DAYTONA HOMES FRIDAY RODSERVATIONS
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| Week 1 – The Rematch |
10 HOME GAME WEEKEND NOTES AND THOUGHTS
1 – YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!: For the past few weeks we’ve been bombarded by the message that the 2013 Roughrider season is over. That magical year – the greatest Roughriders season ever capped off by the biggest Roughrider win ever – is over. And I’ve tried, honestly, to let it go.
But I can’t.
It was going okay until Wednesday when I saw TSN’s Journey To The Cup documentary and all those wonderful emotions came rushing back. Tears too. I muttered to myself, “How in the hell are we supposed to move on from this?”
But we must. Some of the biggest components of that Grey Cup victory, in fact of the whole season, are gone. Weston Dressler, Kory Sheets and Geroy Simon are really nothing more than fading images in our mind now. Eventually it will fade to black I suppose.
Perhaps counselling is needed. Hey, I’ll volunteer for it. I can just hear the counsellor’s voice, “But Rod, you have to move on….”
“NO!!” I’d scream. “I CAN’T! I DON’T WANT TO!”
For now I don’t want to forget about last season and when it comes to this particular situation, no one’s going to make me do something I don’t want to do.
The Roughriders need to forget about it, but the fans don’t have to.
2 – THE USUAL: A warm, muggy day is predicted for Game Day on Sunday when the Roughriders kickoff the 2014 CFL season at home against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (5:00 pm, TSN, CKRM Rider Radio Network). As of this writing, the forecast calls for a high of 20-degrees and a 70% chance of showers. The Roughriders are now 5-point favourites after opening the week being favoured by six.
3 – RIDERS OWN LID-LIFTERS: The Roughriders are a CFL-best 5-1 in season opening games between 2008 and 2013. As a matter of fact, they’ve only lost one Week 1 game dating back to 2007 and that was in 2011. The Ticats on the other hand, not only are 0-6 between 2008 and 2013, but they’ve actually lost nine consecutive season-opening games. Are they primed for an upset victory a la Kent Austin style? See Point 2, Subsection 2.
4 – AGE IS BUT A NUMBER: Kudos to the 2014 Roughriders for not characterizing themselves as anything but a fresh, new team. They haven’t said they’re old, or they’re young, or anything in fact. Actually I think they’re still trying to find out for themselves exactly what they are but CFL statistics show the Riders are right in the middle of the pack when it comes to their age. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are the “youngest” team in the league with an average of 1.87 seasons experience per player. The B.C. Lions are the oldest, followed by Calgary, Montreal and then Saskatchewan which makes us the fourth-oldest team in the nine team loop.
5 – CANADA WEEK: Times are slow in the NFL and in our visits with NFL players Stefan Charles (Buffalo), Jorgen Hus (St. Louis) and Jon Ryan (Seattle) this week, we learned they’re off until the start of training camps on July 23. Therefore NFL media god Peter King has turned his attention towards the CFL on his wildly popular Monday Morning Quarterback website which has featured guest columns this week from Marc Trestman, Doug Flutie and the Toronto Star’s Bruce Arthur. The thing I took away the most from reading these articles was Flutie’s assertion that winning the Grey Cup was just as big of a deal as the Super Bowl. In fact he wrote, “I can’t imagine winning the Super Bowl would feel any better”. That certainly gave legitimacy to our league but it’s quickly taken away when you consider with all this hype in the U.S. for our Week 1, you still can’t watch these games in the States unless you stream from a computer.
Forehead slap. We get all this incredible publicity but the ball is dropped due to a crappy U.S. TV deal.
Also, speaking of the Grey Cup/Super Bowl thing, the Rider Grey Cup rings are FAR larger than the Seahawks Super Bowl rings. The Riders’ were made by Jostens while the Seahawks came from Tiffany’s.
6 – IT’S GROWING: We thought having 5,000 viewers for the livestream of CKRM’s Rider Nation Game Day pregame show for Grey Cup was huge at Riderville.com. Now we get word that last week’s preseason game drew 7,000 viewers for the pregame show! It’s mind-boggling. Those numbers are going to go through the roof when Peter King graces Pilsner Place to go on the show with Michael Ball, Luc Mullinder and Matt Dominguez on Sunday. I’ve also gotten word that King will come into our broadcast booth somewhere in the second quarter of the Riders-Ticats game and join us live on air. If you hear a THUD over the radio, it’s because I fainted.
