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From the moment the Roughriders beat the Stampeders in the western final, I was in a panic.  I couldn't sleep.  I couldn't eat.  I couldn't think about anything but football.  I think I lost 20 pounds.

I wore green all week.  In fact, I realized I could probably wear Rider gear every single day for two weeks without running out, although some of it is rather ill fitting.  Still.

I hung my 100 Years of Pride flag up at work.  I felt awkward doing that.  In 2009, I hung a Rider sign on my classroom door.  We know how that turned out.  Monday when I arrived at work the sign had been ripped off and tossed in the garbage.  I promptly retrieved it and put it back on the door.  I told people, "The Riders need us more now than ever."

Wednesday I watched the opening of Riderville streamed live on the Riderville.com website.

Thursday I started seeing pictures of the Coaches press conference.  Corey Chamblin wore a suit.  Kent Austin was wearing a track suit.  Chamblin looked like the coach of a championship team.  Austin looked like the coach of a college team.  That might sound mean, but I expected more of him.  It doesn't matter that he had to go out to the field right after and hold practice because Chamblin had to get on a bus and drive to Moose Jaw for practice.

I could not wait for the week to be finished.  In all honesty, anything that wasn't football related is a complete and utter blur.  I just felt like it was time.  It was time to get the game going.

Sunday, game day, Grey Cup day was an incredibly beautiful day.  Man oh man, I felt such regret.  Why the heck didn't I try harder to get tickets?  Oh yeah, I know there weren't hotels available and we'd have to get a dog sitter.  But man.  We should have been there.  We went to the Co-Op for groceries instead.  I bought 3 bags of Geroy Simon Super Onion & Sour Cream chips.  They were 3 for $4.98.  Secretly I hoped Geroy would be a huge factor in the game.  I hoped that maybe he'd get 3 TD's.  Little did I know that Superman had not scored a touchdown in a Grey Cup game in his career.  Wow.

I wore the same outfit I'd worn for the Western Semi and the Western Final.  My Celebration in Ridernation tank top which I had worn to Watrous and met Dwight Anderson, Macho Harris and Jock Sanders.  I wore my grey bunnyhug.  I had to wear my hair down and my watermelon earrings.  Pants didn't seem to matter....as in colour/style etc.  I try hard not to be superstitious, but I guess I am after all.

The anxiety I had all week had reached an epic state of butterflies by game time.  The TSN pregame was amazing.  I hope someone somewhere snags a video of that Saskatchewan feature because it was so amazing and heart warming that I'd love to watch it over and over again.

Finally.  It was game time.  BRING EM OUT.  BRING EM OUT.  BRING EM OUT.  The Riders skipped the formality of player introductions and rushed out onto the field sending TSN into a frenzy.  It was hilarious on tv because for once, Rod Black aka Skater Dude was silenced!  It was exhilarating to watch the players gather and dance.

The sky shots of Taylor Field were breath taking.  Seeing the Snowbirds flyby was purely amazing.

Why the heck wasn't I there?!

I don't think I actually started breathing until the 3rd quarter.  It felt like Hamilton was going to make a comeback.  They started to see something or get something working in the 3rd quarter.  Hubby said "oh don't worry we've got this."  But I'd seen it before.  Then something miraculous happened.  Everytime the Riders offence was on the field they scored.  Let's face it.  The Riders played the way we have always wanted them too.  The way we have dreamt they could.

The Roughriders broke a record for points scored in the first half of a Grey Cup game.  Kory Sheets broke the rushing record for a Grey Cup game.  Geroy Simon got his first and second touchdowns in a Grey Cup game.  Everyone got to touch the ball.  The offense was spread around.  George Cortez was freaking amazing with his play calling.

Then we won.

The Riders won their 4th Grey Cup in 103 years of the football club.  The 101st Grey Cup held right in historic Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field.  2013.  The year of the 13th man.  Vindication.  Redemption.  What happened in 2009?  I can't remember.  It's been erased.  Once Darian Durant grasped that cup and held it over his head in celebration.....it was all true.

That.  Just.  Happened.

Bring 'Em Out

Holy Sheets, guys!  We are headed to the 101st Grey Cup!  The Roughriders in the house that Ronny and George built.  It chokes me up.  This is what we've dreamed about all our lives as Rider fans.  Making it to the big game in our very home and winning it on Taylor Field at Mosaic Stadium.

Can this get any better?

What a euphoric week.

