Respecting the Fans in Football is Critical

My immediate family are Rider fans, and my first memory is watching the 1969 Grey Cup with my mother and as Russ Jackson of Ottawa hoisted the Grey Cup after beating the Riders, I will never forget my mother saying I hope they shove that up his frigging nose.

Anything that got my well-behaved mother so competitive was worth checking out and when we moved back to Saskatchewan from Baffin Island, we started going to Rider games with my sister, Mom and Dad and myself alternating games.

When my Dad was diagnosed with anaplastic cancer of the thyroid in 2001, I got him into the press box at Taylor Field for the last game the two of us would ever take in. He couldn’t talk since he had a trach tube, and we watched the Riders beat Hamilton and then we met our hero Ron Lancaster and in introducing Ronnie to my Dad, I choked up because I was going to say my Dad can’t speak because he has cancer. At that moment I think I finally got my head around the prospect of my Dad dying, and he did 10 days later.

Tony Plater was the director of communications for the Riders, and I can never thank him and the Riders enough for giving my father and me what we thought was the best place to watch the game, the press box and for allowing me to give my Dad one final gift before he died.

That gesture by the Riders is what I think should be the mark of all sports teams, when they are able, to give back to the fans who have given the teams their money and passion.

I go to Rider games with James Kennedy, who I work with and who is a Bomber fan. We enjoyed winding each other up and Kennedy started to come to games after his grandson passed away and I think the laughs and the good time he had helped him deal with his loss.

So, when I got Kennedy an orange practice jersey representing residential school survivors, he wanted to get it autographed by the Bombers. I contacted the Bombers before the first game they game to Mosaic Stadium this year but heard nothing and thought nothing of it. Teams on the road have a tight schedule and this was a fairly big ask since Kennedy wanted the whole team to sign.

The Bombers contacted us two weeks before Labor Day and I got Kennedy to knock down his autographs to four – Mike O’Shea, Zach Collaros, Kenny Lawlor and Willie Jefferson. Then I contacted my cousin, who is a First Nations bead artist, and asked her about making four neck lanyards we could present to the Bombers as a thank you for the autographs.

The lanyards would cost $50 apiece and Jimmy paid for three and I put up for one, just because it was my cousin, I had never seen her work, and you must have some faith in people, right?

She delivered three of the lanyards and we took them to the Hotel Sask where the Bombers were staying, along with the jerseys. The plan was we could pick up the jerseys the next day and wear them to the game, the orange making us stand out and easier for Jimmy’s grandchildren to find us on TV in Pil Country.

Well, we went to the Hotel Sask on Sunday, the day of the game, and the lanyards were gone and the girl at the front desk said no one had picked up the jerseys. They were unsigned. When we went to the game, the Mosaic Stadium staff would not let us into the bottom area of Pil Country because I presume, they did not want Bomber fans in one of the most visible parts of the stadium making Rider fans look inadequate by comparison.

I was ticked because we were not wearing blue, and we were season ticket holders. We ended up with Bomber fans who thought I was one of them, and when Wade Miller of the Bombers took a picture of us to use as material in a complaint against the Riders with the CFL for restricting his fans access, I thought how bad could this get?

The Riders ended up winning 32-30, the Bombers went back to Winnipeg and since we had not gotten the autographs as we requested, we asked for the lanyards back. It is now 10 days or so since the game and nothing from the Bombers. They obviously felt entitled to the lanyards and felt their fan James Kennedy owed them the three lanyards paid for out of his pocket and they didn’t have to sign the jersey he wanted.

Kennedy and I had coffee this past week and he said he was mad and was thinking about going out to the reserve and burning all his Bomber merchandize after the way he was treated by his team. I will stop by Costco and pick up hot dogs if he chooses to do that but let me draw another comparison with how the Bombers acted and what happened when I complained to the Riders about how we were treated.

In my email, I pointed out to the Rides we were wearing orange jerseys and if the Riders were serious about reaching out to First Nations fans, then why would they treat people wearing orange jerseys like they were radioactive? I said their actions made their outreach look like BS, and yes, I used the full word.

The Riders got back to me and apologized – they said they should not have forbidden us from going to where we usually go in Pil Country and offered us passes for pre-game on field stuff for the game on Friday.

I give the Bombers credit for reaching out to their First Nations communities – Edmonton and BC have followed suit along with the Riders. What amazes me is the silence and the entitlement the Bombers obviously feel in taking the lanyards intended as a thank you for the autographs and not producing any autographs.

The Riders did us badly and have made amends. The Bombers screwed over a fan of theirs and left him in the dark and poorer for the experience. I sent the Bombers Kennedy’s address and maybe they will make good on how they screwed him, but in how they treated him, they have shown themselves to be a bunch of spoiled, whiny, self-entitled…scumbags.

The CFL is not the NFL where they can afford to alienate fans and as a Rider fan, I want nine or 10 strong teams in the entire league because the CFL at its best can bring people together and give families moments like the Riders gave my father and I.

I wanted to give the Bombers the benefit of the doubt, but after how they acted here on Labor Day, I have no problem running them down at every opportunity. I don’t care about the score of the Labor Day rematch, or how I get treated by the Bombers, but when a fan of theirs gets treated like that, then the time has come to call them what they are.

The Bombers performance was traced back to anger about the head cheerleader, Collaros, getting a head butt after a sack. It was a stupid play by Pete Robertson and perhaps the Riders just stepped out of the way of the Bombers and let them have their way.