7 – QUICK HITS: Here are some interesting Week 1 CFL notes: The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have turned over 57% of their roster … Drew Willy is the sixth different starting quarterback for Winnipeg in their last 23 games … Calgary’s Nik Lewis has the longest active consecutive games-with-a-catch streak at 157. Geroy Simon retired before he could challenge Don Narcisse’s pro football record of 216 … Calgary’s Jon Cornish is 71 yards away from surpassing Jackie Parker for #35 all-time on the CFL’s career rushing list. There’s still a drink named after Jackie Parker in Edmonton bars.
8 – WHAT’S UP WITH THE PATS?: That’s been the popular question this week from far and wide across the hockey land. Let’s make one thing clear; the new owners feel they 100% made the right decision by letting go head coach Malcolm Cameron with one year left on his contract. As it was put to me, “We’re taking the high road on this one, and are willing to take a few hits”. Let’s just say the Queen City Sports & Entertainment Group was given a bill of sale but once they popped the hood, things weren’t what they seemed. Surprise, surprise! But as I told them, I’m willing to provide any information they need however I’d prefer to stay out of the whole situation.
As far as Malcolm Cameron goes, he was nothing but first class in his dealings with me and he can leave Regina with his head held high for what he achieved in his time here. The Voice of the Pats, Phil Andrews, loves Malcolm and that’s good enough for me.
Incidentally Tuesday was also the first time in history, that I can recall, that the Regina Pats overshadowed the Saskatchewan Roughriders in this town. Especially in the summer. We did 2 1/2 hours in the SportsCage on the Pats and people wanted more. Maybe, because of the sale of the team, the profile of the franchise is at an all-time high. Who knows?
9 – SPEAKING OF BEING OVER-SHADOWED: The only people who were upset the CFL didn’t go on strike are the Regina Red Sox. They were rubbing their hands together at the prospect of having this city’s sports attention all to themselves. But they’re still here of course, and on Saturday night they’re hosting Jon Ryan Appreciation Night when the Weyburn Beavers come to town (7:05 pm, Currie Field). Jon will be throwing out the first pitch and will be properly feted as a reigning Super Bowl champion and the Seattle Seahawks’ career punting leader. He won’t be out of his element, as I see him regularly at Red Sox games when he’s in town. As far as the Red Sox themselves go, I’d love to tell you how they’re doing but when I checked the league website for the standings, the page was down.
10 – JUMP AROUND: Even with all this madness around us, and the hoopla of a brand new football season opening, I’ve still managed to visit the movie theatre so that I could provide a review or two. On Saturday we took in 22 Jump Street at Southland Cinemas and to our surprise, the theatre was jammed. We had to sit in the middle of the third row which, surprisingly, wasn’t all that bad. And as far as the movie starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill goes, it was side-splitting. It may be the first sequel in history which is better than the first. Like, it’s the hardest I’ve laughed out loud in a theatre since The Hangover. The plot is no deeper than a Scooby Doo episode (in fact it’s quite similar), but I didn’t go to think. We went to laugh. Two thumbs-up from the MMG. Just go with an open mind!
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SPONSOR MENTION: The Press Box Sports Bar wants you to know they still have Rider packages available for Sunday’s Game Day. $55 gets you a game ticket, ride on the party bus, a Rod Pedersen Burger, plus a Molson, Pilsner or Coors Light. See your server for details.
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THAT’S ALL! GO RIDERS
RP
@sportscage
Counselling wouldn't tell a person to get over it, that's why they are in counselling. The process would be to go through the layers of your past. Once that's done identify the barriers you have than don't allow you to get over the issues, and then put together the strategy to cope. That's if you want to. When it's all said and done the client is able, it's up to the Counsellor to merely faciliated a process.
I do believe you missed the point.
Enjoy the time with Peter King Rod, but whatever you do, don't tell him if you take an Aberdeen angus and a Charlais and race them up a hill, the Aberdeen angus will beat the charlais every time 😉
As for the new Pats owners, don't you think that they should of popped the hood and took a look before they took the bill of sale.
I love this website so much.
Watching that special made me realize what we have in DD as our QB. I'm talking commitment and desire. In my 50 some years as a diehard I have never seen anyone display that level of determination. (You can't buy that) He personifies this team that personifies this province. No quit no matter what.