How did we get here?  A year ago, I believe Coach Corey Chamblin, GM Brendan Tamon and President Jim Hobson planned for this.  How do you win the Grey Cup?  First you need to build a championship team and bring in players like Geroy Simon, John Chick, Ricky Foley, Dwight Anderson and so many more. Then you employ the genius offensive mastermind of George Cortez.  You hold training camp away from home, in Saskatoon aka Riderville North, where players could bond together like brothers.

Did George Cortez hold back plays?  You bet your pants he did.  I knew it all along too.  You can't show everything you've got because then all the teams know you.  You keep those plays for play offs.  That's when you pull them out of your pack pocket and make defenses jaws drop open in surprise.  You bet that's what happened when we took over and totally dominated the line of scrimmage against the Stampeders in the Western Final.  They had no idea we were coming.

Supposedly the league is criticising our players for not touching the Western Division trophy.  As elite quarterback Darian Durant said on the sidelines, "I don't want that one."  Nope we don't either!  Ridernation wants the cup!  We want the cup!

We want the cup in the name of Sir Earl Grey.  Even if he thought he was donating a hockey trophy.  The story I recall is that he heard about Sir Stanley donating a cup and he wanted to do the same thing.  Well, Sir Grey, I am so glad this happened. What a beautiful cup she is.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are hosting the 101st Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium.  Our home.  The visiting team?  The Hamilton Tiger Cats.  They finished second in the east and beat the defending 2012 Grey Cup champions the Toronto Argonauts to get to the cup.  The Hamilton head coach is ex-Rider and coach Kent Austin.  Kent Austin quarterbacked the Roughriders in the 1989 Grey Cup win and he coached the Riders to the 2007 Grey Cup win.  His banner hangs on our stadium.  The Hamilton quarterback is Henry Burris, also an ex-Rider, who left us when he was going to be demoted as quarterback.  There are several other ex-Riders on the TiCat team: Andy Fantuz; Luca Congi.

But hold the Grey Cup train!  Our offensive coach, quarterback whisperer, George Cortez is the Hamilton ex-head coach.  Our linebacker, although now injured, Rey Williams was dismissed in the off season.  He has a huge chip on his shoulder.  Our head coach, Corey Chamblin was a defensive coach not all that long ago with the TiCats.

This will be the last big hurrah for Taylor Field.  We are building a new stadium for 2015.  Mosaic is a wonderful old girl.  I hope she gets to party like she's never before.

There are all kinds of storylines here.

This week is going to go fast and yet drag along at the same time.  Game time is 5pm Sunday.  I plan on savoring each moment.  I plan on wearing green all week.  It's going to be crazy.  And I am ready!

BRING 'EM OUT!  BRING 'EM OUT!  WE WANT THE CUP!!  WE WANT THE CUP!!!!

Go get it boys.

Eighteen

Eighteen.

The number of CFL games in a season.

Where did the time go?

We spend the off season yearning for football and then poof it's all over.  Well, nearly.  In case you missed it, my Saskatchewan Roughriders are in the play offs.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It would have been nice to go into the playoffs with some momentum.  But we didn't.  I think that has something to do with people feeling a little blaise about the whole thing.  The team was so dominant during those first eight games.  Where did that spark go?  I don't know.  I don't have the answers but I certainly hope the Roughriders coaching staff does.  I hope that they've been holding back.  I did even hear Sportscage's Rod Pederson comment a few weeks ago about seeing practice and seeing things that would make our jaws drop open.  I hope so, Roddy!

I'm disappointed in the whole Cornish - Sheets debate.  It was a media thing.....pitting them against each other.  In my mind the best back will be the one who gets to hoist the Grey Cup.  What happens in the regular season is nice, but getting that cup is the real prize.

Nine Roughriders were named to the All Star Team.  There were several names on there that made me cheer.  I've been a big supporter of Darian Durant for years now.  I was so happy to see his name on the list.  Also Dwight Anderson.  I know people don't care for him.  I love his passion.  I love the commradery he brings to the team.  He was terrific when I met him.  He liked my Party in Ridernation tee shirt.

Okay so this Sunday is the West Semi Final.  The Roughriders get to host it.  I've heard plenty of complaining about ticket sales.  I think the problem is all the extra Grey Cup seating.  Usually the game would be sold out.  With all the extra seating and it being winter now.....people aren't jumping to buy tickets.  Fans also aren't really sure which Rider team will show up.  Personally, I think we've got this.  I feel the butterflies but that can be a good thing.  I just know that the hype doesn't seem to be there.  I'm not seeing the people wearing the colors on game day.  I'm not seeing or hearing people talking about it.  The Riders need to win this game and then I'm sure everyone will be honking their horns and gearing up.

