Prelude- In Canada, 90% of sport related small talk turns around hockey. The other 10%? That would be football. Mostly American football. However, for a few weeks a year, the Canadian sports fan turns his attention to the big Canadian excuse to party: the Grey Cup. It's now two weeks away. Let's set you up based on a feel good story that happened this weekend.
Sport - Football
Event - Saskatchewan Rough Riders defeat the Calgary Stampeders to move to the Western Finals.
Issue - The Saskatchewan Roughriders are the only professional sports team in Saskatchewan. They are owned by the local community. So it goes without saying, the pride of the province rides the wave of the team.
To be blunt, the Roughriders do not have an overly victorious history. They have only twice won the Championship final game (Grey Cup) and the last time they even hosted a playoff game was in 1988. So, to win this weekend once again starts off the discussion about maybe this being the year to break out the "Rider Pride" and start wondering if this could be the feel good story of the year.
Point to Say - "Do you think Saskatchewan stands a chance at winning the Grey Cup?"
Follow up point - "They did defeat the Lions in Vancouver earlier this year."
Backgrounder
The Saskatchewan Roughriders is a Canadian Football League team based in Regina. Founded in 1910, the Roughriders have won the league's Grey Cup championship twice, in 1966 and 1989.
Regina's is the 24th largest city in Canada. Meaning it doens't have a large fan base to draw from. If you consider that it doesn't win much either, only ever won twice in its 97 year history, then "Rider Pride" means a kind of loyalty that only Chicago Cub fans can understand.
By defeating the Calgary Stampeders 26-24, they now face the Bristish Columbia Lions in the Western Final. The winner will the play the Eastern winner (Toronto vs Winnipeg) in the final, known as the Grey Cup.
Analysis
Will they win the Grey Cup? No. First they have to defeat the British Columbia Lions, and BC is by far the favourite. Not only is BC last year's Grey Cup winner, this season they finished first in the West Division going 14 wins, 3 losses and 1 tie. Though the Roughriders started the season win a 7-2 win/loss record, their best since 1976, they finished the second half of the season 5-4. Put all this together with the fact that Roughriders didn't exactly dominate their playoff game against the Stampeders this Sunday, well, in short, it doesn't look good if you wish to cheer for the Riders.
BC has home field advantage for the upcoming game. Of note, Saskatchewan did win in BC back in game 6 of this season. But BC's best player (their quarterback Dave Dickenson) did not play in that game.
But what if? What if Saskachewan got hot? How can you not cheer for this team? They embody the very essence of Canadian football, and their fans are just so darned nice.
Links
Story on Roughriders win over the Stamps.
Read about some of the pride Roughrider fans were showing going into the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment