OTTAWA — Marcus Ball spent three years with his fingers so close to that brass ring. After leaving the Toronto Argonauts in 2013, he played three seasons in the National Football League, on four different rosters. He was a part-time contributor, though, and couldn’t quite get the security, and riches, of a regular starter.

So, he came back to Canada.

“It was a difficult situation, but I followed my heart,” Ball, 30, said on Saturday at TD Place, a day before the Grey Cup. “I prayed, I asked my wife for advice and for help,” he said. Ball has three charms hanging at the end of his long dreadlocked hair: one each for his wife, Ashley, and his two children. “She had my back as she always does, she’s the most beautiful and amazing woman in the world, she really helped me through the whole deal,” Ball says. “But I’m happy. I’m happy I made that decision.”

He has good reason to feel at peace. Ball is back to being a major contributor on a contending football team, and has a chance on Sunday to get his second Grey Cup in three seasons with Toronto — with that NFL hiatus sandwiched in the middle. Marc Trestman, the Argonauts head coach, has showered Ball with praise this week, saying he allows the coaches to adjust schemes on the fly because of his smarts and his versatility on the field. He also lauded Ball’s willingness to be a mentor to the younger Argos on the roster.

Ball, though, says he didn’t come back to the CFL thinking he could just fall back into old routines.

“I came in, bright eyes and ears wide open, like a sponge,” he says. “I knew I had to re-learn, I had to learn as if it was day one all over again. I only brought experiences and advice from 2012 and 2013, that’s the only thing that carried over.”

It’s notable what Ball does not say here. He doesn’t mention the NFL specifically, but the implication is that just because he spent some time on NFL rosters, he wasn’t about to pretend to he was on a different level than his teammates.

“I never brought a certain attitude or a certain mindset,” he says. “It’s a brand new coaching staff, a brand new team, a brand new system. It was a learning experience for me, honestly.”

But even though much was new, Ball says there were parallels to that 2012 championship team. That group was full of new additions to the roster, and was guided by a head coach, Scott Milanovich, who had been mentored by Trestman in Montreal. That Grey Cup defence was coached by Chris Jones, whose protégé Corey Chamblin is Toronto’s present defensive coordinator.

“We had bunch of new guys, a bunch of guys who didn’t know each other, who didn’t know how to play with each other,” Ball says. “It’s a similar situation here now.”

And so, he started learning again. “There is always room for improvement,” he says. “I love this game too much to ever figure, ‘you know, I’ve got it, I’ve figured it out.’”

When he wasn’t learning, he was teaching. “I’d be a fool to hold back any kind of advice or not share experiences with the young guys on my team, so to be able to do that, I’m honoured and blessed to able to do that,” Ball says. “We have a great group of guys, and they listen, man. They love football too. The love they have for the game and each other, it’s unmeasurable.”

Ball is talking about something that has proven to be one of the unexpected things of Grey Cup week: the degree to which these Argos seem to hold each other in something approaching reverence. They talk about the culture reset, and respecting each other, and working for their teammates instead of themselves. Lots of teams say stuff like this, of course, but the Argonauts sure seem to have bought in. The words do not ring hollow.

“It’s a testament to (general manager) Jim Popp and coach Trestman,” Ball says. “It’s very important and it means a lot to a player when a coach stands up in front of the room and says, ‘I want to earn your trust every day.’ We have a coach that’s going to go out of his way to earn your trust, treat you as a man and care for you as a son, that means a lot,” he says. “That starts the trickle-down effect and from there it spreads across the locker room. Their resume speaks for itself.”

The Argos were beaten easily twice by Calgary this season, and they will enter Sunday’s game as seven-point underdogs. The Stampeders won 13 of their first 15 games and cruised home; the Argos were 4-7 at one point and had to claw their way back to a 9-9 record. Calgary is the favourite for good reason, but when the Argos say they believe in each other, it’s evident that they mean it.

As for Ball, who missed six games late with an ankle injury: “I feel Grey Cup ready,” he says with a smile. “If coach calls my number, I’ll be there to answer it.”

Early to bed

Toronto Argonauts head coach Marc Trestman did not approach Grey Cup week by giving his players a strict curfew and he wasn’t about to change on the eve of the game.

After a media session and meetings at TD Place on Saturday afternoon, Trestman said the players would be “turned loose” around the dinner hour. They were trusted to act responsibly and expected to govern themselves accordingly.

“We’ve asked them to get back to the hotel room at a common-sense reasonable hour,” Trestman said.

As for himself, the coach would have little chance to violate his own guidance. His plans: “Stay in, get some room service, and go to bed.”

Did he have any sort of Grey Cup Eve routine?

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s boring.”

He would not watch TV, he said, but would probably review some game plans.

sstinson@postmedia.com