Let me first say this:
Looking back, if you had to make a trade, would you sacrifice the worst season in Roughrider history in order to experience the greatest?
Look at it this way.If someone told you going into the 2013 Roughrider season that at the end of the thing, you鈥檙e going to win it all in your own stadium on the most perfect day in Saskatchewan鈥檚 history, 45-23, (over Kent Austin鈥檚 Hamilton Tiger-Cats no less), but in turn you鈥檇 have to experience the worst season the Roughriders have ever had?
Of course you would. We all would. In a New York minute. We鈥檝e just got it backwards. However nobody at that time could鈥檝e predicted how painful that trade-off would be just two years later.
Like, holy smokes.
Look, I understand there are scores of people going through much, much more painful things in life, like life-threatening illness, job loss, marital break-ups and all the rest.
But in football terms, what the Saskatchewan Roughriders are going through right now is as bad as it gets. Or at least, the worst I鈥檝e seen in my 17 years on the job.
This was clear immediately following Saturday鈥檚 42-19 humiliation in Calgary at the hands of the Stampeders, when I was sprinting to the press box washroom in a break before the postgame radio show.
Some of the Rider assistant coaches were coming the other way, on their way to the elevator that led down to their locker room. I鈥檝e seen a lot of facial expressions in my quarter century in this sports business, but the look on these guys鈥� faces was a new one.
They looked like zombies. Emotionless. Spiritually bankrupt. It would seem the pain is gone and now they're all just numb.
Just ... get ... this ... season ... over ... with ... already.
So what do you need to know about Saturday鈥檚 game in Calgary anyway? The Stamps opened the game with a 60-yard kickoff return and three minutes later the ball was in the Rider endzone courtesy of an Eric Rogers touchdown reception. 8-0 Calgary after a two-point convert. Less than seven minutes later it was 16-3 Calgary after another Rogers touchdown and another two-point conversion.
Calgary would never trail in the game. The loss dropped the Riders to 2-15, equalling a franchise record for losses in one season with another game to go. And just why was Stampeders coach John Hufnagel going for two points (twice) so early in a game like this? I checked with the Stamps and they said that's what they always do early in games. And by the end of the first quarter, it was forgotten anyway. You can't blame them for doing what they do.
As the adage goes, 鈥渋f you don鈥檛 like it, stop it.鈥� But the Roughriders weren鈥檛 apt to do that Saturday. Not with this defence.
So it's finally come down to this. Three more practices, one day-before walk through, and then four more quarters of football for the Riders Sunday in Montreal before we can bury this season. I don鈥檛 expect many to attend the funeral.
I鈥檝e taken to calling it 鈥渇ootball purgatory,鈥� this state where the Saskatchewan Roughriders currently find themselves. Not familiar with the term? Here鈥檚 the definition:
鈥淎 place between heaven and hell, where the soul is not bad enough to be sent to an eternity of damnation in hell, but not good enough to go to heaven, so it is sent there temporarily where the person suffers, and is purified so that it can be sent to heaven.鈥�
Suffering. That鈥檚 what it is! And unfortunately for so many members of the 2015 Saskatchewan Roughriders, they didn鈥檛 get to feel the unequalled elation of that late-November day in 2013. Not even thought of back then were Ryan Smith, Brett Smith, Keith Price, Jeff Knox Jr., Naaman Roosevelt, Nic Demski, Rory Connop, Anthony Allen, Jake Doughty or Matt Webster.
These guys are the future. It鈥檚 an exciting group and it鈥檚 important that their spirit not be broken! Gleaming, exciting days are ahead except we just can鈥檛 see them yet. Can't see them for miles.
And, trust me, these players will never, ever again go through anything as bad as this season has been.
But just remember 鈥� we asked for it.
