Stampeders.com staff

Stampeders receiver Joe West played with an unimaginable burden Sunday at Ottawa’s TD Place Stadium. He also played with purpose and remarkable courage.

Just a few hours after he’d learned his younger brother Brandon Hobdy, 23, had been fatally shot in Magnolia, Ark., West chose to suit up for Calgary’s contest against the Ottawa RedBlacks. In a performance offensive team captain Rob Cote called inspirational, West made four catches for a game-high 129 yards to help the Stamps beat Ottawa 32-7.

“It crossed my mind (to not play),” said an emotional West in the locker-room after the contest. “But I know my brother, he would love to see me play. That’s all he ever wanted to do is see me play. I did this for him.”

Teammate Nik Lewis had the unenviable task of informing West of the tragic news Sunday morning, just a few hours before kickoff. Lewis’ brother was a teammate of Hobdy with the Southern Arkansas University Muleriders.

“After an extremely difficult morning, Joe decided to play and was a great inspiration to our football team,” said head coach and general manager John Hufnagel.

In a moving post-game scene, Cote awarded West a game ball and his teammates closed in to embrace the heartbroken receiver.

“Football is an emotional sport,” said Lewis. “When you have so many different emotions, it’s hard to keep your emotions under wraps. To go out there and play an emotional sport, it’s very easy for him to be emotional in the wrong way. You can use that emotion in a negative way — late hits and things like that — but he turned his energy into catching the ball. He turned his energy into making plays, and, I think, that’s what we all did.

“It’s easy to be mad at the world and mad at everything around you, but to go out and what Joe did was amazing.”

“It was hard,” said West, “but it was a challenge and every challenge brings change, so I just accepted it. I knew I had brothers on my side on the field and we pulled out the win — we got it.”