There just might come a time this season when Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ fans get an official replay review call which goes their way and leap to their feet to start yelling “Toooooooz”.
Just like they did when Andy Fantuz was a Tiger-Cat and catching everything thrown his way, in traffic that was heavier than rush-hour on The Linc.
Fantuz is joining the CFL head office as a video official, and as of today officially leaves the Ticats Audio Network, where he was an incisive analyst of Ticats’ games and players. As sure-handed on the air as he was on the field.
Fantuz had a remarkable career for the iconic teams which play in the CFL’s two smallest markets: breaking in with Saskatchewan in 2006 and eventually becoming a part of the “Canadian Air Force” that also included Jason Clermont, Rob Bagg and Chris Getzlaf; then coming to the Ticats from 2012-2017 and playing regular-season games at four different stadia: Ivor Wynne, Guelph Alumni, McMaster and Tim Hortons Field.
He was the Hec Crighton Trophy winner as a Western Mustang, was the Outstanding Canadian in the 2007 Grey Cup, and the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian in 2010. He went to five Grey Cups, three with the Riders and hoisted Earl Grey’s battered beaker in 2007. He was the first Ticat to reach 100 receptions in a single season (2016) and holds two of the Riders’ top -five marks for yardage receptions in a single game.
Ticats Audio Network talked to Fantuz earlier this week and the full interview is available on Ticats.ca and our YouTube channel. We’ve edited it down to a few key questions and answers for this column.
Sadly for those of us in Hamilton, Andy, you’re leaving the Ticats audio network and joining the CFL head office as a video official. Can you walk us through that decision to make that personal move?
“Being on the video official side of things is something I’ve been kind of looking at for a few years now and talking with some of the officials. The guys who refereed me, we always talked about how they could appreciate the way I communicated with them during games and before and after them and always seemed to have a level head. Having the game played fairly in the way it’s supposed to be played and making sure that the players and the coaches, that the teams are deciding the outcome and not the referees or any mistakes with the replay officials, is something that’s been important to me for a long time.
“I guess the long answer is I’m really diving into the rules side of the game and really enhancing my knowledge and experience on that side. It’s continuous learning for me and my career, something that is very important. And when I got a chance to try it last year in the actual command center, I found it really engaging and I was full of adrenaline. So I’m going to give it a try and see how it goes.”
What’s the job entail?
“There’s usually at least four people in the command centre. There’s a technician, there’s an injury spotter, and then there are two who decide the call, a replay official and a video official and they are really interconnected. Any plays that are automatically reviewed–scoring plays; turnovers; any hits to the quarterback; any time there’s questions on whether the player stepped out of bounds or was down by contact; the coaches throwing a challenge–those two people, and one of them would be me at times, would decide the call. And and we communicate with the head official on the field, as well as the producer of TSN in the truck to decide how it’s going to be aired to the audience.”
You had an extraordinary playing career, spending your first six years with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, going to three Grey Cups and winning one, in 2007 your sophomore season, then another six with the Tiger-Cats, going to another two Cups. You’re in the Western University Hall of Fame, the Sports Hall of Fame in your hometown of Chatham and last winter you were named to the inaugural class of Football Ontario’s brand new Hall of Fame. Among other inductees were fellow former Ticats Neil Lumsden and Miles Gorrell, Hamilton natives Russ Jackson and Jim “Dirty 30” Young, and coaches Larry Haylor, your coach at Western, and Bernie Custis , for whom a school has been named right across the road from Tim Hortons Field.
That’s a lot of intersection with your own career, so do you ever look back and pinch yourself about the path that life , and football, put you on?
“I pinch myself, figuratively, yes. There’s so many junctions along the way that – who knows?–if I took a different path with one decision, would it still have ended up even remotely the same? Whether I went to Western or went to a different school, whether it’s in the States or in Canada, would I still have made it to the next level, made it to the CFL? And that’s just one of many. I’m very fortunate, I don’t have any regrets in that sense, that I was able to go to a great school, really develop as a player, come and play as many years as I did in the CFL, meet all the teammates, coaches, community members, media personalities, just support staff and friends along the way. I feel very, very blessed and privileged. Yeah, it’s kind of crazy being in the inaugural class of Football Ontario, and I’m very honored to be even mentioned with those names that you just rang off.”
As a free agent after the 2011 season, you were hotly pursued by several teams, including Saskatchewan, where as a member of the Canadian Air Force receiving corps you were revered. When you became a free agent, it was a difficult decision I’m sure but you chose Hamilton, and became an instant fan favourite for your diligent play, great hands and ability to take an absolute pounding as an inside receiver. Tough towns like tough players.
“I have always been very proud of where I came from. The Tiger-Cats were my hometown team, growing up in Chatham. My dad was a big Ticat fan his whole life, so that’s the team I knew the most. And that off-season was really important. Henry Burris came the same year and that ended up working out. We had a great team, we did, but we just couldn’t quite get past the close games that year. I’ll tell a story about when I fumbled the snap in the game in Calgary that I was trying to hold for Luca Congi to kick. And we could have won the game or at least got into overtime. Instead we’re knocked out of the playoffs. That was sort of how the whole season felt.
“We just couldn’t do it at the right time during games and put it together. So it was a frustrating season. It was the last season at Ivor Wynne so it was kind of sad to put that historic building to rest on that note. But it was the start of a turnaround in Hamilton, I believe, because we made the Grey Cup the two following years.”
The first one of course was the very next year when you played all your games in Guelph, and held all your practices at McMaster taking HSR buses there because you were dressing in the team’s downtown head offices. They should make a movie of that year. But you beat Montreal in Guelph in the East semi, upset the Argos in Toronto, with a great game from you in the East final, which qualified you for the Grey Cup. Not only is the game in Regina, but the opposition is the Roughriders, only two years after you left. Had to be surreal.
“I know, I know. The Roughriders had such a long drought, similar to the Ticats right now. The last time they won before we won in 2007 was 1989. And being only two years after I left there were still a lot of guys on their team who were friends of mine so I was cheering for them during their playoff run. But then of course, we were going head to head. We’re there for the whole week for practice and it was great to see some old faces, some staples in town, places I used to go and people I knew. But it was a business trip. It was emotionally conflicting and it’s too bad that we kind of snowballed out of control in the game. It ended up being a pretty decisive win for the Roughriders. But I think if a few things had gone differently early, it would have been a completely different game and who knows what would have happened.
In 2016 you became the first Ticat receiver to catch 100 passes (101) and that total could have been higher but you tore your ACL early in the second-last game. You missed most of 2017, but did help out coaching, and played only three games. You didn’t play at all in 2018 but waited until July 19 that year to officially announce your retirement from a brilliant career. That game was at Tim Hortons Field against, of course, Saskatchewan.
“Priorities were changing for me. That’s probably the best answer to why I retired. I thought about what the pros were for continuing to play, for my life, for my family, and what the cons could be if there were some more serious injuries or anything like that. Our first child (Abigail) was on the way when I made the decision and the day I retired I took her on the field with me. She was only three weeks old.
“It was important to me to retire during that specific game because of who the opponent was. Both those teams played such an instrumental part in my life and my career. So to be able to say goodbye to the Hamilton fans in person and some Hamilton fans on TV, was great. But, also being able to say goodbye to Saskatchewan fans was very important to me too.”
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