It was just a slip of the tongue, fortunately not of Rob Ford proportions.

Sitting inside the visiting locker room at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, Hamilton Tiger-Cats offensive lineman Joel Figueroa was asked about the unbelievable fan support his club received in Sunday’s Eastern final against the Argonauts.

“We got some great fans here in Hamilton,” said Figueroa.

You couldn’t blame the 6-6, 320-pound lineman for thinking he was actually in Hamilton. The support the Ticats received from a good portion of the 35,418 on hand was a huge feather in Hamilton’s cap and a rather significant embarrassment for the Argos.

From the moment the Argos charged on to the field for the start of the contest - when the boos drowned out the cheers - to the end of the game - when the Rogers Centre exploded in celebration for Hamilton’s 36-24 comeback victory - Sunday’s showdown seemed like it a Ticats home game.

Perhaps on the surface you could say that a crowd of 35,418 means that CFL football is alive and well in southern Ontario. But the reality is, the incredible turnout by Ticats fans at the Rogers Centre seems to confirm that the game is suffering big-time in Toronto, perhaps hitting a new low on Sunday. This is a football team with Ricky Ray and Chad Owens, the defending Grey Cup champions. And they got out-cheered at home during a playoff game.

“It’s (still) big in Toronto,” argued Ticats owner Bob Young. “It just that there’s sort of a few square miles in downtown Toronto where they get ... well we won’t go there.”

Reading between the lines, Young may have been suggesting that Toronto downtowners perhaps think they’re too sophisticated to support CFL football. And maybe he’s right. That’s an argument for another day. But there’s no argument that the support Young’s team received on Sunday was incredible. Hamilton defensive tackle Brian Bulcke — who played for Calgary last year when the Stampeders lost to the Argos at the Rogers Centre in the Grey Cup — actually started waving to the crowd to make noise in the third quarter (in a visiting stadium!) and his teammates followed his example, to the point where, when the final whistle sounded, the support for the visiting Ticats was overwhelming. Sure, the Argos received support as well, and Toronto fans may have actually out-numbered Hamilton’s (though it was close), but the black and gold supporters were definitely louder and more enthusiastic.

“I’m just lost in admiration,” said Young, who bought the franchise in 2003. “The Ticat fans came down in a mass from Hamilton. It made it a home game for these guys.”

Young and many of his players said they actually weren’t surprised by the support they received at the Rogers Centre.

“Not so much surprised as thrilled,” said Young, who makes his first visit to the Grey Cup as an owner. “It thrilled the whole team, the whole organization from top to bottom, because we didn’t make a nickel from these guys coming down. The Argos, to their credit, deserve the support they got. But regardless, it meant so much to this team and this organization to have the fans give up their Sunday to come, because they could have sat at home and watched on television.

“I’m just lost in gratitude to the effort our fans make,” Young added.

“Actually I felt like I was back in Calgary, but on the Saskatchewan side,” said Hamilton quarterback Henry Burris, comparing Ticats fans to legendary Roughriders supporters. “It shows that Hamiltonians are the best fans in the world. It has been since 1999 since they’ve been to a Grey Cup and to be a part of this is an honour.”

Burris gave a shout-out to Young and the way he revitalized the organization.

“Bob Young, he’s so deserving,” said Burris. “For this team to be in a shambles and the fans to still stand by our side, for Bob Young to be as patient as he has been, you have to tip your hat to the organization, the Hamiltonians and Tiger-Cats fans across the country, and more importantly the guys inside this locker room. We withstood the test of time and this is what it’s all about when you never waiver or falter or second-guess what you are doing. This is an unbelievable feeling.”

OFFENSIVE STATS

FIRST HALF

Rushing

Toronto: Seven yards

Hamilton: 32 yards

Passing

Toronto: 279 yards

Hamilton: 144 yards

First downs

Toronto: 13

Hamilton: 12

Total Yards

Toronto: 286

Hamilton: 176

SECOND HALF

Rushing

Toronto: Six yards

Hamilton: 77 yards

Passing

Toronto: 50 yards

Hamilton: 231 yards

First downs

Toronto: 2

Hamilton: 18

Total yards

Toronto: 56

Hamilton 294

steve.buffery@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @beezersun