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CFL Grey Cup ref makes rookie mistake at coin toss

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The Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup got off to a strange start right at the coin toss on Sunday night.

Head referee Ben Major welcomed the captains of the Toronto Argonauts and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to midfield. He showed the players which side was heads and which side was tails and handed it to Coinbase Canada CEO Lucas Matheson to flip it.

Ben Major in the playoffs

CFL referee Ben Major on the field before the CFL Western Semi-Final game between the BC Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium on Nov. 2, 2024 in Regina, Canada. (Brent Just/Getty Images)

As the coin was in the air, Major remembered he forgot one of the most important things about the toss. He forgot to ask the Argonauts what their call was.

“Check, check,” Major said while trying to stop Matheson’s toss. “I have to ask, what do you want? Alright, Toronto. Toronto, you’re visiting team. What’s your choice?”

Argonauts wide receiver DaVaris Daniels then made the call of heads and everything went smoothly from there.

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Daniel Adeboboye lifts the Grey Cup

Toronto Argonauts’ Daniel Adeboboye, #21, lifts the Grey Cup after defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a CFL football game at the 111th Grey Cup in Vancouver, British Columbia on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Toronto was the team holding the Grey Cup in the end. Backup quarterback Nick Arbuckle wrote a storybook ending for the Argonauts as he threw for 252 yards and two second-half touchdown passes in place of Chad Kelly, who suffered a brutal injury in the semifinals.

“You couldn’t script this,” Arbuckle said. “If everybody was to know everything, all the things we overcame as a family, from my whole life and football career to be here, it’s God’s work.

“I’ve been so fortunate to have the support and belief in me from my wife and everybody to just keep chasing it and persevering. Look at it now.”

He was named the outstanding player of the game.

Nick Arbuckle holds the Grey Cup

Toronto Argonauts quarterback Nick Arbuckle, #4, lifts the Grey Cup after defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a CFL football game at the 111th Grey Cup in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Toronto won 41-24 over Winnipeg for their 19th Grey Cup title – a CFL record.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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