The Rider Beat

There are some things in this life that seem like a sure thing. One sure thing we all know is that death will do us part, another is that those GST and PST taxes will always distort our price tags 'till the day this world ends. Tiger will always win golf. Gretzky will always reign supreme in hockey. Mike Tyson will reign supreme in idiocy. Donald Trump will always have lousy hair, Pierre McGuire will always be a lousy analyst. Osama Bin Laden will always have ugly intentions. Rosie O'Donnell will always have ugly (pick a body part, any body part).

One door closes, another opens.
For every bad thing that happens something good will happen.

But then the list ends and is deemed false and inaccurate. At the bottom of the list lies one point that for so many years became inexplainably predictable.

Sure Thing #381 The Riders will always pull defeat out of the jaws of victory.

Based on the clutch performance of the Green Machine in 2008, nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from a sure thing.

With 1:45 left in the Riders-Ti-cats week three tilt, Darian Durant was faced with the task in his first CFL start of marching the Riders down the field and erasing a 28-27 deficit. Dumping a short pass off to Dressler, he left the rest in the speedy receivers hands who would then dodge and weave his way to what looked like paydirt.
Then defeat came out and flexed its bulging muscles.

In a sudden turn of events, the last defender chasing Dressler in one last attempt swiped at the ball and popped it loose at the one yard line. The pigskin would then roll through the end zone and out the other side. Ivor Wynne erupted and we all thought the same thing. Hamilton ball. Tiger Cat win. 30,000+ go home happy while Rider Nation shakes their head at another twist of ugly fate.

Fate would have none of it.

Sighting the rule book on a challenge call by Ken Miller, the refs ruled that the ball was indeed fumbled but in the fine print it reads plain and clear, if the ball is knocked out of bounds, the team in possession receives the ball. The Riders would take over on the 1 yard line and punch it in. The rest is history.

Fast track to Saturday night at Mosaic Stadium.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders at 3-0 are still without blemish. But with a 3rd string QB at the helm for a 2nd straight game facing a solid Montral Alouettes squad, it looks like it could be one of those "wake-up call" games. The Riders have not won 4 times in a row to start a season since 1970...since before Tiger was born, before Gretzky was even in peewee hockey.

After an astoundingly entertaining 56 minutes sporting six lead changes, Darian Durant took over the controls down 33-25 with just under four minutes to go. Spotting Matt Dominguez in single coverage, he laid one up for #88. Marc Estell and Dominguez both reached for the ball only to grab for it at the same instant coming down with it at the same time, both convinced that they had the ball.

In past years, in past decades rather, the Roughriders would have prepared for the worst and got it...but sighting the rulebook once again the officials ruled that when two players come down with the ball at the same time possession goes to the receiver. That would be the call that would fuel the Riders to another fourth quarter comeback and eventual 41-33 victory.

This past summer, a series of bold moves by Eric Tillman caused a massive spectacle among Rider faithful. Many questioned that E.T. had fumbled the ball and that the Riders had lost possession as West Division favourites. Two months later they have 1st place in their possession and have everyone eating crow all over the country.

Which forced me to contemplate....Tiger wasn't always top golfer, Gretzky at one time didn't reign supreme in hockey. Mike Tyson at one time was innocent and Donald Trump once owned a hairbrush.

The Riders are in first, gas prices keep rising, salaries keep rising, standards are going lower and lower.

Upon pondering this, i take my list and scratch #2 to #400 off my list, coming to the realization that there really is only thing in this world that is predictable, counted on, inevitable....

Sure thing #1 Nothing in this life is a sure thing.



BleacherBuff

On Enemy Grounds

This next account is based on my experience in the deep dark depths of BC Place, witnessing the eventual 26-16 Rider victory over the reeling Lions. In theory, I would like you to believe it's a story of great courage, one of overcoming the battlefields of the opposition to witness a great victory. I had come into this a little shaky, wondering if, just as the Lions are now deep down under at 0-2, I would also be deep down under, six feet to approximate measurements.

What I found was that the people of B.C. follow a similar formula after a game result.

After a loss...

"Awww they lost...oh well, peace to the world, peace to my Sask. brothers, to humankind...."

After a win...

Ditto.

Faced with the same situation as a Lions fan at Taylor Field, show one glimmer of orange paint and take out that paper and recite your last words. If your team wins there is no time for celebration. Your post game brouhaha will consist of running for cover, hands over face, protection over every body part you can possibly protect amid a public outrage.

