Winning the Grey Cup only a few days after being named the Canadian Football League MVP has been the highlight of New Iberia native Kerry Joseph's football career.

Having his mother there for both the awards presentation and the championship game victory made it that much sweeter for the New Iberia Senior High and McNeese State University graduate.

"I really wanted her there for the MVP banquet, and then for the game," said Joseph, who was voted the league's Outstanding Player by the Football Reporters of Canada and the eight CFL head coaches.

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For someone who went into the season not even knowing if he'd start for first-year Roughriders coach Kent Austin, it turned out to be a pretty good year for the 1991 NISH graduate.

Austin, a former Roughriders quarterback himself who led Saskatchewan to the 1989 Grey Cup title, said the job was open to competition heading into the season. Joseph had joined the Roughriders in 2006 after the Ottawa Renegades folded. Joseph quarterbacked the Renegades from 2003-05. With Saskatchewan in 2006, Joseph started 14 of 18 regular season games and both of his team's playoff games, passing for 3,489 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing for 583 yards and four TDs.

That didn't mean anything starting the next season, however, nor did his career numbers of 14,411 yards and 79 touchdowns passing and 2,623 yards and 23 touchdowns rushing in four CFL seasons. Joseph threw for 4,466 yards and rushed for 1,006 yards in 2005, becoming only the second CFL quarterback with a 1,000-yard rushing season.

"That really motivated me," said Joseph of the "open position" announcement. "Coming into this year, every day, every other day, the media asked me about how it felt battling for the job. It irritated me to the point it motivated me."

Joseph proceeded to lead the Roughriders to their first home playoff game since 1988, their first Grey Cup finals appearance since 1997 and their first Grey Cup championship since 1989. He passed for 4,002 yards and 24 touchdowns and rushed for 13 touchdowns, second most by a QB in a single season in CFL history.

"We really felt good going into the playoffs," said Joseph. "The energy we had from the fans really set the tone for the playoffs. We really didn't know if we'd have this chance again. When we went to play BC (British Columbia) in the Western finals and beat them, I think the guys really became confident."

Joseph didn't let the hype of the Grey Cup week or the CFL awards banquet disrupt his preparation. The Outstanding Player award was announced last, and by the time it came around, Joseph said he was getting really nervous.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Kevin Glenn was the East nominee for the award, with Joseph the West nominee. Glenn led the league with 388 completions in 621 attempts for 5,114 yards and was second in TD passes with 25.

"I had a good feeling but you never know," said Joseph of winning the award. "The other guy had a great year also. It really got nerve-wracking when I knew the award was coming up."

Only three days later, Joseph was suiting up for the Grey Cup in Toronto against the Blue Bombers. Glenn did not play after breaking his arm earlier in the playoffs.

"I think at the beginning of the game I really pressed a lot," said Joseph. "I missed throws I usually don't miss. When I felt myself pressing at times, I decided I would do something with my legs. They were playing a lot more man coverage than we expected, and that gave me lanes to run. It wasn't an easy game. But Coach always says, games are going to get harder the longer you play (in the playoffs)."

The turning point for Joseph in the game came when the Roughriders fell behind 14-13.

"I was sitting on the bench and I said to myself, 'I'm not going to let this game slip away,'" said Joseph.

He didn't, rallying Saskatchewan to a 23-19 victory with a 29-yard TD pass to Andy Fantuz in the fourth quarter after struggling with off-target and dropped passes for much of the game.

Joseph presented a game ball to his mother after the victory.

"It was so exciting," said Geraldine Joseph, who flew to Buffalo, N.Y., and then drove from there to Toronto with her brother, Vergist Bourgeois, for the awards program and the championship game. "Getting the ball was the most exciting part.

"Both (the banquet and game) were exciting, but the Grey Cup was the best."

His mother, who teaches P.E. at Hopkins Street Elementary, knew how happy her son was that she was able to make the trip.

"He told me Thursday night (at the banquet), 'Thank you, thank you, I love you,'" she said.

Winning the championship is definitely a highlight of his career. Joseph set numerous records at McNeese, many of which he still holds, while playing from 1992-95. He led the Cowboys to a No. 1 ranking and the Division I-AA semifinals his senior season in passing for a school-record 2,485 yards and 27 touchdowns.

Undrafted in the NFL, he signed as a free agent running back with the Cincinnati Bengals in 1996 and spent most of the season on the practice roster. He quarterbacked the London Monarchs of the World League in 1997 and was a safety for the Rhein Fire of the World League the following year, then played four seasons as a safety for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

But Joseph yearned to play quarterback, and signed with the Renegades in 2003, setting a team single-game passing record in his first game as a starter on July 10, 2003. He became the third player in CFL history to pass for 4,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in the same season in 2005 but had to fight for a starting job the next year when Ottawa folded and he was chosen by Saskatchewan in a dispersal draft.

Though quickly accepted by fans, it was not always easy to be the starting quarterback in the working-class city of Regina.

"It's a really tough town to play in because the No. 2 quarterback is always their favorite," said Joseph.

Maybe that will be different now.

"It was a great sense of joy," said Joseph of winning the title. "You start to think about it from Day 1 of training camp and as the season is winding down you know you have a chance. It is a great feeling. I've always wanted that feeling. When you see guys winning the Super Bowl, when you see guys winning the NBA championship, you wonder what it feels like. You can't really explain it unless you've done it."

And winning in front of his mom, uncle and a friend from New Orleans and her mother made it even better.

"To have people there that you know, to share the championship, meant a lot," he said.

Facing an option year in his contract, Joseph isn't sure yet whether he'll return to the CFL or attempt to take another shot at playing in the NFL, preferably as a quarterback.

"But I haven't spoken with my agent yet," said Joseph. "I'm just going to explore my options."