Ex Panther Armanti Edwards hits it big as Canada’s version of a Super Bowl champ

Armanti Edwards led Appalachian State to two national titles, as well as the biggest upset in school history with a 34-32 win over Michigan in 2007.

But this past weekend, the former Carolina Panther achieved a bigger career milestone in Canada, when he helped the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts beat the Calgary Stampeders for the Grey Cup. That’s Canada’s version of the Super Bowl.

On Monday, Edwards posted a photo of himself with the trophy on Instagram, and he tweeted: “Underdogs? Nah, Grey Cup Champs.”

American Football International called it “a stunning come-from-behind win,” with the Stampeders ahead 17-8 at the half.

Weather during the Sunday game was described as “blizzard conditions,” including a temperature of 26 degrees. (Shania Twain took the field for her halftime show using on a dog sled.)

Snow started falling about two hours before kickoff, and by the time the teams took the field, officials were scrambling to clear the turf, reported Canada’s National Post. “Several dozen stadium employees raced with shovels to uncover the lines, while snow plows attempted to clear the end zones. The shovelers and plows also came out during every stoppage in play early on in an effort to keep the snow at bay, and two full-sized plows attached to trucks were added to the snow-clearing effort at halftime,” wrote the Post.

The Winston-Salem Journal interviewed Edwards before the game and asked the wide receiver how the Grey Cup compared to beating Michigan in 2007 with the Mountaineers.

“I don’t look back at that and try to equate it to competing for a Grey Cup,” he told the Journal. “That was a huge game, obviously, for our school, for the fans, for getting Boone notarized. But at the end of the day, winning, or if we would have lost, that didn’t factor into us going to the playoffs and competing for our third national title. Here, this is the Grey Cup. This is it. This is what we’ve been playing for the entire season. Those two don’t equate at all.”

Edwards’ first season with the Carolina Panthers was in 2010, when they went 2-14. He was released in 2013. Edwards told the Charlotte Observer in August that he blames no one for being dropped, and says he just wasn’t good enough at the time.

“I just wasn’t at that point where I am now,” he said. “The NFL is a much faster-paced business than the Canadian Football League. If you can’t keep up down there, it’s the next man up. I just wasn’t at that point where I wanted to be at that time in my career.”

This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Ex Panther Armanti Edwards hits it big as Canada’s version of a Super Bowl champ."