Kisses – reminds Bo Levi Mitchell, launching a warning flare into the sky – are not so far removed from hisses.

After bulldozing through the regular-season, leaving the rest of the CFL a patch of scorched earth in damaging to a near-record 15-2-1 season and then gutting and filleting the BC Lions in Sunday’s West final, the legions are leaping aboard the Calgary Stampeders’ bandwagon.

Unbeatable, the party line prattles.

Unbreakable.

Untameable.

Mitchell, be aware, ain’t fool enough to start sipping the Kool Aid.

“I think it’d soften anybody up,” reasoned the MOP-candidate quarterback Monday, addressing the torrent of rave notices that follow the Stamps into BMO Field and the 104th Grey Cup this coming Sunday against the Ottawa RedBlacks.

“You have all these people telling you you’re so great, you start buying into it, thinking everything’s going to come easy.

“Man, I was here in ’12 when we got our ass whupped” – 35-22 by the Toronto Argos in the title tilt – “by a 9-9 team.

“So I’m not going to let that happen again.”

The level-headedness that has served the 2016 edition of the Calgary Stampeders so well, the ability to zone in on what’s important and shave away the extraneous, Mitchell credits to boss Dave Dickenson and the rest of the coaching staff.

“I think it always starts with at morning meeting. One of the best things about Huff and now Dave is they know what’s exactly going to happen during the week.

“Whether it’s the media, what y’all are going to ask. Underdogs, overdogs …whatever.

“Just like this week: (They told us) They’re going to give you all the love in the world. Make sure you throw that off your shoulders. Don’t even focus on that.

“Because they introduced that to us at the beginning of the week and we understand what’s coming, it’s easy to flush it away.

“I’m excited for the opportunity in front of us. But Ottawa lost the Grey Cup last year. You know they’re going to be mad. They’re going to be ready to whup our ass.

“All they’re going to hear is ‘No one’s picking you to win.’ Blah, blah, blah. We’re not going to buy into it. We know they’re not going to buy into it, either.”

Starting Tuesday, when the Stamps touch down in Toronto, their priorities are pared down to a single afternoon, 60 minutes or a few more. Over and above the hype and the distractions is the game itself.

This is, after all, a business trip.

“I love my family to death,’’ said Mitchell. “I’ll make sure they get out there but after that they probably won’t see me.

“They can enjoy the festivities. But I can hang out with my family for the next six months.

“Right now it’s time for me to focus on the most important game of my career. And hopefully everybody else feels the same way.”

When informed that no Stampeder QB – not Peter Liske, not Doug Flutie, not Jeff Garcia, not Dave Dickenson – has ever led the Red and White to two Grey Cup titles, the slingshot-armed product of Katy, Tx., only smiled.

“That,’’ he said, “is pretty cool.

“Somebody’s got to do it.”

“We all love this game with a passion. And we want to leave our mark on the history of the CFL.”

– Bo Levi Mitchell

Sunday’s game pits the two most recent Calgary quarterbacks to win Grey Cups, Mitchell (2014) and the evergreen Smilin’ Henry Burris (2008), against each other.

“It’s inspiring to me as a young guy (26) to think you can make play to 41 and win a Grey Cup,’’ said Mitchell of Burris.

“I know somebody (Damon Allen) did it, but I don’t know who it was.

“Henry’s a guy who I watched when I got up here. He was a mentor to me, showing me how to get out in the community and put my name out there, attach yourself to something.

“He’s done a lot of great things in this league for a very long time. There’s not going to be a thing in this game that phases him. I’m sure our guys know that.

“You’re not going to see him out at the clubs or hanging out with his family because he has one focus on his mind.

“I’m going to have that same, if not more, intensity going into it.”

The kisses, Bo Levi Mitchell can tell you, aren’t so far removed from the hisses.

Right now, everyone’s queueing up to pucker up. That in itself should be send up cautionary red flags.

Because only by winning Sunday, by propelling themselves into elite company in this three-down game of grid, can these Stampeders avoid the hisses.

Only then can they write their signature for generations to see.

“It’s about leaving your mark on this game,’’ said Mitchell with flat certainty. “That’s why you play. It’s not just to get paid. Not to create life afterwards.

“It’s to leave a mark. To leave your name in a history book where someone might read about you someday.

“We all love this game with a passion.

“And we want to leave our mark on the history of the CFL.”