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* We’re back at it tonight as the Regina Pats host the Prince Albert Raiders at 7 pm in the Brandt centre and I’ll be calling the action live on Access 7 with colour commentator Nevin Markwart.  As my friend Johnny Athens says, “It never ends baby.  It never ends”.  Pats GM Chad Lang says, in a way, it feels like a home-opener because with Roughrider season now behind us, the Pats are on centre stage.  He’s right.

* The Grey Cup will be in attendance at tonight’s hockey game, along with a dozen or so members of the Roughriders for a pregame ceremony.  Get your tickets and we’ll see you there!!  IT’S HOCKEY SEASON.

* Pats attendance actually went UP during the 2007-2008 WHL season, the last time the Roughriders won the Grey Cup.  Regina also went on to capture the East Division pennant that year with Curtis Hunt as coach and late-season additions like J.D. Watt, Victor Bartley and Ryan Bender.

* Back to the Roughriders.  The victory in the 101st Grey Cup is slowly starting to sink in for yours truly, but it hasn’t fully yet.  At some point it will and I’ll know when it does.  Sort of like last Sunday’s game day when it finally hit me the Riders were actually going to play in the big game.  It hit me at 10:30 am and my palms got sweaty, my heart raced and I got shortness of breath.  It lasted right up until we went on air at 4:00 pm.  When all of what the Riders accomplished in 2013 hits me, it will be a physical thing as well.  How peculiar!

* But I’m realizing the 45-23 win over Hamilton in the Grey Cup was huge to finally shut-up what I call the “YAH BUT” crowd.  You know the ones.  Maybe you’re one of them.  Like when Saskatchewan won the Grey Cup in 2007 these people said, “Yah but Kevin Glenn broke his arm in the East Final or else the Riders would have lost”.  Or when, at the time, Darian Durant’s touchdown-to-interception ratio was 28-11 this fall.  These people said, “Yah but 10 of those interceptions came in four games,” or whatever it was.

These people have nothing – absolutely nothing – to say about the Riders’ championship in 2013.  It must be driving them nuts!  Whether you want to admit it or not, the Riders’ fourth Grey Cup title is all about V-I-N-D-I-C-A-T-I-O-N.  From top to bottom.

The definition of vindicate: “to clear, as from an accusation, imputation, suspicion, or the like”

Let me count the ways:

1 – President Jim Hopson’s unwavering support of GM Brendan Taman even when, “I was about the only one left who believed in him,” Hopson said this week.  CHECK!

2 – Taman’s belief in head coach Corey Chamblin even when some questioned his methods.  CHECK!

3 – Chamblin made some uncomfortable moves on his coaching staff, letting go some assistants, shuffling Bob Dyce to make room for George Cortez, and playing chicken with Craig Dickenson and losing.  CHECK!  Corey came out on top.

4 – Chamblin’s staunch defense of Dwight Anderson when everyone, including me, wanted him out of here.  CHECK!

5 – George Cortez beats the team who fired him less than one year ago, in the CFL championship game.  CHECK!  George wouldn’t discuss it, but he wouldn’t be human if he didn’t feel some sense of vindication.

6 – Ricky Foley takes a significant paycut to sign with the Roughriders.  In the end he got paid, and then some.  CHECK!  “If I’d have known what it was like to play here, I would have done it years ago,” Foley said.

7 – Darian Durant?  Where shall I start.  Let’s just quote him.  “When I was younger, I read and listened to all that was said,” Durant said on Monday.  “I would die for this team.  So for all those who didn’t want me here, or didn’t stand by me, you all know what you can do”.  CHECK!  Darian has a very long memory.  I’m glad I’m not in his crosshairs!

8 – Kent Austin, Henry Burris and Andy Fantuz all left Saskatchewan for greener pastures and better opportunities only to come back and lose to the Riders in the biggest game ever.  CHECK!

9 – The cocky Stamps, Jon Cornish, Maurice Price, Juwan Simpson, Charleston Hughes, et al.  CHECK!

10 – The 13th Man.  Dead.  Gone.  Good-bye.  CHECK!

11 – I was hoping to get to 13 of these.  If you can think of more, help me out.
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MORE RANDOMS:

* Still waiting to hear if the Roughriders are getting fined for ignoring protocol during the player introductions in the 101st Grey Cup and coming out as a team, unscripted.  Neither team President Jim Hopson nor coach Chamblin are concerned.  They’d do it again.  Call it a “cost of doing business”.

