MOSAIC PLACE MONDAY MORNING GOALIE

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WHAT WAS YOUR MOMENT?

Ronnie Lott:  Look in those eyes

It will be a very long time before I stop thinking about the time I was lucky enough to spend with Pro Football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott last week in Saskatoon.

For those uninitiated, Lott is a four-time Super Bowl champion with the San Francisco 49ers and is considered by football types to be the greatest defensive back to ever play the game.  Known as the most-feared hitter among DB’s in NFL history, the Albuquerque, NM product is simply an icon of the game.  He played at a top level for 15 seasons.  Mention his name to anybody in football, and their face lights up.  Instant, and infinite, respect.

Interestingly enough, Ronnie is also credited as being a former pro football player who most-successfully made the transition into business as he currently owns Mercedes and Toyota car dealerships in California along with a number of other businesses and charitable works.  Simply put, he’s an all-star human being.

Lott was the keynote speaker at the annual Dog’s Breakfast fundraiser for the U of S Huskies football program at Saskatoon’s Prairieland Park on Thursday.  When I walked into the facility that morning, I immediately asked where I was to sit and was told, “You’re right beside Ronnie Lott”.

Incredible!  So I made my way over and before I even set my briefcase down, he stuck his hand out and introduced himself.  “Hi, I’m Ronnie Lott!” he beamed.  “Who are you and what do you do?”

I was a little caught off guard, but stammered that I’m voice of the Roughriders and headed into my 17th season with the club.  Here’s how the conversation went:

LOTT:  “Can I ask you another question?”

ME:  “Shoot…”

LOTT:  “What was your moment?”

ME:  “Excuse me?”

LOTT:  “What was your moment with the Roughriders — the moment that you waited so long for, thought would never come, then saw it coming, and then it finally happened?”

This was a lot to absorb within 20 seconds of meeting the man who was voted the 11th best player in NFL history!

But I collected myself, and told Ronnie that no one had ever asked me that before.  However in about 1.5-seconds my mind scanned to the 2007 Grey Cup.  It was my ninth season calling games for Saskatchewan and had pretty well given up on ever being in the Grey Cup let-alone winning it.  Back then I had resigned to the fact that I was like the voice of the Cleveland Browns; it’s a really cool, fun job, but we’ll probably never win it all.

And then, with a minute to go in the 2007 Grey Cup and the Riders up by four points, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were marching.  I thought to myself, “Oh no, we’re gonna blow it AGAIN!” but then James Johnson stepped in front of a Ryan Dinwiddie pass intended for Milt Stegall – for the third time that day – and with about 30 seconds remaining all our quarterback Kerry Joseph had to do was kneel down a couple of times.

The clock hit 0:00 and I let out with, “Go crazy Saskatchewan!  Go Crazy!” to all the listeners back home on the 620 CKRM Roughriders Radio Network.

The Huskies caught the moment

Ronnie Lott then started jumping up and down yelling, “I knew it!  I knew you had one!”

We continued our discussion more deeply but I stopped and reached into my briefcase and pulled out my tape recorder.  I asked Ronnie if he would mind putting his comments on tape, therefore he wouldn’t have to repeat them twice.  He obliged, and I asked him if he could repeat that first question to me again.

“The question I gave you was what was your greatest moment and what was your greatest moment being in the booth?” Lott said.  “I knew that you had one and the reason I knew you had one was because there is always a calling in us where we find ourselves going, ‘Wow!’.  That moment defines what we want to be.  I wanted to have that moment in my life.  I wanted to be able to share that with people and for you, as you pointed out, what’s magical about those moments is there were a lot of people listening to you knowing the same thing that you knew and that is, ‘It’s happening!’, ‘It’s done. We are winning!’  The voice of teams always makes a difference because you get to tell the story.”

That was a tremendous thing for me to hear at this point of my life and career.  And it was coming from Ronnie Lott!

Someone – or some thing – is putting me in the path of all these incredibly successful and accomplished individuals lately.

And I’m absorbing and learning from every second of it.

