For a couple of teams facing the pressure of a Labour Day Classic showdown, both the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Ticats had a notable calm and loose-goosey air about them after practices this week.
In Hamilton, there was linebacker Simoni Lawrence playfully wrestling with defensive lineman Bryan Hall on the scorching hot turf at Tim Hortons Field, the two of them a tangled mass of black and gold giggles.
In Toronto, Chad Kackert is handed the phone and says “this is Charles speaking,” before musing about whether he should now be known by that – his real name – since his return to CFL action in 2015 is a bit of a rebirth.
Intensity? There’s enough of that during practice and there will be plenty of time for it on Monday, I guess.
It will be there, as it always is and with even more than usual on the line. With identical records of 6-3, the Argos and Ticats are playing for sole possession of first place in the East.
“You don’t know what you’re gonna get but you know it’s gonna be fun, it’s gonna be exciting,” says Lawrence, no worse for wear after wrestling Hall to what looked like a draw, although I’m not really sure how hard Hall was trying. Lawrence has some friends who wear double blue, but that won’t matter on Monday as he tries to avoid a feeling he really detests. “I don’t like ‘em when we’re playing,” he says, slowly shaking his head. “It sucks losing to Toronto.”
“I actually came to work way earlier than we were supposed to today,” Lawrence laughs, when asked if his jovial mood meant his intensity was just on simmer. “Just because we’re all ramped up, man. We’re all ready to go to work. We all got here super early. We’re excited. We’re ready to go.”
Lawrence is a well-known trash talker, who revels in reeling off a good burn, quick to smile and respected as a player who backs up his chatty in-game nature with his play. Kackert is quieter but no less humourous; a deep thinker, known to read philosophy. Instead of firing verbal volleys at the opposition, he prefers to puncture what comes his way.
“I never did any talking at any level until my first start against Montreal, in 2011,” the California native says when asked whether he’ll be chirping the ‘Cats – and Lawrence in particular – on Monday. “And they shut me up pretty quickly. That was the first and last time I did any trash talking.”
So you won’t hear anything acid-tongued coming from the Toronto backfield when number 44 is getting ready for a snap. Instead, he chooses to put a stick in the spokes of anyone who would be the first to fire a volley his way.
“I will respond as if I’m having a normal conversation with anybody,” Kackert says, chuckling at the absurdity of that. “So, if someone were to say to me ‘we’re gonna be here all day,’ I’ll say to them ‘it’s one o’clock. Half the day’s over, so that’s impossible.’ That’s how I like to wind things up. I like to play loose and comfortable. I don’t like to get all tense.”
In the days leading up to this exceptionally important football game, the smiles and fun-loving will start to vanish, the game faces more wrinkled with furrowed brows than laugh lines. What is clear is that there is respect flowing back and forth, with Lawrence expressing his for the opposition, despite Hamilton’s convincing 34-18 win at Tim Hortons Field back on August 3rd.
“They’re a good football team,” he says. “They play well. We have to play a good game. We can’t expect to come in there and beat ‘em like we did last time.”
The sting of the team’s first ever home loss at Tim Hortons Field, last week against Montreal, has dissolved, it seems. It’s been replaced with resolve.
“We learned you’re gonna lose games if you don’t come out to play,” Lawrence says, soberly. “We got that out of the way. But the Argos (are) a different beast. It’s Labour Day. I feel like we’re gonna be competitive as hell.”
Kackert has played in just one Labour Day Classic, a 33-30 Argos win in 2012. He remembers it “being one of the most fun games I’ve played in as a professional.” He’s looking forward to being immersed in that atmosphere again and says for him, at least, the role of hated foe is just fine.
“I think we just thrive off their energy,” he says of Hamilton’s passionate and vocal fans. The more Tiger-Cat fans the better.”
With both Kackert and Lawrence in relaxed moods, I decided to have a little fun with them by doing some word association, slightly varying the trigger words at times. I did say “Labour Day Classic” to both of them. Lawrence responds with “action.” Kackert responds with “hot, loud, Hamilton.” When I point out that the word “fun” was not included, Kackert’s retort is quick and clear: “It’s football, that’s a given,” he says.
I ask Lawrence for a quick reaction to a few more words or phrases. When I say “city of Toronto, he replies “Hamilton.” When I say “city of Hamilton, he replies “ballers.”
And if I say “Trevor Harris?”
“Let’s get it, Trevor,” is his answer and by the grin on his face you get the feeling he was forming a mental picture of coming clean into the Argos’ backfield and completing a sack with a certain amount of authority.
That means now is the time to bring the Argos’ quarterback into this. “Chirper,” is what Harris says when asked to describe Lawrence in a word.
“I think everybody knows that Simoni likes to talk and it’s all in the fun of the game,” Harris continues, before adding “he’s a cool guy, I like him.”
“Every time he almost sacked me (in the last meeting) he was like ‘Trev, I’m gettin’ close,’ you know, one of those things. He just likes to have fun.”
While Harris declined to get into a verbal wrestling match with Lawrence in that game, he wonders if it might not be a bad idea to change it up on Labour Day. “Maybe I will this week, though,” he says ponderously. “Maybe I’ll throw him for a loop.”
As for Lawrence, he doesn’t make any promises. But he does give a bit of a surprising answer when asked what kind of verbal slingshot he might have up his sleeve, come warm-up time on Monday.
“I’m gonna try and just lead my team and not put too much emphasis on the other team,” he says. ‘We already played them (and) I feel we got that out of the way, all the talking. Everything else is a distraction.”
Lawrence might be able to keep his lips zipped during warm-ups, but there aren’t too many what you’d consider wise men or women willing to wager on his being a choirboy when the game is on. If so, Kackert might come back at him with something puzzling. Harris might not come back at him at all. Whether all this actually affects the outcome is always tough to tell, but fun to consider.
Trash talking is all part of the lore of an Argonauts-Ticats Labour Day clash. Players take part and so do the fans. Kackert welcomes one and all.
“The way I see it, it’s between us and them,” he says of the players. “And whoever from each city wants to get involved, that’s fine.”
With that in mind, one more word association game. When I say “Ticats,” Kackert responds with “history and tradition.” When I say “Argos,” his reply is “even more history and tradition.”
So far, the inter-city jousting is being done with a playful wink. Wanna bet that changes on Monday?
