Playoff Gameday!

Today, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' road to the Grey Cup starts, with the Eastern Final game against Montreal. I'm not optimistic, despite them winning the division and thus getting a bye. Maybe it is just the lows of the season felt really low this year, and the pessimist in me. Maybe showing off some of the CFL content, mostly of the Hamilton variety, in my latest COMC incoming mailer will improve the mood.

Kenny Lawler has had a highlight reel filled season this year with Hamilton. However, for some reason, he wasn't included in the flagship set this year, not even getting a "now with" card after moving on from Winnipeg. He did show up as one of the Game Dated cards though. So, if I wanted an auto of his, but not from another CFL team, I had to go back to 2016 and one of his draft cards.

Marquay McDaniel had already played his last CFL game by the time this card dropped in 2019, ending a 10 year career as a player. He's still around the league as a receivers coach, and has been in Saskatchewan the past couple seasons. 

Here's  a four-pack of parallels from the 2022 release, the only year I didn't buy a couple boxes of the flagship product. I really disliked the hockey design, but at least that didn't reuse the same image twice on the front. Two bland photos are better than one, I guess. Even if Brandon Banks' entry is technically an Argonauts card, the blue parallel does go nicely with his new team. And he did get a Grey Cup victory out of the deal, and that was nice to see.

Finally, since there is no other place to put it, here's a green parallel from last year of University of Waterloo alum Tre Ford. With there being actual blue parallels in the release (or deluxe, if you prefer the actual name), the result of combining base cards on e-pack had to change. So, Edmonton (and also Saskatchewan) got colour match parallels.  As for Ford, he was named starter going into the season, but struggled and was moved to the second string. 

There you have it!