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INSPIRING OTHERS

Of course the interview wasn’t done there.  I flipped the table on the former first round NFL pick out of USC and asked what his moment was.

“For me, I look back at my early years,” Lott recalled.  “When you think about playing the game of football and being in a Super Bowl, and competing, you think about the guys you played with.  One of the great moments, and I’ll never forget it, I told our team the night before the 1982 Super Bowl ‘Man we’re gonna win this game’.  I told them that the night before we played the Bengals.  It’s a great feeling.  We’ll always be able to go back and say these are the greatest moments in our life.  And it’s all because you come together and believe in one another.  Those feelings are always, always … I don’t care how old Joe Montana or Jerry Rice gets, we’ll always have those moments.”

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SACRIFICE

Another story about Lott which is recounted on his Wikipedia page is about how he chose to have a large portion of his left pinky finger cut off rather than miss games due to complicated surgery.

In 1985 in a game against Dallas, Lott had the finger crushed on the helmet of Cowboys running back Timmy Newsome.  He finished the season with a splint, but facing an eight month rehab period following extensive surgeries, he told doctors to just cut it off if he meant he’d have to miss the start of the 1986 season.

“Ya I did,” Lott said matter-of-factly.  “And the thing that’s interesting to me is that as much as I know it was an incredible commitment, I’m always humbled by the fact that there are so many people in this world that have given up more.  I’ve been fortunate to know that when you meet a guy like Pat Tillman (the former Arizona Cardinal who retired to join the U.S. Armed Forces and was killed overseas in friendly-fire) and you realize that he could’ve easily stayed and played.  And knowing his Mom, Dad and his wife, we make sacrifices but sometimes we make them for nothing.  We make them because we know it’s the right thing to do.”

Incredible.

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THE SOUL OF FOOTBALL

One more powerful thing from Lott.

Saskatchewan’s love affair with football – and committment to the game at the grassroots level – has been compared to other football-mad areas like Texas, Alabama and Florida.  We don’t laud this enough and maybe it’s taken for granted because we live it everyday.

www.mosaicplace.ca

But it’s true.  And Ronnie Lott noticed.

“The trip has been great.  It’s been phenomenal,” Lott smiled.  “The one thing that I’ll leave here knowing is that the soul of football is here.  The thing I love about being in a community like this is that everybody has been able to talk about the soul of the game.  To me, that’s an incredible attribute for a community to have, that they understand the soul of the game.  Most places don’t.  Most places don’t understand what it’s like to enjoy the passion of the game.  So it’s been great just to be around it.

“I had not been here, didn’t know what to expect, and didn’t understand this is kind of like the Green Bay of Canada and it has the soul of the game.  What makes you realize it is when you meet a Mom of a player and she says, ‘Oh no, I’m a part of it’.  Usually what you have in sports is it’s the guys that always talk about it.  But when you have a Mom say, ‘Hey I did this’, ‘I played my role’, it tells you that you have more people committed to the cause.  It’s more than just the people that are around the team.  It shows you they realize what it takes to be a part of the great game of football.  There are a lot of magical things I’ve seen in this community.”

Take a bow Saskatchewan.

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HOW WILL THE RIDERS BE?

It’s the question most-asked around here as we get ready for the start of Roughriders training camp on Sunday, May 31 and I’m posing the query to as many Roughrider personnel as I can find these days.

That includes veteran Rider cornerback Paul Woldu who popped by 620 CKRM’s SportsCage studio on Friday.

“We’re gonna be great.  We’re locked up and ready to go!” Woldu said.  “That’s the one thing when you don’t win it all the year before — obviously you restructure, rebuild and evaluate on all levels right?  I always say you win more from losing than you do from winning.  Once you lose you have to look at the big picture in a completely different way.  Brendan Taman, Jeremy O’Day and Corey Chamblin have done a pretty damn good job of looking at those things in fine detail and making the adjustments you have to make.

