Left to his own devices, Baltimore quarterback Tracy Ham turned back the clock this season.
Five years after he first made his mark in the Canadian Football League with an MVP season, he has resurrected his career.
Six years after he had the Edmonton Eskimos on the cutting edge of a Grey Cup dynasty, he has positioned Baltimore's expansion team for a similar run.
Ham will be on familiar ground when the CFLs challenge the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Sunday's Eastern final at Winnipeg Stadium.
Five times, he took the Eskimos to the Western final. Four times they lost.
The only victory resulted in a 50-11 drubbing in the 1990 Grey Cup.
Call it what you will, but Edmonton coach Ron Lancaster called it unacceptable. In January 1993, he traded Ham to Toronto.
A month ago, just before Baltimore traveled to Edmonton, Lancaster talked about the trade.
"Tracy seemed to get to a plateau and stay there," Lancaster said then. "He wasn't able to finish the job and get the team to the Grey Cup."
Now Ham has another chance to set the record straight and prove Lancaster wrong. But that's not how he looks at Sunday's opportunity.
"I'm not fueled by what happened in Edmonton or Toronto [last season]," he said. "It made me better going through those situations.
"I can deal with it -- getting beat and someone saying, 'Tracy didn't do this, didn't do that.' I do what I think is best to help the team."
Ham's four losses in the division final came against the B.C. Lions, Saskatchewan and Calgary twice. The two against Calgary seemingly left the biggest scar.
Calgary pulled out the 1991 West final, 38-36, when then-quarterback Danny Barrett hit a bomb. The Stampeders won again in 1992, 23-22, when Doug Flutie scored on a quarterback sneak on the final play of the game.
"The two that we lost to Calgary, we had the lead with a minute to go," Ham said. "In '91, Danny Barrett threw a TD bomb to Pee Wee Smith when they were backed up in their end.
"The next year, we had a four-point lead going into the wind. We had a drive, punted, and put them on their 30. Flutie took them downfield and scored on a sneak.
"The bottom line, we got beat."
Ham started to again protest his fate as Edmonton's scapegoat, then, with a wave of the hand, moved on.
"A quarterback gets too much credit and blame," he said. "You can always find a reason why you lose. You can go from quarterback to the kicker. Lancaster may feel there is some validity to what he's saying."
Steve Buratto, Baltimore's offensive coordinator, doesn't.
"I think it's an invalid criticism," he said. "I don't think it's as much Tracy as Ron. It's their personalities. They didn't get along. Not winning the big one -- [Matt] Dunigan always carried that baggage, too."
Of Ham's 1-4 record in the West final, Baltimore coach Don Matthews said: "It's a team sport. You ought to look at it that way."
Ham, 30, started over last summer with a new offense and an inexperienced line. Six months later, he was second in the league in passing yards (4,348) and third in touchdowns (30) and passer efficiency (107.4). Only Flutie, with 5,726, threw for more yards.
Ham was the trigger man in a no-huddle offense that saw Mike Pringle break the CFL rushing record, Chris Armstrong catch 18 touchdown passes, and Baltimore finish third in the league in total offense.
He went from big passing games (749 yards in back-to-back games against Las Vegas and Hamilton) to feeding Pringle's record run.
Along the way, he played through pain. In what may have been his most remarkable performance of the year, Ham played the second half of a 28-17 victory over Hamilton on one leg. He had torn his right quadriceps the week before.
After failing with Toronto's run-and-shoot offense a year ago, Ham has been a perfect match with Baltimore's new scheme.
"When he was in Edmonton, we had so many vets," said Armstrong, a former Eskimo. "Here, Tracy has become more of a teacher, a leader, because we're a young offense.
"In Edmonton, he used to be hotheaded. If things weren't going right, he'd get frustrated. He doesn't get frustrated now. He keeps his head, and that allows us to keep our head."
Ham was the quarterback Matthews wanted for his first-year team, both for his big-play ability and his leadership. What
Matthews appreciates most, though, is the selfless way that Ham runs the offense.
"It's his willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done," Matthews said. "He'll throw it if there's a need to. He'll hand it off. Or he'll run if that's what it takes.
"He is as unselfish a player as has been in the league. [Winning] is his main concern. That's one of the qualities I felt important when we signed him."
Ham became a pocket passer in Baltimore after spending most of his career on the corner. He has completed nearly 54 percent of his passes this year, throwing only 13 interceptions.
"Early in my career, I rolled out a lot to cut down the field," he said. "I wasn't comfortable reading the whole field."
Throwing from the pocket this season, Ham was just 18 yards off his career high for passing.
Now he's just two wins from an elusive Grey Cup victory. Forget about Edmonton. That is his incentive.
"I'm motivated by thinking we have a good chance to win the Cup," he said. "For us to win it, I've got to go out and play well."
CFL PLAYOFFS
SUNDAY'S GAMES
EASTERN FINAL
Baltimore at Winnipeg, 1:30 p.m.
WESTERN FINAL
GREY CUP
Nov. 27, at Vancouver, 6:30 p.m.