VANCOUVER 鈥� The Grey Cup hadn't yet kicked off on Sunday when Toronto Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie told wide receiver Dejon Brissett he was proud of him.
By the end of the night, Dinwiddie had a lot more to be proud of.
Brissett amassed 45 passing yards, including a key touchdown, as the Argos topped the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 41-24 to win the CFL championship. The 28-year-old athlete from Mississauga, Ont., was named the game's most valuable Canadian.
鈥淚 told him in warmups, he was my first draft pick, how proud I am of his growth," Dinwiddie said. "He proved me right.
"Injuries, unfortunately he had that early in the year kind of slowed his season, as far as production, down. But he鈥檚 great for our locker room. He works hard, takes hard coaching."
Picked second overall in the 2020 draft, the six-foot-one, 195-pound Virginia product has played all four seasons of his CFL career in Toronto.
Brissett's performance on Sunday followed a tough season where he missed more than three months of games with a knee injury.
He finished regular season play with 171 passing yards and three touchdowns, well off the career-high 594 yards and five touchdowns he logged in 2023.
鈥淭his whole season, there was a bunch of ups and downs, but 鈥� our locker room, we believed in ourselves," Brissett said. "Offence, defence, special teams, we all feed off each other and we got it done in the end.鈥�
The 28-year-old athlete's biggest play of the Grey Cup came midway through the fourth quarter when he reeled in a 17-yard pass from quarterback Nick Arbuckle in the end zone.
鈥淚 think that play, we ran it a bunch of times in practice. We ran it last week in the Eastern final," Brissett said. "Nick walked me through the timing he wants for it, we watched the film and he told me exactly how he wanted it and I did it exactly how he told me to do it. And it paid off.鈥�
Arbuckle was named the Grey Cup's most valuable player. The 31-year-old American stepped into the starter's spot after Toronto's Chad Kelly broke his ankle in the East Division final win over the Montreal Alouettes.
Arbuckle passed for 252 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions on Sunday.
鈥淣ick Arbuckle is a professional football player," Brissett said of the QB. "He is locked in since he came to this locker room. He's very detail-oriented.
"He's like a third coach on the field, right? So we did this for him, and I'm glad he was able to get it done."
Both players said their individual awards said more about their team's performance.
Brissett admitted, though, that being named the Grey Cup's most valuable Canadian "means everything."
"This is a great Canadian game. I鈥檓 proud to be Canadian," he said.
The achievement means even more because it came in a game where his mom, dad and brother, former Toronto Raptor Oshae Brissett, were all in the stands.
The Grey Cup marks the second time this year that the Brissett family has celebrated a major sports championship after Oshae Brissett won the NBA championship with the Boston Celtics in June.
鈥淲e're hardly ever in the same place at the same time, so to come together in this environment, and to be celebrating the win like that, it means everything," Dejon Brissett said. "It means the world.鈥�
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
