WINNIPEG - The Ottawa Redblacks were denied their touchdown celebrations for the 103rd Grey Cup.

The Algonquin Loggersports Team traditionally slices a "wood cookie" off a log in the west endzone at Ottawa's TD Place to mark a Redblacks touchdown.

But their chainsaw wasn't welcome at Investors Group Field, where the second-year Redblacks faced the Edmonton Eskimos in Sunday's CFL championship game.

"The league supports and encourages the presence and participation of the Algonquin Loggersports Team on the field at the Grey Cup game," the CFL said in a pre-game statement. "However, in response to concerns raised, and as the game is intended to be at played at a neutral site, the touchdown celebration that normally occurs at Redblacks' home games will not be allowed between kickoff and the final gun."

The league did not immediately respond to a query on who raised the concern.

But Redblacks co-owner Don Hunt told the Ottawa Sun that the league had given the green light, then changed its mind after Edmonton "protested very aggressively."

"Things changed," said Randy Burgess, the Redblacks' vice-president of communications and fan experience.

The team got the green light Thursday night and made travel arrangements Friday. But Saturday, the approval was withdrawn, said Burgess.

Burgess said the four-person team had paid its own way to Winnipeg and would be on the field, albeit with silent chainsaws during the game.

"We're disappointed, (but) happy at least the Loggersports Team was able to get here," he said.

The plaid-clad Algonquin College Loggersports Team, based out of the school's Pembroke campus, participates in intercollegiate lumberjack skills competitions.

It's not the first time a Grey Cup team has had to do without a touchdown celebration.

In 2012, the Calgary Stampeders and league came to a compromise on the team's mascot for the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto. One of the Stampeders touchdown horses was allowed on the sidelines at the Rogers Centre but wasn't permitted to gallop along the sidelines when Calgary scored due to safety concerns and a lack of space.

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