THURSDAY COMMENTARY – BEWARE OF DEWDNEY

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

It was a very special team.

The 2013 Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders will be honoured this weekend by being enshrined into the Plaza of Honour; the franchise’s version of the Hall of Fame.

Ohhhhh boy the stories I could tell, and have told, about that team which captured the fourth Grey Cup title in club history.

What made it even more special of course was the fact that particular CFL championship game was to be played in Regina’s Taylor Field.

The story actually began a year or so before the 2013 season when club President Jim Hopson told GM Brendan Taman and coach Corey Chamblin that they were to win the title at home, “or else”.

That gave them plenty of time to assemble a roster of CFL All Stars and find a way to be *creative* with the salary cap.

That’s what Taman did, and the group included Hall of Famers Geroy Simon, Darian Durant, John Chick, Chris Getzlaf, Kory Sheets and the list goes on.

I guess come this weekend, they’ll all be called Hall of Famers.

And it was up to Chamblin to be the conductor with this symphony and he did miraculous job of keeping all the talent and egos in check.

Until, that is, the evening of August 18, 2013 when a bunch of Riders got in a brawl outside a Dewdney Ave. nightclub with a gang. It landed them in handcuffs and later in court. Boys will be boys!

That incident threatened to derail the entire season but instead it galvanized them, they went on to an 11-7 record, and won the whole darn thing in the end, 45-23 over Hamilton on Grey Cup Sunday.

Wonder if they’ll head down to Dewdney this weekend for old time’s sake?

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm & 5 pm ET on Game+TV, WQEE Radio, Podcast & YouTube Live)