“You can look at last year – and as bad as it was – realistically with Darian we were 8-2 and without him we were 2-8.  We still had a chance, even with all the turnover that we had and players we lost.  That’s a testament to the way this team is run.  We’re always going to have a chance of winning and these guys have done the things they had to do.  Things are looking really good.”

I also took the opportunity to ask Woldu about one of the Riders’ prized additions this off-season, middle linebacker Shea Emry.  The two-time Grey Cup champion with Montreal comes to the Riders from Toronto with an incredible resume but an injury-past as well.  For some reason, not everyone in the Rider Nation is sold on Emry.  However Woldu – who played with Emry in Montreal – is.

“He’s going to be pretty tenacious.  I think he’s a guy you don’t like playing against a whole lot.  You love to have a guy like that on your team.  He’s a physical player and he’s going to bring a presence we didn’t really have last year.  Getting rid of Ricky Foley (in a trade for Emry) wasn’t easy.  Those are arguably two of the top defensive players in the league.  It’s a one-for-one but having Shea in that linebacking corps, he’s going to be huge for us.”

Paul Woldu’s running his successful football camp for a second year later this month.  There are still spots available for just $100 per entry.  Paul’s website www.paulwoldufootballcamp.com has all the details and registration forms.

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MONDAY QUICK HITS

– More great news out of the Brandt Centre!  A WHL source has confirmed Regina Pats Head Coach and Sr. V.P. of Hockey Operations John Paddock will be named WHL Coach of the Year this week.

– The Brandon Wheat Kings will oppose the Kelowna Rockets in the WHL Championship Series, or the Ed Chynoweth Cup.  It’s appropriate, as they were the best teams all year and WHL-types saw these two clubs on a collision course as far back as last summer.  It should be a whale of a series.

– The New Mosaic Stadium continues to grow rapidly before our eyes and the mere sight of it has Rider staff and fans salivating.  No matter what side of the fence people are on in regards to the stadium, they desire the same thing – information.  Best advice is to start by following the recently-activated Twitter account @NewMosaic2017.  The account is led by the Riders’ Manager of Media Relations, Ryan Pollock, along with the rest of the Rider communications team.  It is the best way to see construction photos from inside the ropes, as well as stay up-to-date with news and information as it pertains to th future home of the 13th Man.

– The 2015 Canadian College Draft will be held Tuesday, May 12 and the Roughriders are busy making their final plans.  We’ll be broadcasting the event live from the Rider locker room on the SportsCage next Tuesday.  Which way are the Riders leaning?  No one outside the War Room knows but since head coach Corey Chamblin favours starting 11 imports on defense, it’s reasonable to assume the club will look to offensive players in the draft.  Somewhere down the line, five starting Canadians on the offensive line would be a big benefit as would three starting Canadian receivers.  There happens to be plenty of both in the draft.

– Safety Keenan MacDougall was signed away from the Calgary Stampeders in the off-season and the four-year veteran would certainly provide some roster flexibility if he were to start in the secondary.  He’s certainly salivating at the opportunity.

– CFL.ca draft analyst Justin Dunk will be on the SportsCage on Monday to talk about CFL teams’ wants and needs, plus he’ll provide analysis on the prospects.  4:00 pm on 620 CKRM.

– Veteran Rider offensive lineman Dan Clark spoke at the team’s news conference for the “Pass It On” community initiative last week and thanked me for our Rider Mondays in the SportsCage.  He was driving across the province last week and couldn’t believe the wealth of Rider information coming out his radio throughout the afternoon.  No thank you Dan!

– A couple of other things I learned in Saskatoon last week:  1)  Football people up there refer to Huskies coach Brian Towriss as “B.T. North” and Rider GM Brendan Taman as “B.T. South” and 2) I credited the Riders’ fast starts the past two years to the Florida minicamps but Saskatonians credit training camp behind held at Griffith’s Stadium in 2013 and 2014.  Good point.

– Former Saskatoon Hilltops wrecking ball running back Andre Lalonde of Zenon Park, SK turned down an opportunity with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to finish out his CIS elligibility with the U of S Huskies.  He’s intent on winning a Vanier Cup with the Dogs in 2015.  Perhaps he’ll still have an opportunity with the Riders once that’s completed.

