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Henry Burris' Ottawa Redblacks and the Year of the Upset

In both Canada and the United States, 2016 was a year that witnessed a number of upsets. Perhaps the biggest was the Ottawa Redblacks' stunning Grey Cup victory.
Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

As the hours tick away on 2016, you can't help but want to push the clock forward, light what's left of this thing on fire and punt its festering, still-squalling carcass into the abyss of history. The couple of extra days might prevent another domino of global calamity from falling, or at the very least, preserve the life of your favourite musician or entertainer.

One thing we learned from the devil getting ahold of the world's axis and spinning it on his finger like a fiery Harlem Globetrotter is that he's a fan of upsets; though, he's the spiritual equivalent of the Washington Generals, so we should have figured as much.

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Cases in point: The 15-1 Carolina Panthers lost in the Super Bowl. A 73-win Golden State Warriors team blew a 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals. After the Cavs erased that deficit, the Chicago Cubs—the Chicago Cubs!—did the same thing to Cleveland to win the World Series.

READ MORE: Penny Oleksiak Wasn't the Only Choice, but She Was Canada's Best Athlete in 2016

Six days after the World Series, the US presidential election took a similar route.

The results weren't quite as ground shaking in Canada as they were in the States, but we weren't exempt to this phenomenon when it came to our athletes, whether they were playing abroad or on home soil. Since nothing really makes sense anymore, here, in no specific order, are some of the biggest homegrown upset specials of the past year.

The MLS Cup

Long, long, long-suffering TFC fans packed BMO Field on a (not surprisingly) freezing Dec. 10, convinced that their team—a 67 percent favourite in the match—would down Seattle and win its first-ever MLS Cup.

It didn't work out that way.

It wasn't meant to be for Sebastian Giovinco and the TFC. Photo by Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

TFC had scored 17 postseason goals and its momentum, despite absurdly long gaps between games, seemed firmly in place. The week-long buildup to the game felt like a countdown to the inevitable. Looking back, we all should have known what would happen.

The Sounders failed to get a shot on goal through 120 minutes of game time, but had an unbeatable keeper in Stefan Frei and squeaked out a 5-4 win in penalty kicks. Frei stopped TFC captain Michael Bradley, and Justin Morrow rang his shot off the Seattle crossbar to open the door for Sounders defender Roman Torres' game-winning goal.

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It was the ultimate heartbreak for 36,000-plus fans, whose tears could have frozen to their faces as quickly as they made their way out of the stadium.

The Grey Cup

As a host, Toronto fell ass-first into what was arguably the greatest Grey Cup game ever played. Sure, the city had very little buzz in the week leading up to the game, and tickets were far from the hot commodity that they were for the MLS Cup, but Ottawa's upset over Calgary could be pound for pound the biggest upset in North American sports this year.

(I'd like to convene a panel to determine this, just to see how varied and odd it would be, but that's reporter fan fiction for another day.)

The Stamps went 15-2-1 in 2016, winning a record-setting 14 straight games and going unbeaten in 16 contests. They had the best offensive line, the best offense, and the best defence. Their QB, Bo Levi Mitchell, won most outstanding player. Running back Jerome Messam was named outstanding Canadian; DaVaris Daniels was the outstanding rookie, Derek Dennis the outstanding offensive lineman, and Dave Dickenson won coach of the year.

At 8-9-1, Ottawa, on the other hand, was the first team in the East with a losing record to claim the division's top spot. The Redblacks eked out a berth in the Grey Cup in a snow globe of a semifinal against Edmonton. And to put a long shot's hopes in doubt even further, their 41-year-old QB, Henry Burris, almost didn't play when he hurt his knee in warmups.

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READ MORE: Henry Burris Buries Bad Hank and Stampeders in Grey Cup Classic

Then Burris played a near-perfect game, threw for 461 yards, including the game-winning TD in overtime. The list of the stunned ran deep. It included the Stampeders, the Redblacks, and the sellout (even if that came through a weird Pizza Pizza promotion) crowd at BMO. There might never be a Grey Cup game like this one again.

