WEDNESDAY COMMENTARY – THE TIE THAT BINDS

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)

Last month I was having an early morning coffee session with some friends in Florida, and some guys I’d never met before.

The gentleman beside me took notice of my hat. It was one my favourites; a green Roughriders number from the CFL’s Turf Traditions line a few years back. I’d seen it in the Rider Store during the Labour Day Classic and had to have it.

It has the old CFL logo on it … the one with a maple leaf and helmet.

The guy, whose name is Gary, said in an unmistakable New York accent, “You got something to do with the CFL?” (Imagine the voice of Joe Rockhead from the Flintstones. It’s bang on!)

I said that yes, in fact I had been the Voice of the Saskatchewan Roughriders for 20 years.

He got pretty excited and said his son, Jake Bofshever, was the back-up quarterback for the BC Lions a few years ago, out of Long Island.

I didn’t recall his kid but looked it up and sure enough, he was.

But Gary said Jake never got onto the field because the star QB for the Lions at the time never got hurt and never got pulled. “He was the star,” Gary said, in that accent.

But danged if either of us could remember who that star quarterback was!

After a little more talking, we realized it was in fact Mike Reilly.

How quickly we forget.

It’s definitely one of the things I’d like to see the CFL do more; honour its history. Reilly went into retirement and hasn’t been heard from since. Ditto for Travis Lulay, in a lot of ways Ricky Ray, and players of that ilk.

Not to get too morbid – although I deal in the morbid world everyday in my Recovery Coaching career – it reminds me of the saying, “If we don’t speak of the dead, they die twice.”

It’s why our “Where Are They Now” segments on Rider Radio were always so popular with the fans.

You can never go wrong by wearing your CFL gear, or whatever team or league you support. It’s a tremendous conversation-starter.

And it’s why sports has always been the tie that binds.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, YouTube Live and WQEE Radio)