Grey Cup Sunday: Tiger Cats/Blue Bombers; Urban to perform at half time

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“Whether we’re underdogs or not, we’re not really thinking about that, we’re just thinking about what we need to do as a group to go out and win. Whoever is counting us in or counting us out is totally up to them.”

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And should the Bombers need inspiration, they need look no further than defensive co-ordinator Richie Hall, who has routinely beaten the odds on and off the field.

The amiable 59-year-old native of San Antonio, Texas, was a walk-on at Colorado State as a five-foot-six, 160-pound defensive back. Hall went on to play nine years in the CFL with the Calgary Stampeders (1983-87) and Saskatchewan Roughriders (1988-91).

He won the first of three Grey Cups in ’89 with a Saskatchewan squad that finished the regular season in third in the West Division with a 9-9 record. After dispatching Calgary 33-26 in the conference semifinal, the upstart Riders captured the division crown with a 32-21 upset of the Edmonton Eskimos, who’d finished atop the standings with a CFL-record 16-2 record.

The Riders capped their season edging the East Division-champion Hamilton Tiger-Cats (12-6) with a thrilling 43-40 Grey Cup win in Toronto.

As a child, Hall survived a horrific car accident that saw him catapulted through the windshield.

He earned his other two Grey Cups as a coach with Saskatchewan (2007, ’13).

Winnipeg is the first third-place team to reach the Grey Cup since Edmonton in 2005. The Eskimos went on to beat the Montreal Alouettes 38-35 in Vancouver.

The Bombers are chasing their first Grey Cup title since 1990. Then again, Hamilton hasn’t won a CFL championship since ’99.

And in the two games versus Winnipeg, Hamilton has led for a combined 99 minutes, 58 seconds. Winnipeg has been ahead for just three minutes, 58 seconds.

The Ticats have been a loose bunch this week but head coach Orlondo Steinuaer — named the CFL’s coach of the year Thursday — said that’s not a sign of over-confidence.

“It’s who we are, it’s how we got here,” he said. “I know from the outside it may look loose or overconfident or whatever adjective you want to put on it.

“I’d encourage you to come watch us Day 1 at McMaster in training camp and see how we practice and see if there’s any difference.”

Both teams held their final practices Saturday, giving players and coaches plenty of down time before Sunday’s kickoff. For Harris and Bombers’ starter Zach Collaros, it’s an opportunity to spend time with family and teammates before returning to the team hotel early in the evening.

“I’ll be back in the room early enough to go through the playsheet and different situations in your mind,” Collaros said. “In the morning I try not to even think about it, find something on TV that has nothing.

“Just try to get my mind off it, at the same time get in the proper mental space to be ready to go.”

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press

Urban to perform at half time

CALGARY — Country music star Keith Urban is about to experience the Canadian Football League for the first time.

The four-time Grammy winner is the halftime performer for Sunday’s 107th Grey Cup in Calgary between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“Having never seen a CFL game before, I’m looking forward to seeing one,” Urban said Saturday at McMahon Stadium. “What a crash course right? To come and see the Grey Cup.”

Urban has sold more than 20 million albums, six of which have reached No. 1.

Previous Grey Cup halftime performers include Alessia Cara, Shania Twain, OneRepublic, Fall Out Boy and Imagine Dragons.

Urban has performed at a Nashville Predators games and at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field for the NHL Stadium Series game between the Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins in February.

Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, he’s familiar with NFL football having attended a few Tennessee Titans games

The 52-year-old singer-songwriter says it’s a different vibe performing a few quick songs at a game where he’s not primarily who people have come to see.

“I never know what to expect in a situation like this,” Urban said. “It’s a bit like going to a festival where you don’t know how many people there know who you are, what you do, have never seen you before.

“But it’s maybe a little harder because it’s a sporting event. I always come out with the attitude that everyone is standing there doing this,” he said, folding his arms in front of him. “‘What do you do? What’s your business?’

“I want to keep everybody warm and up and motivated with hopefully songs most everyone knows.

“I’ve got 12 minutes to do it in.”

Urban is familiar with Calgary having performed in the city earlier in his career, including the 2014 Calgary Stampede.

“Calgary’s got such a huge country fan base,” Urban said. “My music certainly transcends a lot of that as well, goes outside of it a bit.

“It feels like a second home, it really does Canada in general, because I started touring here so early in my career.

“I could tell from when we started playing little clubs that what I was doing, everybody got it. I felt like I was back in Australia.”