Stampeders in CFL’s Week 20: One more boot at McMahon, but Paredes wants his farewell to run through Grey Cup
René Paredes wants more than one more home game in his CFL swan-song season.
The veteran kicker wants at least two — and a championship ring to go with them.
But such a sweet so-long on his road to retirement can’t happen without a win Saturday and some help in final weeks of the Canadian Football League’s regular schedule.
“Hopefully, we’ll be playing here at the end of the year,” said Paredes, taking a long look around him at McMahon Stadium while referring to the Grey Cup game that is slated for the ol’ football stadium Nov. 15.
“I mean … it’s going well right now,” continued the 41-year-old hall-of-famer-to-be. “We’ve won three games (in the last four). You know … three weeks ago, we were completely out of the playoffs. The guys are bought in, and we’re motivated to make a push.”
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Paredes announcing just a few days back that it’s his final year should add fuel to their fire.
After all, the Stampeders need to repay their kicker for having put them back in the playoff race with his career-best 62-yard field-goal at the final whistle of what amounted to a must-win over the Ottawa Redblacks four weeks ago.
So why not with a win Saturday over the visiting BC Lions at McMahon (5 p.m., TSN, QR Calgary AM 770) to hopefully extend his incredible 15-season career by at least one more game?
Of course, both Paredes and the Stampeders would love to win a few more in succession to slot themselves into the home-field CFL finale come mid-November.
It’s what the Stamps were doing for three straight weeks — before last Saturday’s 33-28 stumble to the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers — to get them back in the playoff picture and re-igniting their dreams of reaching the home-field Grey Cup.
And, of course, it’s injected much more meaning in to this — at least regular-season — farewell game for Paredes.
No matter what happens, says the native of Caracas, Venezuela, he’s hanging up his cleats when this football campaign ends, even if he hits another 62-yarder — or any other celebratory field-goal — to lift the team to great success.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on calgaryherald.com — the content belongs to Calgary Herald.