‘We deserve it’: Alouettes players, fans celebrate Grey Cup win with parade in downtown Montreal

The Montreal Alouettes Grey Cup parade kicked off downtown Wednesday morning.

Players and their families hopped onto a tour bus parked on Crescent Street.

The parade will go east on de Masionneuve Boulevard into it reaches the Quartier des Spectacles.

“When the great cup comes back to Montreal, it gives me some feeling in my heart,” said one fan.

“It’s an unreal feeling,” said head coach of the Als, Jason Maas. “Something you work so hard for, but you just can’t imagine the feeling, with this crowd. It just makes everything you’ve done worthwhile.”

“It’s incredible having all those people coming to the event, supporting us, that shows the character of Montreal, that’s just the character of Quebec, how people love winning teams and they just love sports in general,” said player, Marc-Antoine Dequoy, who made headlines after his post-win rant on RDS. He said in French, “They never believed in us! You look everywhere, it’s written in English,” he said of the signage on the Tim Hortons Field. 

“I have memories from 2010, but this one is blowing it out of the water for me,” said Kristian Matte, a player from Montreal and the only one who remains from the last title team in 2010. “As one of the starters this year, being here for so long, waiting so long to bring it back, our fans deserve it. We deserve it. We work so hard for this and the welcome we’re getting is second to none.”

“A warm reception on a cold day, it’s truly incredible,” said quarterback Cody Fajardo, who also won Grey Cup MVP. “The weather wasn’t great, and the fans showed out, it was something I’ll remember the rest of my life.

“But honestly, it was a calling card for our fans. This year, we had a couple of games that were rain delays, bad weather, and they showed out for us and I’m just incredibly thankful.”

For former quarterback Anthony Calvillo, now offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Alouettes, the victory is that much sweeter. He’s now a four-time Grey Cup champion, with his first title as a coach and three titles as a player, the last being in 2010.

“My daughters, they were so young, they don’t remember anything, so to have them with us on there is truly, truly amazing,” said Calvillo. “So I’m just glad that we’re all able to have more memories.”

For the fans, this was a long time coming.

“The city needed this, I’m happy for the players, I’m happy for just for Quebec in total,” said one fan. “We have a winning team and they were the underdogs, and they came up from behind.”

“The last time I did this was in 2009, it was wonderful then, it’s even better now,” said another fan.

For a young fan, Jaden, he happily made it to the parade and took advantage of his day off from the public sector workers’ strikes that have closed schools for Nov. 21-23. “Even if I had school, I would have skipped it.”

For Montreal mayor Valérie Plante, she says the players represent so much for the city, after she gave Dequoy a big hug and words of encouragement.

“They help us to be proud about who we are, Montrealers, Quebecers,” she said. “It is a tough economic situation right now, so to feel this moment where we’re all together, whatever the age, the color, the language, we’re all together, so I just wanted to say thank them for that.”

For head coach Maas, it’s all about the fans.

“Thank you for their support, we thought about them all year on our journey,” he said. “We talked about playing with pride that they display as a proud Montrealer, we did this for them and the province of Quebec.”

Montreal defied the odds when it came from behind to defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28-24 in the CFL championship game Sunday.

It’s the first Grey Cup victory for the Alouettes since 2010.