One thing I know for sure.....I'm not ready for this season to be over.

Go Riders Go!  Let's tame those Lions!

Four to Go

Where has the time gone?  Not only did I neglect my blog for all of September.....the length of the Riders losing streak.....but somehow we've almost reached the end of the CFL season.  How did this happen?  I mean, it doesn't seem like all that long ago I was on summer holidays and cheering on my Riders to an epic 8-1 season.

Then something happened.  For myself, after Labour Day I headed back to work.  For the Riders, they seemed to lose their mojo.

It started with the injury to Rey Williams.  Then Dwight Anderson and Taj Smith got to have a slumber party in jail after some kind of altercation on Dewdney outside a "night club".  The bandwagon came to a screeching halt and fans were bailing off and heading to the ER with broken ankles by the numbers.  They said "I told you so" when talking about Dewdney Dwight [shamelessly coined by Fake Gainer of Twitter fame.  If you don't follow him you should.]  By the end of the week another Rider, Eron Riley was also involved in the alleged aggravated assault, which if you've seen the videos, you can't really see what the heck happened.

Here's what I know.  Dwight Anderson and Taj Smith have earned places on this team.  Dwight Anderson may play with high emotion but that edge lets him get those game sealing interceptions.  Taj Smith, who seemed very unlikely to be involved in such an event, is having a great year as we've seen him scoot down the sidelines to make explosion plays.

So, yeah, Rider Nation became disheartened and split on this whole topic. 

Then the unthinkable happened.  Kory Sheets got injured.  We didn't have an answer to the blitz.  The Oline seemed to go to pot.  Darian was blamed for everything.  One person went as far to call him out on Twitter saying he wasn't Anthony Calvillo.....who, by the way has been injured for most of the season so really a bad analogy all the way around.  Doubles was fined for his twitter response.

But then something happened.  A fire was ignited.  Kory was healthy.  Cortez got creative.  The Riders came out firing on all cylinders against the Lions and Holy Sheets! we all think they can pull this off after all.

I mean, I think they can.

I think Cortez was playing games with us all.  I think he was not showing us all those crazy plays because we've got to keep them for play offs.  I think Cortez is a genius and we just don't know it yet.  I don't think anyone will see us coming.  I believe.

I know Geroy Simon hasn't been used very much, but I think this is all a plan too.  I think we will see him used when we need it the most.  I'm calling up memories of Jason Clermont's overtime touchdown catch against the Lions in the Western Final in 2010 [I think, I am a girl after all and sports dates are a tough one for me.]  Geroy needs to learn that the Riders are a TEAM.  We like your record.  We want your record to go on.  Your team mates care about you and your token catch was very important to us all. We have your back Superman.

So here we go.  Buckle up that strap on your cape.  Get that feather headdress on.  Head to the dollar store for all the green paint they have in stock.  There's only 4 games to go and we are Grey Cup bound.

Out There at Rider Practice

This is a cross over post from my other blog Life, Donuts & the Crazy Music Lady.  If you want to read it in it's entirety please feel free as it has my entire account of the Paul McCartney concert, which, by the way, I am still reeling from.   LINK.   It was a phenomenal concert.  Up until now the best concert I'd been to was the Eagles.  The only downside was the transit set up and how it was strongly discouraged to drive and park.  Regina needs to have a look at how Saskatoon does it because I've never stood in a line up as long before as I did for the concert in Regina.

The day after the concert we went to Rider practice.

Rider practice!!!!!  We got a little lost trying to find Leibel Field but finally found it.  I have to say, Regina has the worst street signage I have ever seen and I've driven in some pretty large American cities too.   It was 32*C so we didn't stay as long as originally planned.  It was fun to watch the team practice.  It was cool to hear the 'wolf pack' howl in unison a number of times.  Weston Dressler got a beautiful catch.  I snapped a few shots before we left for lunch at the Star Italian Deli.

The Story So Far

I don't think I really have to inform any Rider fan out there that the team is currently the only team in the CFL who remains undefeated.  I'm pretty sure everyone knows the Roughriders are 3-0.  Did you know that no CFL player has started the season with as many yards as Kory Sheets?

See?

You knew it already.

Rod Pederson said Rider Nation is swinging from chandeliers.  This might be the one!

