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The 102nd edition of the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship game was played in Vancouver, British Columbia on November 30 with the Calgary Stampeders of the West beating the East’s Hamilton Tiger Cats 20-16 to win the Grey Cup. The Stampeders built up a 17-0 lead and then more or less hung on the rest of the way while the Tiger Cats attempted a comeback. It looked like Hamilton had pulled it off as they scored a late touchdown, but the play was called back due to a penalty.

Calgary managed to win the Cup for the seventh time in their history, but the players got a little too carried away while celebrating the victory as they broke the Cup in half when the top section separated from the trophy’s base. The players carried on with their celebrations though as they passed the Cup from player to player in pieces. Juwan Simpson of the Stampeders told Canadian television reporters that he believes he broke the trophy as he was excited and all of a sudden the top part became loose.

He said he felt the Cup get weak while he was holding it and then he handed it off to somebody else. He joked that some duct tape and glue should be able to fix it, but he’ll be able to afford to fix it if the league sends him a bill because he’s got now got a Grey Cup winners cheque coming to him. However, instead of sending Simpson an invoice for fixing the trophy, the CFL may want to think about spending some money to buy a new Grey Cup or at least use a replica for celebrations.

According to statistics, this was the sixth time the Grey Cup has fallen apart during post-game victory celebrations. However, Simpson and the Stampeders shouldn’t feel too bad about breaking the thing, since the Edmonton Eskimos have broken the Cup on three different occasions. One player dropped it back in 1978 and another sat on it nine years later. Then in 1993 an Eskimo player head butted the trophy and broke it.

The Cup was damaged again in 1996 when the British Columbia Lions broke the Cup section off of the base and it was also damaged in 2012 when a handle fell off of the trophy following celebrations by the Toronto Argonauts. The Grey Cup has proven to be pretty durable over the past century though since it also survived a fire more than 60 years ago. The Toronto Argonauts Rowing Club were the league’s reigning champions back in 1947 and stored the trophy at their clubhouse, which was then burned to the ground. The Cup of course, was found unharmed and still in one piece.