WINNIPEG - Kickers from Edmonton and Ottawa expressed concern Saturday about the ball they will be booting in the 103rd Grey Cup.

"I just heard this morning they're trying new balls out for Grey Cup," said Edmonton's Sean Whyte, who handles the Eskimo kicking duties along with Grant Shaw. "And all the equipment guys are saying they are bad.

"The balls for the offence, they're all the same. But they decided to change the kicking balls, I guess. They're a little slick."

Ottawa's Chris Milo also was apprehensive. "It's going to be a big change .... We'll just kind of have to adapt," he said.

"The balls that we're going to have, if I can make a comparison, are kind of like what a basketball feels like — where you have all the dimples on it. That's what it feels like, which is a bit weird."

He pointed to the scuffed ball a teammate was carrying in practice — "They're nice and broken in. They're soft. They feel pretty good."

There appears to be some confusion about the ball protocol, however.

Glen Johnson, the CFL's vice-president of officiating, says the plan for Sunday's championship game is essentially the same as league games for this season and last.

The teams will each bring their own balls to use on offence. They can practise with those balls beforehand, bringing them to CFL officials 90 minutes before kickoff.

The team balls are tested prior to the game to ensure they meet "a new ball standard," according to Johnson.

Each team's balls — Johnson says they will each have about a dozen — will be clearly marked as their own.

Those balls remain under the control of league officials once they take possession of them before the match.

The league will contribute 24 balls to be used in kicking situations during the Investors Group Field showdown.

The league balls are "conditioned," said Johnson. "So it's not like we take them out of the box."

During the regular season, the home team normally does that conditioning for the kicking balls. For Grey Cup, the league is using the Blue Bombers equipment staff to handle it, making it no different than a normal game according to Johnson.

Allowing teams to use their own balls on offence gives quarterbacks a chance to play with balls that are familiar to them, as long as they meet standards.

The league has more game balls in reserve, in case more are needed.

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2015