The Olympics

Men's volleyball

Canada made its return to men's Olympic volleyball for the first time in 24 years and used its debut game to stun the United States. The 12th-ranked Canadian team put the fifth-ranked Americans away in straight sets (25-23, 25-17, 25-23). Getting such a monumental win in volleyball-mad Brazil made it that much sweeter. Almost 12,000 fans watched the game in Rio and quickly got on the Canadian bandwagon.

The men finished fifth overall at the Olympics and moved up to eighth in the world rankings after the Games.

Women's fencing

Taking part in her first Olympics at 21 years old, Hamilton's Eleanor Harvey was the 24th-ranked fencer in the world in Rio. She made it to the quarterfinals of the individual foil event and got there at the expense of the world's top-ranked fencer, beating Italy's Arianna Errigo. Harvey finished seventh—the best a Canadian has ever done in an individual fencing event.

Women's swimming

Going into the Games, three major media outlets—Sports Illustrated, the Canadian Press, and the Associated Press—completely shunned Canada's swim program in medal projections. Penny Oleksiak blew all of them out of the water with her historic showing in Rio.

What follows is an absurdly accomplishment-heavy paragraph.

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She became the first Canadian to win four medals at a single Summer Games. Those four medals tied her with Victor Davis as Canada's most decorated Olympic swimmer ever. Her gold medal in the 100m freestyle made her Canada's first Olympic champion since Mark Tewksbury did it in Barcelona in 1992, and she became the first female Olympic champion since Anne Ottenbrite won gold in the 200m breaststroke in Los Angeles in 1984. In a bronze finish in the 4x100 freestyle, Oleksiak and Taylor Ruck became the first-ever Olympic medallists born in the 21st century. Oh, and at 16, she's also Canada's youngest Olympic gold medallist ever.

READ MORE: We Hung Out with Penny Oleksiak's Friends and Watched the 16-year-old Olympic Star Make History

Oleksiak might be unmatchable in the water. But in the moment that she realized she'd tied for gold in the 100m freestyle, jaw dropped, with an expression of overjoyed disbelief after coming back in the final 50m from seventh place, she felt the same way that everyone watching in Canada did.

Women's soccer

The result—a repeat bronze-medal finish—may not be that surprising if you've casually followed Canada's women's soccer team, but a lot happened with this team between those two Olympics. This was supposed to be a transition year, one where the program would build with young players and look ahead to the 2020 Olympics. Instead, the youth, paired with Canada's greatest soccer player ever, Christine Sinclair, stepped up and won a bronze under difficult circumstances. An emotional semifinal loss to Germany could have left the team drained, and playing host Brazil in the bronze medal game was an added emotional obstacle to overcome.

Sinclair celebrates a goal with teammate Desiree Scott. Photo by Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

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But 17-year-old midfielder Deanne Rose scored Canada's first goal in the match and assisted on Sinclair's game-winner.

After going 3-0 in group play at the Olympics, and scoring a second straight bronze, Canada's youth-heavy team jumped from 10th to fourth in the FIFA women's rankings. It's the first time the program has ever cracked the top-five.

Denis Shapovalov owns July, goes pro

While Andy Murray predictably took care of Canada's Milos Raonic in the men's final at Wimbledon this summer, a younger, less-heralded Canadian won on a smaller, adjacent stage.

Canada's latest tennis sensation. Photo by Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Seventeen-year-old Denis Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ontario, took the junior tournament, beating Aussie Alex De Minaur for a big win on a global stage. Ranked fifth, Shapovalov took care of the seventh-ranked De Minaur in London.

That in itself isn't an upset, but he used that win as a warmup for what he'd do back in Canada a couple weeks later.

At the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Shapovalov disposed of another Aussie, downing Nick Kyrgios 7-6, 3-6, 6-3. Kyrgios was ranked 19th in the world at that point. While Kyrgios unquestionably mailed in his performance against Shapovalov, it launched a pro career. Shapovalov goes into the New Year ranked 250th in the world, up 120 spots from where he was listed in the summer.