* Was it a first for the Riders to storm the field for a championship game?  Initially some thought it was.  The New England Patriots warned the NFL they would not be introduced individually for the 2001 Super Bowl and the league obliged.  We thought what the Riders did on Sunday was a first in pro football (because they didn’t warn anybody about it) but a former Calgary Stampeder informed me the Winnipeg Blue Bombers did this exact same thing in the 2001 Grey Cup.  “It pissed our guys off,” he told me.  I checked with former Blue Bomber Mike Abou-Mechrek on this and he confirmed it.  “Yeah but it didn’t seem as big of a deal as this,” Abou said in a text message Thursday night. “I was introduced as the starting left tackle and then was benched right after Oh Canada”.

* This Grey Cup championship for Rider GM Brendan Taman — his first — proves nice guys don’t have to finish last.

* The Riders are getting plaudits far and wide for placing an ad in the Hamilton Spectator this week, paying tribute to the Ticats.  It was classy.  But I believe the Alouettes did something similar in the Leader-Post after either the 2009 or 2010 Grey Cup and I remember muttering under my breath, “screw you“.  Pretty sure the Ticats are feeling the same thing.

* TWEET OF THE WEEK: From Edmonton Oilers goalie Ilya Gryzgalov:

“@bryzgalov80 Rider fans look like crazy bunch.  So much fun in the stands.  Complete opposite of how game was in Calgary last week against Flames”.

* Bryzgalov tried to convince teammate Jordan Eberle to rent a private plane and fly to Regina for Grey.  He wanted to meet our “friendly gopher”.  Jordan told him it was a great idea, but it was also too late.

* Couldn’t get into Riderville?  Don’t feel too bad.  I couldn’t get Eberle’s family in either.

* Funny how things change.  Calgary’s John Hufnagel is no longer a lock to win the 2013 CFL Coach of the Year Award, or the Annis Stukus Trophy.  He’s now a longshot.  It has to be between Corey Chamblin and Kent Austin and frankly, I’ve got to give the nod to CC.

* Congratulations to Kirk Penton of the Winnipeg Sun for being named the Gibson’s Finest CFL Reporter of the Year.  He’s definitely one of the good guys in this perilous trade.

* George Cortez will likely be getting a call from Wally Buono now that the Lions’ offensive coordinator position is open.  The Lions will target Paul Lapolice and/or Cortez however I have a REAL strong feeling George will stay here.

* However if he leaves, it would be nice if the Riders discussed the opportunity with Marcus Crandell.  He’s out of football, living in Sherwood Park, Alberta working for a friend of mine.  Pretty sure he’d come back at the drop of a hat.  He really got worked over by the Eskimos.

* Would be stunned if Jason Tucker isn’t the receivers coach, or something, in Edmonton next year.  His resume looks pretty good, having spent the past two seasons as such in Saskatchewan and having three 1000-yard receivers under his guidance this year.

* Bodog’s Grey Cup odds for 2014:

Saskatchewan 3-1
BC 7-2
Hamilton 7-1
Calgary 4-1
Toronto 6-1
Montreal 8-1
Edmonton 9-1
Winnipeg 12-1
Ottawa 25-1

* Poor, poor Winnipeg.  They were even the butt of a Pinball Clemons joke on TSN’s pregame show.  Pinball and TSN’s Rod Black were taking the Grey Cup around to places it’s never been before and Clemons joked, “Like Winnipeg?”  In truth they took it to the Tartan Curling Club, the Broken Rack and Golden Mile bowling alley.

* CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon was non-committal about putting the Roughriders in Touchdown Atlantic IV.  Simply put, the Riders are the victims of their own success.  No team wants to give up a home game against the Riders and move it to the tiny Moncton stadium because they’d be giving up hundreds of thousands of dollars.  However Cohon admitted that the event has fizzled so what better way to give it a shot-in-the-arm than to bring in Canada’s Team?  What if we said pleeeease?

* CANADA’S TEAM:  Haha.  Edmonton radio host Dave Jamieson asked me on Monday what it’s like to be hated by the rest of the nation now rather than to be the “loveable losers” we used to be.  You know the answer to that.  They know what they can do, right Darian?


HAVE A GREAT WEEK!
RP
@sportscage