I hope the new owners give a priority to our local boys. Maybe living in the past but win or lose I felt more like supporting 'our boys' when they were our boys. Something special pulling for Balfour, Hicke, Huck, Sobchuk, Derkatch, Gillies, Sillinger, Heward, etc. No?
Boy Roddy, I'll agree with you on the crappy U.S. tv deal. Thank goodness my cable provider has ESPN3 or I'd be in the dark.
Re letting go. There's two things I'll take to my grave. First, the deer in the headlights look when that snap sailed past Henry. Secondly, the stadium still being full an hour after the game was over. No one wanted to leave, they didn't want it to end and I've never seen that before en masse.
Old Cuss
I've been a Roughrider/CFL fan since before the days of George and Ronnie. I can rattle off CFL stats till the cows come home and always thought I was a football fan. But I guess I'm not because up until this Peter King hype started a week ago I had no idea who he was. Now I know, but what I can't understand is all the 'Yankee Worship' in the Canadian media.
Its too bad its like this, but a lot of people are opting out of cable/dish and going online. So streaming the CFL games won't be too far off for some.
MMQB and MMG both good reads.
I've read Peter King's column since he started it. Rod's Blog is as good if not better, but if anyone gets a chance to meet him he always takes recommendations.
1) What's a good coffee place
2) What's a good beer – I would direct him to Brewsters or Leopold's Tavern to try out their varieties
3) He will always take a book recommendation.
I haven't seen his recommened summer reading list yet. It's must read and you can't go wrong taking a book recommendation from him for the summer.
Y'er Welcome
Obama
As long as the players and coaches and staff have let it go. That was the problem in the 90's; we sucked real bad but staff said "oh well, we're a small franchise, but hey we're the 89 Cup champs". That's not going to cut it anymore. Anyway, I think Rider Nation has "woke up" and is pumped for the season to get going. Everyone is talking about the first game and what a match up it will be. No doubt Kent and the TiCats will be hungry for revenge but Chamblin won't ever let complacency take hold. See you… Read more »
I agree with you Rod, it is really hard to let the 2013 season go.
Hey buddy, it's not about Yankee worship as you call it. It's about the CFL finally getting the coverage and recognition in the media that it deserves. NFL greats like Warren Moon and Marcus Allen have all known the great quality of CFL football years but the perception out there was that it's one big joke. That is now changing thanks in part to the great coverage Mr. King and his team are providing. More importantly, it's an eye opener to those Canadians out east who think that the CFL is garbage and only the NFL with its American hype… Read more »
Obama,
I read King’s articles every week and agree he likes his recommendations
1) What's a good coffee place – Is there anything but Tim’s in Regina?
2) What's a good beer – Peter King comes off as more of a Bushwakkers (top 50 brewpub in the world by ratebeer.com) or McNally’s pub type of guy.
Part of Peter King doing this CFL tour is to test out whether or not his readership would like him to expand his coverage and continue covering the CFL.
The MMQB articles this week have been a great introduction to the Canadian League game and culture
no one outside your little province watches these substitute teachers, landscapers and bartenders play football. Why would anyone in the US bother?
Mitch O
I have really enjoyed the work of Luc Mullinder on the Sports Cage – he is great! If Carm Carteri does decide to retire from being the Rider colour guy, I would hope that Luc would be at the top of the list to be his replacement.
The trolls who think the Hicke, Derkatch, Sillinger years were great need to get back to their lawn bowling! Going back to the old lose days is no way to look at a franchise. That's what kills them. The new owners exercised their prerogative to get rid of Cameron and staff. The hung their GM out to dry going over his head. They have shown they have questionable hockey savvy. They have alienated a great portion of the their fan base with this unpopular move. Many seasons ticket holders are unhappy after the way Cameron performed last season, and the… Read more »
Hmm lunbard ! Besides being a very bad goalie for the Pats, what has he ever accomplished In the hockey world? Seems he's having way too much input. Bring back the Parkers !
A few things: 1) 8 million people reading P.K's column with a passing interest would hear from Marc Trestman and Doug Flutie himself just how great the CFL is. FINALLY it is getting it's due. I told someone this week, Peter King covering this league is like getting a blessing from the Pope. 2) If he likes recommendations, Leopold's has differt brands on tap, but they are not craft brews which P.K, tends to go for. However that place is awesome to go to for a Shock Top. 3) If he goes to Brewsters to the Eastend one as it's… Read more »