Alouettes player Marc-Antoine Dequoy gave a rare interview after his team’s win in the Gray Cup game. On Monday morning, after the team’s arrival in Montreal, the Quebecer wanted to tone down his comments.
“They never believed in us, never. You look everywhere and it’s written in English! On TSN it was Toronto vs. Winnipeg. But, you know what? Keep your English! We will bring the Cup back to Montreal, we will bring it back to Quebec, we will bring it home because we are damn champions! “Declared Dequoy in a legendary interview with Réseau des Sports immediately after the meeting.
On Monday, Dequoy wanted to clarify his thoughts.
“You have to understand where I come from. I’m someone who watched the Alouettes growing up [NDLR : j’ai grandi en regardant les Alouettes]said Dequoy in a press interview. It’s a childhood dream. After this victory, the emotion that comes over you is so great.”
“The reality is that the CFL is a bilingual league. Canada is a bilingual country. I think there is [eu] a little disrespect for the French language during the week. Especially in Toronto. And look at the game we played in Toronto, the anthem was only in English. To me this message just meant that you can keep the language in English because that is nothing against the English-speaking community.”
“Conversely, I speak English every day of my life. Football is English-speaking. Even I get corrected because I make a lot of anglicisms. That’s really the reason. Anyone who knows me knows very well that there is no malice in it. It was really the emotion that hit me. You can really see an emotional young man just celebrating happily and then being told, ‘Yeah, you should have calmed down’.”
The Alouettes landed in Montreal this morning with the Gray Cup. The Parade of Champions takes place on Wednesday in the streets of Montreal.
Watch the video above.