Crocus alum Rice finally hoists Grey Cup

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This article was published 23/11/2023 (664 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Landon Rice finally got his Grey Cup parade on Wednesday.

The Brandonite is still revelling in the aftermath of his Montreal Alouettes’ improbable 28-24 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday.

“Montreal’s been unbelievable today and their reception for us as champions, it’s been so much fun,” the offensive lineman said via video call from Montreal.

“I’ve definitely been on the other side of it before a couple of times. In my 10th year, finally got through and managed to capture it and be the one team left happy at the end of the season. It’s a huge amount of validation for all the work you put in.”

For a man who dedicated a massive piece of his life to football when he graduated from Crocus Plains and signed with the University of Manitoba in 2007, this one meant the world. It checked off the final box on his goal of winning a championship at every level he played.

Rice played defensive end and fullback as the Plainsmen captured the 2006 Rural Manitoba Football League title and was a rookie offensive lineman on the Bisons team which captured the Vanier Cup the following year.

He also captured the Football Canada Cup with Team Manitoba in 2005.

So it may have been a shock to go the next 15 years with one bitter, season-ending defeat after the next.

Considering the average career of a professional football player is three or four years, he had to wait about four football lives before this one.

In his words, Rice’s career “almost ever even started.” He broke his ankle during his draft year at U of M and went undrafted, then signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2013 as an undrafted free agent and spent the season on their practice roster.

He played from 2014 to 2018 in Hamilton and then was traded to Montreal along with a guy named Johnny Manziel on July 22, 2018. The Als released him and the Ticats nabbed him back the following month.

Rice re-signed in Montreal midway through the 2019 season and has been with the club since then. Through that and the cancelled COVID-19 season, he kept his head down and worked. Despite being in his third decade of life, he seldom considered giving up without his name etched on the Grey Cup.

“If you’re not fully mentally committed to going forward with life as a football player, you’re not going to be able to hack it,” Rice said.

“The fact I’ve been able to play 10 years now at 35, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to have done so.

“Some of it comes down to luck, some comes down to being smart and doing the right things to keep your body ready and available to keep performing in its top condition.”

This season, the Als were anything but a lock to reach the Grey Cup. With the recent uptick of sports betting in Canada, Rice and his teammates knew they had the longest odds of the nine clubs to win.

Rice said that motivated some of his teammates. For him, it was simply a goal he would stop at nothing to achieve. He started the season at right tackle but suffered a neck injury midway through the season at Ottawa.

He went on the six-game injured list and returned as a backup and part of Montreal’s “jumbo” package early in what would be an eight-game win streak including the championship game.

“It goes to show it takes an entire team to get a Grey Cup win. I was lucky enough to be on the 45-man roster at the end of the season and get my name on that cup. It takes a lot more than those guys to get there, including the staff, coaches, everybody,” Rice said, adding there wasn’t any singular turning point for his squad.

“In my opinion, I’ve been there most of five seasons and you see it slowly building over time.”

Montreal reached the final with a 27-12 win over Hamilton and a 38-17 upset of the 16-2 Toronto Argonauts. That brought Rice back to where his CFL career started. With Hamilton playing host to the 110th Grey Cup, the Als got the home locker room. Rice got his full-circle moment and battled to the bitter end as his offence capped a game-winning touchdown drive with 13 seconds on the clock.

“It’s pretty special. That’s where we make our off-season home now with my wife and kids, so they were all at the game,” Rice said with a grin.

“Those kids walked into school the next day like they were rockstars, so it was pretty awesome to do that in front of the family and in front of all their friends in the community.”

It’ll soon be time for a strange off-season. Time after time, Rice has lost an East Division playoff game, missed the playoffs or on two occasions, watched the Grey Cup confetti fall on another team.

It was instant motivation to return and chase a ring.

Father Time remains undefeated, so at some point, this remarkable journey that started at Crocus Plains will have to end.

Will that be this year?

“If there was ever a time to ride off into the sunset, it would be after the Grey Cup victory,” Rice said. “I’ve definitely kept going with the career in order to win a championship at this level. I’m going to have to take a month to just really sit down with my family, talk it through and decide. I maybe have another year or two left in me, maybe this is it.”

He added, “Either way, I’m happy for the moment I’m in right now.”

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