WINNIPEG – The Grey Cup, like many of the viewing parties around it, will be largely BYOB.
The Edmonton Eskimos and Ottawa Redblacks will be bringing their own balls to the 103rd edition of the CFL championship game Sunday.
The league will contribute 24 balls to the party, to be used in kicking situations during the Investors Group Field showdown.
READ MORE: What you need to know about the 2015 Grey Cup
But the teams will each bring their own balls to use on offence. They can practise with those balls beforehand, bringing them to CFL officials 90 minutes before kickoff.
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The team balls are tested to ensure they meet “a new ball standard,” according to Glen Johnson, the league’s vice-president of officiating.
“We pump it, we measure it, we check to see if all the laces are correct,” he said in an interview Thursday. “And all of the dimensions.”
Each team’s balls – Johnson says they will each have about a dozen – will be clearly marked as their own.
The CFL first allowed teams to use their own balls on offence two years ago. It gives quarterbacks a chance to play with balls that are familiar to them, as long as they meet standards.
Kickers, it appears, aren’t quite as needy, according to Johnson.
READ MORE: Grey Cup 2015 blog
The team balls remain under the control of league officials once they take possession of them before the match.
The league has balls in reserve, in case there is a run on player souvenirs in a high-scoring game.
“We’ve got another 48 kicking balls that we have available to us. We won’t prepare them unless we need to prepare them,” Johnson said.
The CFL uses a Wilson football.
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