GM Marcel Desjardins discusses the importance of hosting the 2017 Grey Cup to the Redblacks.

The clock struck midnight, the Cinderella ending came to fruition. For the Ottawa REDBLACKS and their fans, it all became real: They were Grey Cup Champions.
Yet somewhere in the locker-room beneath BMO Field, in the mist of the champagne in the midst of celebration, away from all the microphones, before the confetti could be cleared, Marcel Desjardins wondered ‘how can we do this again?’
“That quickly,” Desjardins nodded to a small scrum of reporters during CFL Week in Regina nearly four months later. “In our locker-room in Toronto after the game, the expectation was we need to be there for the next one.” ....

Even with unlikely script that saw Ottawa’s football franchise capture a Grey Cup in just its third season, the pressure to play in the 105th Grey Cup — on home turf, in the year of Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations — is on.
“I know there certainly is [pressure] from our ownership,” said Desjardins. “But that’s all good. Our expectation, our goal is to be there every year. Will that happen? Not necessarily but that’s something we’re striving for this year.
“With it being in Ottawa, it’s obviously very important that we have a chance to get to that game.”
The last team to play in three straight Grey Cups was the Montreal Alouettes from 2008 through 2010. Desjardins was there. That same Alouettes club was the last one to win back-to-back, with championships in 2009 and 2010.
Oftentimes, Grey Cup-winning teams become the victim of their own success. While Grey Cup MVP Henry Burris retired, Ernest Jackson, Chris Williams, J’Michael Deane, Abdul Kanneh, Mitchell White and Forrest Hightower left the team via free agency. A large part of a championship core.
Continuity is one of professional sports’ greatest pillars of success. Sometimes it’s just not achievable.
“The fact that we had to move on from a few players was unfortunate because we do want to have as much continuity as we can,” said Desjardins. “That, to me, was the biggest thing: the lack of continuity within your locker-room and for your fans to identify with.”
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