There's a harsh reality about the CFL pre-season: The Saskatchewan Roughriders could have lit a trash can on fire, put it at the 55 yard line and watched it burn for three hours Saturday night and it would have as much to do with how they'll play in the 2017 regular season as what happened Saturday.
Actually, that approach summarized much of how the 2016 regular season was treated.
When I was a season ticket holder in the mid 1990s, pre-season Rider tickets were as easy to find as blue whales at a candy store and practically as cheap. Sure, there was a price on the ticket but I don't think anyone actually paid that. The team wanted their ticket holders to get into the habit of enjoying going to the game. This was before the era when everyone loved them and the park was close to full with football newcomers enjoying themselves, even if they didn't know who was on the field.
Saturday, the team tied the Winnipeg Blue Bombers after Winnipeg came from behind to score some late points. Or something, I really couldn't have cared less that night.
I'm glad that those who went – particularly those people like us from our of town – enjoyed themselves on some level to get a first glimpse of the new Mosaic Stadium in a Roughrider setting. Although some may complain of beer and food prices, it's part of the cost of going to these things. Parking is another concern but again, park and ride once you get to the city may be the best option anyway.
But on the field? Forget about it. It might be a good thing to have a Canadian quarterback playing as important a role as Brandon Bridge did, but it's a far cry playing against Winnipeg's backups as it is against the top teams starting defences in Calgary and Edmonton. Going 20-for-26 passing with 201 yards and a touchdown pass is something he can tell his grandkids.
In the 2012 season, the Riders played a pair of pre-season games in the lead-up to their Grey Cup hosting season. Tino Sunseri went a stellar 9-for-12 in that first pre-season game (a 31-24 win over Calgary throwing 9-for-12 and 122 yards and a touchdown. Receiver Greg Carr caught 101 yards passing from the group of Darian Durant, Sunseri, Drew Willy and Levi Brown.
Carr was released after the opening week of the regular season and no one in Rider Nation wants much if anything to do with Sunseri. The very name is a punchline for one of my good football-watching friends, synonymous with 'quarterback you do not want'.Â
That year, we all remember the Riders won the Grey Cup.
There were mild complaints about most of the league's pre-season games not being televised. I for one am all for blacking them out at this stage. There is no reason to expect sponsors or fans to front good money and time for a game for future practice roster players battling other guys about to be released.
You're going to need to pry me from the screen though when the Riders go to Montreal June 22 to play against Darian Durant and the Montreal Alouettes. That game has a ton of intrigue and backstory built in, and we'll finally start to be able to tell if the Riders are looking any closer to being a playoff team.
