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“I’m beyond excited,” said Lawson, who got her CFL start as an intern for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2013. “I really genuinely feel we’re delivering to fans something they’ll love. This is really unique.

“We were in Alabama with Bear Woods, we met him at 5:15 or 5:30 (in the morning) at his house. It was pitch dark in Wetumpka, this small town. We drove to the fire station where he works out. This is what Bear does day after day in this little gym. The firemen are coming in for their shift as the sun’s coming up and Bear is finishing his workout.

“We were very particular with these guys. ‘We’re going to come, but we don’t want you to change anything.’ We wanted it to be as true and authentic as it could be. Bear took us back to his place. He brought out the guitar, he was singing. He basically put on a show for us in his living room. He was playing Pearl Jam, Creedence Clearwater Revival … and, yes, he played Sweet Home Alabama.

“We had an awesome time in Louisiana with Diontae Spencer. We had no idea he was going to roll out the red carpet for us Louisiana style. He brought us to a crawfish broil (at Jane’s Seafood and Chinese Restaurant) in New Iberia. We got to go into the back kitchen and see the crawfish from start to finish. He had his grandma there, his mom was there in a (Redblacks) jersey, his girlfriend and sister were there. The restaurant treated us to lunch. They kept bringing out more and more food. There were pounds and pounds of crawfish. We had said to the players we’d love to go somewhere authentic for food so we could treat them. Diontae took it above and beyond and it was really cool.