Shades and flashes of these moments rushed through my mind as i took the final steps out the door into a journey i may never come back from.

Knowing the consequences, I venture into a den full of angry, revengeful, hungry Lions...things could get messy.

***********


Complete with my FANTUZ jersey and "2007 Grey Cup Champions" hat (important point made) I head off the next few blocks down to the Sky train. Secretly i wanted people to balk and sneer, jeer and spit on my face, but for the first five blocks no one so much as even noticed i was there. Quite insulted was I. This was no bottom of the barrel Salvation Army green rag. Stopping just outside a Pizza Place, there came the first encounter with a group of deceived Rider decenters. Out walked the first, orange bandanna shining on his head, sporting a cocky strut. Within one swift motion our eyes met, we stared each other down like Harry stared down Voldemort, we examined each other like we had M.D. attached to our name, and we judged each other from head to toe. What followed was a look so disapproving it would put great grandmother, grandmother and mother all to shame. Out came Lions fan #2. Young, vulnerable and evidently wowed by the fact a real Rider fan in living colour was sitting a few feet away. He proceeded to whisper into his friends ear, like a 3 year old son to his father.

"Psst, you see that? A Rider fan".. he he haw haw snicker snicker *Stare* look away cooly, do five times in next thirty seconds but fail miserably.
"Yea, guffaw guffaw, is that FANTUZ?"

As i walked past them towards the Sky train, the stares of three helpless beings nearly burned the back of my head. Off in the distance they could see a great name etched into that jersey. A name they so desperately wanted on their side. For each step I took I couldn't help but feel sorry for them as they stood watching.....

Wishing their lives away.....

**********

In my day to day life I don't usually have a knack for losing things but the paranoia of doing so drives me to great depths of insanity. I had left my brother Craig a non-sports enthusiast with the coveted tickets and don't get me wrong i trusted he would not lose them, but giving him tickets to a sporting event and saying "don't lose them" would like being given tickets to the horticulture show and being told "guard these with your life." Fact is, having a couple of environmentally friendly tickets would not mean much to me and neither, or so i was convinced, would the Rider tickets to Craig. My paranoia lasted until the final rip was ripped off the tickets. We proceeded to walk a few steps and then I ask...

"so where are we sitting again?"
I fish for my ticket and find nothing there
"Oh don't worry you won't need it now anyway"

With hesitation, I head to my seat. After the national anthem a security guard comes up to us and asks us if we have our tickets.
"Yup right here" said my brother, as I look desperately for a place to hide.
"what about you?"
"Uh, i don't seem to have it right now"
"I'm gonna have to ask you to leave if you don't have your ticket"

On the outside I was cool as a cucumber, but on the inside I was screaming WHAT!!! NO!!! CALL MOMMA!!!! SUE SECURITY!!!!

then in a twist of fate, the words rang out like a beautiful melody, like Mozart...

"Just kidding here it is, hang onto it this time"

The adrenaline rush I came off of I'm convinced was greater than one Buck Pierce and Marcus Crandell will ever feel. I felt like a beat up d-lineman, a bashed running back and a concussed quarterback all at the same time...

And kickoff hadn't even come yet.

*********THE GAME**********

The game, unlike the pre-game events started off slowly. In a defensive struggle (or struggling offences) The Riders held a 3-1 lead after the first quarter off an 11 yard, my grandma could've made that one, type of field goal and a single by Paul McCallum. Anointed Rider QB Marcus Crandell went down with a hamstring injury of which i had failed to notice until a couple minutes into the 2nd quarter, leading me into wonderment of why the Riders were treating this like a pre season game and playing all of their qb's. After the Lions got off to an 8-3 lead with a 1 yard run by Joe Smith, Riders' second stringer Steven Jyles would step in and connect on a 10 yard pass play with Andy Fantuz one play after a B.C. fumble to launch them to an 10-8 lead. But in a turn of fortunes Jyles would then lay it up for two interceptions, one of which would lead to another Joe Smith TD the other way to make it a 15-10 game for B.C. Now, at this point I had still failed to figure out who was behind centre, as I continued to in my head have a hate on for Marcus Crandell.

It was once said "it is better to remain silent and be thought of an idiot, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt" I knew going in that I was in Lions fans eyes a real idiot, fact is i'm (usually) a pretty intelligent guy...but the truth was i was pretty much an idiot for not knowing who my own quarterback, but i never opened my mouth and yelled "GET OFF THE FIELD CRANDELL"...some things may be better left unsaid.