Calvillo at the Delta Regina on Saturday

– CFL legend Anthony Calvillo entertained a soldout crowd at the Delta Regina on Saturday night at the 2015 Don Narcisse All-Star Gala.  Calvillo told his personal success story and mentioned that he’s spoken at 10 events in Saskatchewan over the past two years.  He informed us that he spent the 2014 CFL season working as an intern with the Alouettes and said, “Imagine going from having the highest amount of authority to the least amount!”

– A.C. really didn’t seem to like my comment on stage that, “You might not be standing here if the Roughriders could have counted to 12 in the 2009 Grey Cup”.  He snapped back with an answer but we smoothed it over afterwards.  He’ll be the Receivers Coach with the Alouettes this year, and hasn’t lost his fiery nature.

– Saskatchewan is known for football but thanks to Budweiser for pointing out the bevy of NHL stars this province has produced in its recent TV ads filmed in Regina.  We produced three members of the last Olympic gold medal team: Getzlaf, Kunitz and Marleau (four if you include coach Mike Babcock) while Alberta only produced ONE! (Jay Bouwmeister).  Add to that the Schenns, Jordan Eberle, Devan Dubnyk and company, and our province has even more to be proud of.

– Regina’s Brent Raedeke is playing for Team Germany at the current World Hockey Championships.

– The field is set for the Royal Bank Cup in Portage, Manitoba and the host Fort McMurray Oil Barons – coached by Curtis Hunt – failed to advance out of last week’s Western Canada Challenge Cup.  The Portage Terriers, Penticton Vees and Melfort Mustangs will represent the west while coming out of the east are the Soo Thunderbirds and the Carleton Place Canadians.  Melfort advanced with a semifinal win over the Oil Barons on Saturday and despite finishing third, they earned a berth in the nationals because second-place Portage will be the host squad.

– Does anybody but me and those in the leagues care about Junior A hockey anymore?  How come I don’t hear any chatter about it??

– Something I saw coming:  the Anaheim Ducks steamrolling over the Jets and Flames.  Something I didn’t see coming:  the Montreal Canadiens folding like a cheap suit against Tampa Bay.  What’s the Habs’ annual stumbling block???  However I predicted on Twitter Sunday that Montreal will come back from this 2-0 deficit and win the series.

– Montreal’s Brandon Prust needs to collect himself.  His lambasting of referee Brad Watson after Game 2 will not help himself, or his team.  As Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos said after the game, “These guys have lonnnnng memories.”  However if Watson actually did the things Prust says he did, there were plenty of witnesses around Sunday on the Bell Centre ice.  We haven’t heard the last of it.

– Is it just me, or do all the Sportsnet panelists seem awkward and uncomfortable around George Stromboulopous as host?  No one seems settled.

– Gotta get a movie review in here.  We went to Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 Thursday evening and LOVED it!  Two thumbs up from the MMG.  Paul Blart reminds me so much of a few of my friends.  “Security is a mission, not an intermission,” was my favourite line in the flick.  Always bet on Blart!

– The Wedding Ringer with Kevin Hart (former Rider Tad Kornegay’s doppleganger) was a great renter over the weekend as well.

– If Kate Upton actually APPEARED in the video game Game Of War, I might actually buy it.  Sort of like a prize at the end, like the old Donkey Kong.  Alas, the videogamers tell me she’s not in the game.  Talk about false advertising.

– Saw a car with Manitoba plates pulled over in a speed trap on Sunday on Highway #6 south, leaving the city across from Chapters.  The MMG submits that out-of-province drivers should be given at least one freeby.  I mean, talk about a rude welcome to our fair city.

– I’m glad the San Antonio Spurs are out of the NBA Playoffs, even if they got hosed with a second left in L.A. against the Clippers on Saturday night.  I can’t take Gregg Popovich anymore.

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THAT’S ALL FOR ANOTHER WEEK!  THANKS FOR READING…
RP
@sportscage
Instagram: ridervoice