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They met at the 35-yard line near the Calgary Stampeders bench and hugged and hugged until Henry Burris cried.

"We did it. We did it," the quarterback kept saying to his mother.

"Yes, you did, son. You proved all those doubters wrong," Caresse Burris replied. And then they both started laughing — the champion and his biggest fan.

The happiest man in the CFL is a 33-year-old quarterback who overcame a lifetime of angst and anxiety last night by doing what he always wanted to do but could never accomplish, not as a first-time Stampeder, a Saskatchewan Roughrider and not in his first three seasons back with a Calgary team that couldn't get past the first round of the playoffs.

That was always the knock on Burris; that he couldn't produce when it counted; that as soon as the games became meaningful he would morph into a stressed-out, mistake-prone bumbler known as Bad Henry. But no more.

The Burris who directed his team to a 22-14 Grey Cup win over the Montreal Alouettes was proficient and polished and looked battle-tested through and through. As good as he was passing the ball — completing 28 of 37 passes for 328 yards — Burris was equally effective running, gaining 79 yards on nine carries. Best of all for the Stampeders, he answered back whenever his team needed something from its leader.

And Burris provided as the game's most outstanding player. He did it under the sternest of conditions with most of the 66,308 in attendance cheering for the Alouettes and for their sentimental favourite, Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo.

It was Calvillo who had won the league's top player award during Grey Cup week. It was Calvillo who earned extra points for having gone through the agony of his wife being stricken by cancer. And it was Calvillo who looked comfortable early against Calgary, taking his side to a 13-3 lead late in the first half.

But it was at that point that Burris put his arms and legs to work. He directed a seven-play, 76-yard drive that ended with him scrambling then stopping short of the line of scrimmage to fire a 20-yard touchdown pass to receiver Brett Ralph.

Like he had the week before in the West Division final, Burris had calmed his team's nerves and given it hope.

"That play was big," said Burris, who had no trouble shrugging off an earlier interception. "Usually when I take off like that Brett's on the receiving end of the pass. He works hard to get open and that play got us back into the game."

In the second half, Burris ran for key yards to keep Montreal's offence stuck to the sidelines as the defence came to life. It sacked Calvillo twice and intercepted two of his passes, including one in the Calgary end zone with less than eight minutes left in the game.

"I'm so proud of the guys," said Calgary centre Rob Lazeo, "but I'm really happy for Henry. He's the general of all generals. It doesn't matter who wins the [league's] outstanding player award. He's a champion. He led, we followed."

"He's been crucified," kicker Sandro DeAngelis said of how Burris had been treated after previous playoff losses. "It was always good Henry, bad Henry. He's got a lot of integrity. … He so deserved to win this game."

Years from now when CFL fans look back on the 96th Grey Cup, they might mention how the game was billed as a showdown of the CFL's top two quarterbacks who each threw for more than 5,100 yards and 35 touchdowns during the season. There could even be talk of how Burris and DeAngelis bristled after being snubbed by award voters.

But for Burris, winning the Cup will be remembered as the culmination of his football career, the game in which he measured up in every way that matters. This wasn't about throwing for the most yards or touchdowns or being the most dazzling individual in shoulder pads. It was about being the man and the quarterback his team needed, and Burris was both.

"I feel on top of the world," Burris said as he stood on the field after the game, his teammates celebrating around him. "There have been a lot of ups and downs, all those disappointments in high school and college, in Saskatchewan in 2004, all the opportunities we had before — it was a long journey. And to finally make it, it feels so good."

It was right about then his mother walked over to her son and hugged him to tears.

"We've all been through a lot," she noted after coming all the way from Spiro, Okla., to see Burris's first championship appearance as a pro. "But we told him to be patient, be patient. He took what the defence gave him."

He did it. Did it like the champion he now is.