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His Grey Cup win with the Redblacks represented a storybook ending for Burris following a regular season full of frustration, disappointment and confusion over his role when, following a return from a broken pinky finger, he wound up as a backup to Trevor Harris.

Burris was at his Grey Cup best, completing 35 of 46 passes for 461 yards. Three of those pass completions went for touchdowns. He also rushed for two more touchdowns on a knee that had popped during the pre-game warmup.

“Yes, there was an injection, yes I took some pain killers and, yes, they readjusted my brace so I couldn’t extend it all the way,” Burris said. “Once the meds kicked in, it was like a Mack truck could have hit me and I wouldn’t have felt a thing.”

Photo by Tony Caldwell / Postmedia Network

Through much of his career, Burris had critics. The whispers, the Good Hank-Bad Hank comparisons, continued no matter what he did, no matter how many teams he made better. Burris fed off that criticism, almost obsessed with proving the doubters wrong. Cue up the 2016 Grey Cup, where it was like the Redblacks and their quarterback were afterthoughts. There was no way they were going to beat the Stampeders and quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, the winner of the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award that Burris had won in 2015.

“Bo Levi had an amazing season, don’t get me wrong,” Burris said. “But I didn’t play in the regular-season games (against Calgary, when Ottawa had a tie and a loss). What people were saying, it ticked me off, I felt I’d been disrespected. Yes, Bo Levi had an amazing season. But here I am, supposed to be a Hall of Fame candidate, and nobody’s talking about me. It was like I was the other guy. I felt like Will Ferrell and The Other Guys. For me, I had to come out and do what I’ve done my entire career: prove people wrong. People gave us no chance. That week, it was all about Calgary, how they were going to have a Grey Cup parade, how they were going to celebrate. We used that energy to fuel our team.”