The Riders, to have any hope of being a contender had to beat the Bombers and Labor Day was the best opportunity for them to do so. The Riders accomplished that, and they had nothing further to prove against the Bombers, at least until the playoffs.

The Riders were also coming off two home wins with Jake Dolegala, and while he did nothing to really lose the game, which was all on the defense, he did nothing else really. The Riders are a work in progress and resemble the Riders under Danny Barrett when he was head coach. The Riders win close games and lose blow outs and it would take the arrival of Kent Austin to move the Riders past sustainable mediocrity to winning a championship or two.

The story of this season is not yet written, but I suspect that is where it is heading. The Riders may do enough to win a few games, but they are treading water, not yet swimming in a definite direction. But at least the Riders acknowledge when they screw over their fans. The Bombers are happy to screw anybody over because life in Stony Mountain Penitentiary gets lonely at times.

So, this week Toronto goes to Montreal and the question must be asked, can anybody stop them? The Argos work in all three phases of the game and are younger and hungrier than the Bombers.

What the Argos lack, along with other teams, is probably depth at quarterback and the question I have is what happens if Chad Kelly goes down in the last third of the season?

Montreal is having problems beating anyone with a winning record and if they look closely, they may find Hamilton slowly climbing up the charts and making an unlikely rush for the playoffs. Montreal has the framework of a workable team, but with Cody Fajardo, they have a quarterback who tends to force the ball into interceptions and who makes the same move to get out of being sacked.

This year Fajardo has a better offensive line and has released the ball quicker, but the results have been pretty much the same. Montreal may keep the game close in the first half, but unless they know Kelly is out of the game or there is a particularly painful sexually transmitted disease that gets picked up by the Argos, the Argos should win this one 30-23.

Winnipeg brings its whiny entitled show to Hamilton for an interesting game. Like most older men, you think after a 51-point performance, the Bombers will lay back, light up a smoke and go to sleep.

Which if they do against the Tiger-Cats may be a bit of a mistake. The Cats replaced Tommy Condell with Scott Marinovich as offensive coordinator and he has done a good job in getting quarterback Taylor Powell looking like someone who can maybe move the club.

The easiest way to explain the Tiger-Cats underperforming this year is the loss of quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, but Hamilton’s problems may stem more from the underperformance on the defensive side of the ball. Hamilton may have offensive problems, but they have a coach who seems well-equipped to meet those problems. I am not so sure about their defense under coordinator Mark Washington.

The Bombers should experience a bit of a letdown against Hamilton after their manufactured display of pique against the Riders. The Bombers may have wanted to send a message, but I am not sure all the effort will pay off against Hamilton.

By no means am I picking Hamilton to win, but it is only natural for a team to experience a letdown after a performance like Winnipeg had. Hamilton will keep it close, but Winnipeg should have enough for a 30-21 score.

Ottawa goes to BC as the Lions come off a bye week and have digested the Bomber thumping of the Riders which was meant to send a message to the rest of the league. The Lions have some problems on the offensive line which means Vernon Adams Jr. has had problems going bombs away on deep passes before being sacked or dropped for a loss.

Ottawa has the framework of a good team and I admire how they have adapted to the loss of their quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and rallied around Dustin Crum. Ottawa has the coaches in place to make a difference, they don’t have the depth and the problem is without depth, eventually a team with a potent offense like BC will go to town on you.

Keep in mind that a team moving more than two time zones does not tend to do well and BC has many fine strip clubs. BC should win but they have rust to knock off and some problems to resolve on their offensive line.

I think BC should win this one 26-22 because Ottawa will keep it close but does not have the closers to make the difference in this game. BC needs to work out some issues before pursuing the western conference title and this seems to be the place to start.

Finally, we have Edmonton at Saskatchewan as the Elk continue to try to work out their issues and perhaps spoil the trip of a lot of teams to the playoffs…or not.

First off, the impact of the Bomber win over the Riders will be negligible. I remember the last game of the 1989 season when the Riders roster resembled the Little Orphans of the Poor and the Eskimos smoked the Riders en route to a 16-2 season, still the best record in the CFL.

The problem was Edmonton, like Winnipeg, thought all they had to do was show up for the western final, and the Riders beat the Eskimos to go to the Grey Cup. The Riders did not care the Eskimos had won the last game because the Riders had won a game against the Eskimos earlier in the season to prove they could beat the Eskimos when it meant something.

It may be too much to think the Riders are thinking the same thing following their thumping in Winnipeg, but it is a route I would go. The Riders played the Bombers three times in the regular season, they only had to win one game. In the playoffs anything can happen.

The difference between 1989 and today is in 1989 the Riders had Kent Austin and Tom Burgess at quarterback. The Jake Dolegala love fest seems to have quieted down, and this will show if Dolegala has enough character to rebound after a thumping.

The big challenge for the Riders will be corralling Edmonton quarterback Tre Ford who is running around and making plays, while also turning the ball over now and then. If the Riders let Ford scramble, the Elk have the receivers who can get open behind the Riders suspect defensive secondary.

The Riders do get Canadian offensive lineman Philip Blake back from a torn pectoral muscle and I think he will be the sixth offensive lineman, brought in now and then to give him some playing time, but not too much to avoid tweaking the injury.

There are a lot of question marks in this game, and I am not too sure how things will turn out, but trends between these teams has been close games, including the game where a brain cramp by the Edmonton returner let the Riders win a painful 12-11 game.

There should be another close game as both teams are playing for some sort of playoff future. I hope the Riders can get back on track, but I suspect Edmonton should win this one 24-23.

by Greg Urbanoski

Respecting the Fans in Football is Critical

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