THE FINAL RESULT

Now in most cases, i'm a complete introvert, i'm an introvert on the street, at home, at school at work, wherever i am i've got introvert written all over me....but there is one exception. At Rider games, the passion of the Green and White spurs me on to become the most confident guy out there....and how could I not be. I was witnessing Wes Cates give a pounding to a defense that didn't have an answer for him or the rest of the team. From Lance Frazier's INT to put the lasting blow in 33,000 Lions fans hopes, to the hard running by Cates...i posed like no one was watching, screamed like no one was listening and cheered like, well, like the rest of the Riders fans did, like they were drunk, cuz they were. But i was not...no it was not liquid courage it was Rider Pride deep inside.

The final gun had sounded and looking up on the score clock I read the most beautiful words ever seen.

Saskatchewan 26 B.C. 16

By then approximately 3/4 of the fans had already left and were already at home having given up, so as i made my way down to the concourse I was as confident as ever of getting out of there without confrontation. Slapping hands with complete strangers, I headed over to the front gate. Here came up a lad dressed in normal street clothes.

"Hey Sweet!!! Look!!! A Rider Fan!!!!!"
extending his hand for a high five, i made a drastic assumption and held nothing back...
"OOOOH YEAH!!!!!" i yelled, fully expecting a similar response. In one swift motion i swung my hand at his, but then as though leaving me hanging he took his hand away.
"NOOOO"
And there i was left with one hand extended into thin air, looking like a dumb ox, while his friend stood beside blowing his horn into my face. People around me laughed and smirked looking for every last bit of entertainment they could muster, acting as though the reality of their team having lost hadn't actually happened

In one quick motion I moved my hand to my left facing B.C. Place, dropped three fingers and pointed at the scoreboard whose neon lights were still shining bright in the sky. For a moment I was laughing with them, but within one blink of an eye the laughing stopped, people stared in unbelief. Turning away, I thought back to a time when i was at a Rider game which ended the wrong way. I thought back to a time when I would wander helplessly to the exits looking for something entertaining and in the same lame way as these fans tried, I also tried hard to satisfy my amusement. But tonight something was different.

Tonight, I found out that the funniest joke of all was glowing high and bright for everyone to see.




BleacherBuff

Eskimoes-Riders Game #1 Commentary

As Ken Miller, Marcus Crandell, Eric Tillman and the rest of the Rider contingent basked in the glory of their first victory of the 2008 season, another ex- Rider was going deep into his post game 'meal'.

Somewhere out there Fred Perry was eating crow.

The gold teethed defensive line cog who had previously been sent out of Riderville to the shagrin of rider priders all over, decided unwisely to add fuel to the ever burning fire of motivation started ,ironically by fans of the green and white who had doubts heading into the season.

"He doesn't have a strong arm, he's not very fast, I just think he's a second string QB"

The man Perry was referring to was none other than former Grey Cup MVP and former teammate no less Marcus Crandell, and as fast as you can say Saskatchewan, the love felt for the cast-off was no longer deep within the depths of prairie lore.

Backtrack my friends to many other players fans have come to love in the past.

Henry Burris was one of the most lovable, popular and vibrant players this franchise had come across. His gurantees and promises, the heart and soul he put into the organization for the short time he was here became endearing. Then he stuck his foot into the mouth he so subtly smiled with and walked. Fans became angered and the Riders used it as motivation to knock 'Smilin' Hank' and the Stamps from post-season play two years in a row.

Paul McCallum was the longest serving Roughrider up to the 2005 season and had kicked many winning field goals through the years, winning the hearts of many fans along the way. Due to an infraction at the end of the season, when BC came calling he gladly went. Whether deserved or not, Rider fans sparked an outrage. It would be two years later that the Green Machine would get the revenge they wanted in defeating the Lions in the West Final.

If Freddy had only known what he had done...

Perhaps it was when Crandell put one up over the outstretched arms of Perry into the hands of Wes Cates for the go-ahead major in the 4th quarter, or the severely weak arm he used to bomb a 73 yard strike to newcomer Adarius Bowman to seal the win, one thing was apparent, his attempt to rattle the pivot backfired worse than Hilary Clinton's speech on her Afghanistan exploration.

The team was not spectacular, but got it done when they needed to, as was apparent when former Grey Cup MVP James Johnson set off the fireworks with a 2nd quarter Interception...wait a minute...Grey Cup MVP?

oh and Fred one more thing?...

James Johnson...pretty darn good 2nd stringer too...isn't he?