THURSDAY COMMENTARY – THE LONELIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD
(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98 & Rock 98.5 FM)
EVEN IN A BYE WEEK, THE SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS HAVE FOUND THEMSELVES AT THE TOP OF THE CFL NEWS CYCLE.
IF ONLY BAD NEWS WAS BETTER THAN NO NEWS.
THE SOURCE WAS A QUOTE FROM EMBATTLED HEAD COACH CRAIG DICKENSON FOLLOWING FRIDAY NIGHT’S STUNNING HOME LOSS TO THE EDMONTON ELKS IN WHICH HE ADMITTED THE RIDERS ARE “NOT VERY GOOD”.
IT REALLY JUST HIT THE NEWS – THANKS TO 3DOWNNATION – OVER THE PAST COUPLE DAYS BUT IT’S SPURRED A TORNADO OF CONTROVERSY.
LET ME FIRST SAY THIS; THE RIDERS HAVE LOST SEVEN OF THEIR LAST NINE GAMES AND ARE THE CFL’S WORST TEAM SINCE JULY 14. IS DICKENSON WRONG?
APPARENTLY SOME OF THE PLAYERS ARE UPSET. TO THAT, I SUGGEST THEY TRY WINNING SOME GAMES.
AS USUAL, FANS ARE SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE. SOME AGREEING WITH DICKENSON, SOME WANTING HIM CANNED PRONTO.
AND THEREIN LIES THE BIGGER ISSUE; EVERYBODY WANTS TO DO THE POST-MORTEM NOW EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE STILL FOUR GAMES LEFT TO GO.
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?
FOLKS, YOU DON’T PERFORM THE AUTOPSY WHILE THERE’S STILL A HEARTBEAT. AND AS LONG AS THERE’S A HEARTBEAT, I SUPPOSE THERE’S STILL A CHANCE BUT I THINK WE ALL AGREE NOTHING WILL BE DONE UNTIL THE GUN SOUNDS ON THE FINAL GAME, WHENEVER THAT TURNS OUT TO BE.
LEGENDARY CFL COACH STEVE BURRATTO ONCE TOLD ME, “THE LONELIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD IS BEING THE HEAD COACH OF A BAD FOOTBALL TEAM.”
THAT GUY WAS A BEAUTY!
AND TO ME, CRAIG DICKENSON LOOKS VERY LONELY.
HIS COMMENT WAS CALCULATED, NO DOUBT. HE’S TOO SMART AND TOO HONEST, AND HAD TO KNOW IT WOULDN’T HAVE GONE OVER WELL.
BUT DICKENSON’S NOT THE PROBLEM.
I CERTAINLY DON’T LIE AWAKE AT NIGHT GOING OVER THE ROUGHRIDERS PROBLEMS LIKE I USED TO. BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN I HAVEN’T COME UP WITH THE ANSWER.
HOWEVER FOR THAT ASSESSMENT, YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT TILL THERE’S NO MORE HEARTBEAT.
THAT’S TODAY’S ROD PEDERSEN COMMENTARY
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily on Game+ TV across Canada and the USA, and on 99.1 WQEE Metro Atlanta. Call your cable provider to subscribe. You can also watch on YouTube Live or listen 24/7 at RodPedersen.com/ListenLive)
(Photo: Lisa Lukye)
O.C.
Dickie is right, they are not only “not very good”, their play is piss-poor pathetic. They gambled on getting by with an inexperienced inexpensive offensive line and it’s costing us the season. Firing Reynolds, JO and/or Dickenson wouldn’t help, there are no qualified people around to replace them, well maybe in Reynold’s case they could find a guy off the street who knows his way around a football!
O’Day has to go! He couldn’t find a talented lineman if he was one. Oh wait! Nix that. He just can’t find the talent. His job was to put a grey cup contender on the field and he FAILED! As Trump used to say…”You’re FIRED”. and do get me started on Jason Maas and his play calling!!! 🙁
Not a smart comment from Coach. When the Riders fired Garrett Marino, Dickenson lost the locker room. Marino got fired for a split second late hit that wasn’t even a penalty. When people in any job get fired for BS reasons it kills the culture and morale. Riders were 5-3 (almost 6-2) with Marino and 1-5 without him. When important roster moves are decided by woke keyboard jockeys who never go to games, this season is what you get.
Team needs to move on from Fajardo. Teams have him totally figured out and can easily get in his head. He’s done! Obviously not the only issue but he is the single biggest issue.
Fajardo is just doing what the O.C. calls. I don’t think Warren Moon could have succeeded with Maas calling the shots.
Here is my vote for GM . I think Marshall Hamilton if interested would be great in the job.
He has all the right tools.Striong PR skills, football experience, knows the game and a community guy. Similar to Hopson. Why not?.