In the first game of the season we played the Edmonton Eskimo's.  The score was 39-18.  Lot's of people said that, well, the Eskimo's aren't a very good team and we'd have to wait and find out how the Riders play against a more worthy opponent.  The high/low-light of this game was what I saw as an interfering Greg Marshall chirping at Dwayne Anderson and then saw DA get all fired up crazy and got himself a few penalties.  It also caused a bit of a controversy because tons of fans were split on whether he should even remain on the team.  Now, two games later.....meh, DA is an okay guy *if* he doesn't do it again.  Then it turns out the real crazy is the Eskimo's coach, "Krazy" Kavis Reed who could barely contain himself after their most recent loss.  My own personal opinion is.....his counting mistake caused us a Grey Cup even though I can't prove it.  His contract was just extended but how could you possibly have respect for a raving lunatic of a coach?  Edmonton is indeed in trouble.  THERE HAS TO BE CONSEQUENCES!!!

Moving on to week two and we played the Calgary Stampeders or the Stumps as I've heard a few refer to them as.  I felt a little bit bad for them because they had that horrific storm and severe flooding.....but not bad enough to let them win.  The Stamps were a more worthy opponent but we still beat them 36-21.  Of course we had Skater Dude aka Rod Black for a commentator.  Throughout the almost the entire first half all we heard was how much in control Drew Tate was and how calm he was and blah blah blah.  I shouldn't expect any less from Skater Dude.  I really thought "Kernal" Jock Sanders was going to break loose and return a punt for a touchdown.  I think he was just one tackle away.....and it could still happen in any game.  Getzlaf seemed to recover from the dropsies which plagued him last year but ohmygawd how awesome was the play calling?!  I was singing George Cortez's praises after this game.  What a catch he was! 

On to the most recent game against the defending 2012 Grey Cup champs, the Toronto Argonauts.  You know, I googled argonaut before because I had absolutely no idea what it was.  If there was ever a case for REDBLACKS, this might be it.  No confusion as to what that name means.  But I digress.....  We beat them!  39-28 was the score. I'm not a huge stats person but who can ignore Darian Durant's performance this year?!  He's thrown 8 touchdown passes already with ZERO interceptions (unless you count that one that got called back).  This is a huge improvement on previous seasons.  The witty Rob Vanstone told me that his previous season best was 25 TD's and he's on pace this year for 46!  Well, that was until his 'lower body' ankle injury.  I have complete faith in our O-line.  I'm sure Drew Willy will perform just fine this week if he is called to duty.  I know Kory Sheets has faith in them too because he's keeping them fed with BonBurgers just for blocking for him.  It's working, and hey, burgers are a huge motivator, because Kory has rushed for an incredible 442 yards in just these  three games.

So where do we go from here?  This coming Sunday we meet what some people are calling the "old Riders", the Kent Austin coached, Hhheeeeennnrryyyyy Burris quarterbacked, Andy Fantuz'd Hamilton TigerCats in front of a home town crowd at Taylor Field, er Mosaic Stadium.  I don't like to make predictions, but I have a feeling Cortez has a special offensive playbook just for the occasion of meeting his ex-team.  After all, he is what I've coined The Quarterback Whisperer.

Let's make it 4-0.  Go Riders Go!

Green & White Day 2013

 Technically, they were calling it Riderville North Fan Fest Day.  It's all part of the 101st Grey Cup festivities, however, the Riders do usually travel this way for a special day of autographs and practice.

Last year it rained.

This year it rained cats and dogs.

Does it matter to Rider Nation?  Not one single bit.

Hubby and I arrived a good half hour early.  We stood in line for about 45 minutes.  Unfortunately, due to the conditions the Riders only had 'select' players signing autographs and they were in a tent.  The lineup to see them could have wrapped all around the track at Griffith Stadium.  As one of my Tweeps mentioned I just wish someone would have told us it was hopeless. 

Gainer walked down the line entertaining kids.

 I managed to make it to the tent and had my specially purchased green nerf football signed.  I had wanted to meet Geroy Simon and have him sign it but he was taken away to get ready for practice.  *disappointed face*  But, happily, I did get to meet Dwight Anderson who, strangely enough, was seated beside Weston Dressler.  Weston didn't appear worried about his eyes at all.

Dwight Anderson, Weston Dressler & Chris Getzlaf

A little farther down the line I managed to talk to Ricky Foley and Kory Sheets.  I mentioned to Kory that I'd talked to him on Twitter the night before.  "For real?" he said.  Then he asked my twitter name and he said he actually remembered me.  <swoon>

We stood around for a little while waiting for the scrimmage to start but it was raining heavy again.  Many did stay.  I felt since, I had attended the two previous practices it wasn't necessary. 

That wraps up my week of Rider Training Camp and Fan Day.  This week some of the practices are held at the SaskTel soccer centre and due to work, I can't attend the afternoons at Griffiths.  Work always gets in the way of fun doesn't it?!