JIM LANG ON SPORTS

BY: Jim Lang
For www.rodpedersen.com

The 101st Grey Cup

Now that the euphoria from the Riders convincing victory over the TiCats in the 101st Grey Cup has subsided somewhat, it is time to look back at Kory Sheets’ historical game.

Sheets ran for a mind boggling 197 yards in the Grey Cup, shattering a single game record set by Johnny Bright 57 years ago.

In the Riders’ three playoff games Sheets ran for 442 yards, averaging 6.8 yards per carry.

Think about this for a second; the Bombers Will Ford ran for 594 yards in 12 games this year. Sheets ran for 75 per cent of that total in only three games!

I don’t care what league you are talking about, if your running back is averaging just under seven yards every time he touches the ball, then you are going to be pretty hard to beat.

And that is exactly what the Riders were in the post-season. A good team that got better as they went deeper into the post-season. There is no question that homefield was a huge advantage for the Riders and was big disadvantage for the Ticats. But crowd noise had nothing to do with Kory Sheets running for nearly 200 yards in the biggest game of the year.

I had the privilege of covering the 2007 Grey Cup and interviewing a bunch of the Riders players in the winning locker room. That was a wild scene that night at Rogers Centre.

But that was nothing compared to the emotion shown by the players and the fans at Mosaic Stadium on Sunday.

The Riders can now boast they have won the Grey Cup twice in the past seven seasons. They also represented the West two other times in the Grey Cup in that span. By my math that makes the Riders the class of the West in the CFL over the last seven years.

Between 1976 and 1996 the Riders made it to the Grey Cup a grand total of two times. And now they have been there four times in the last seven seasons.

The reality of pro sports means that the Riders are sure to lose some key players in the off-season. Every team in every sport goes through personnel changes in the off-season. It is a fact of life.

What won`t change is the one thing that has kept the franchise alive through good times and through bad; Rider Pride. If only there was some way to bottle up the passion and commitment of those fans in Saskatchewan and spread around the country then the CFL might be a 12 team league.

NFL

Thursday is Thanksgiving in the USA and that means a triple header of football.

First up the 5-5-1 Packers are in Detroit to face the 6-5 Lions.

The Packers will have to play another game without franchise quarterback Aaron Rodgers. That means the much-travelled Matt Flynn is expected to get the start. Matthew Stafford tossed four interceptions in the Lions loss to the Bucs last week. Stafford and the Lions know that they need to win to keep pace with the Bears atop the NFC North.

Next the 4-7 Raiders are in Dallas to take on the 6-5 Cowboys.

On paper this should be an easy win for the Cowboys. However the Cowboys never do things the easy way. As long as Tony Romo doesn’t turn the ball over the Cowboys’ superior talent on offence should be more than enough for them to beat the Raiders.

Finally the 5-6 Steelers are in Baltimore for a big AFC North showdown with the 5-6 Ravens.

The Steelers were all but written off for dead a month ago. Now the combination of their current three game winning streak and an abundance of mediocre teams in the AFC has put the Steelers in the thick of the Wild Card race. The Steelers have fate in their owns hands now and a win over the Ravens would go a long way to putting them in the driver`s seat for the second Wild Card in the AFC.

NHL

Since they are one of the more boring teams in the NHL you can be forgiven if you are not paying close attention to what is going on with the Minnesota Wild. But Wild defenceman Ryan Suter is on pace to lead the NHL in average ice time per game for the second year in a row. In last year`s shortened season Suter led the league, averaging 27:17 of ice time per game. This year Suter is averaging a whopping 29:33 of ice time per game.

Of course the Wild are one of eight teams in the Western Conference with at least 30 points. There are only three teams in the Eastern Conference (Bruins, Penguins and Lightning) with at least 30 points. In fact the eighth-best team in the West right now, the Coyotes, would be the second seed in the East.

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. that means there will be some morning and afternoon hockey this Friday. Yes, I did say morning. The Flyers are hosting the Jets on Friday with the puck drop set for 11:30AM EST. That is going to mean a very early wake up call for the players who generally eat their pre-game meal for a night game in the early afternoon.
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Unless you are living in a cave you have heard about the massive new deal Rogers and Sportsnet signed with the NHL. A big concern for a lot of hockey fans across Canada will be what happens to a lot of our favourite Hockey Night in Canada personalities when the new deal kicks in next year.

I realize a lot of hockey fans won`t agree with me but if this means the end of Bob Cole I am really going to miss him. Now did Cole make the odd mistake during the call of a game? Sure he did. Did Cole misidentify players from time to time? Yes to that as well.

But there was something about Cole’s voice that brought a sense of drama and excitement to a big game that has yet to be matched in this country. Catch phrases like “Oh Harry” (In reference to his long time colour analyst Harry Neale.) and “Oh baby!” are a part of our hockey vocabulary in Canada.

(Follow Jim on Twitter at @JimLangSports)