, that can be a difficult task.
From dealing with the early arrival to all the festivities and even eating correctly, it’s all a process that has to be worked through — and ideally, when the time for kick-off comes, things have come together in perfect fashion.
It all begins with travel. Rather than leaving for the game a day before, teams arrive in the Grey Cup host city a week in advance to deal with media and everything else surrounding the spectacle of the CFL championship. That in and of itself is the first major hurdle players have to work around.
“Football players are very routine, and your routine is beyond broke at this point, getting here a week in advance,” said Johnson, whose Roughriders face the Montreal Alouettes in the 112th Grey Cup on Sunday. “You try to stay locked in as much as you can and I think the coaching staff has done a good job of splitting up our meetings. We’ve been getting a lot of meeting time in, a lot of lifts in, it’s really about time management at this point.”
Once the players arrived in Winnipeg, the real whirlwind began. Every day is media, the aforementioned meetings, practice, preparation and everything in between. That’s a whole lot of distractions, and Johnson — a two-time Grey Cup champion with Calgary in 2014 and 2018 — has made sure to let his teammates know how to deal with it all.
“It’s about the guys keeping it on their mind that we’re here for the game and that’s our main job,” Johnson said. "I’m telling guys to stay focused, keep locked in, but honestly, the guys have been doing a great job.”
It might not seem like a major factor, but even getting proper nutrition can be a thing, especially when you’ve locked into a pattern that’s worked all season long and suddenly has to be changed.
“You’ve got to be picky about where you’re eating at, trying to switch it up and staying away from the fast food,” Johnson said. “Me and the guys have been hitting up restaurants as much as we can and getting some real food, but it’s been difficult. Then it’s hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.”
The end goal is to be as ready as possible when the time comes. To that end, Johnson is confident the troops will come in prepared both mentally and physically to get the job done, especially given their focus on winning all season long.
“That’s what we set out for, that was our goal the whole season from when we got together at training camp,” Johnson said. “The job’s not done for us yet, and that’s what we’ve continued to tell ourselves, the job’s not done. We came here to win and that’s the biggest thing.”
As for what could happen on the field, Johnson is expecting a much different turn of events compared to what happened in the previous meeting between the two teams, a loss where Montreal put up 48 points on the Riders defence. As has been a theme from his teammates all week, the past is the past, and everyone should expect a much different look from both teams this time around.
“This is a good team in front of us, but we’re not harping on [past games],” Johnson said. “ That was a whole different situation for us, we had a lot of guys down, so this is a totally different ball game.”
Be sure to catch the Rider Broadcast Network Grey Cup pre-game show featuring Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk, Wes Cates, Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder at 2 p.m on Sunday, followed by the call of the 112th Grey Cup at 5 p.m.
