Friday, July 25, 2008

Toronto vs. Saskatchewan: A Hero's Welcome?

This Sunday the Riders will take the field against the visiting Toronto Argonauts, who will be led into Mosaic Stadium by Kerry Joseph, who as we all know was named the 2007 Most Outstanding Player on his way to leading Saskatchewan to a Grey Cup victory. It seems as though the Rider Nation has mixed feelings over what kind of reception Joseph should receive upon his return. Let’s face it, Kerry did some pretty great things for our team and our community last season. But that doesn’t change the fact that I will treat him as if he tried to steal my grandma’s life savings when he takes the field. Kerry Joseph loved Regina and loved the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He just would have loved them a lot more for an extra $100,000 or so.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t fault Kerry at all for getting himself the best financial deal that he could. It’s a brutal game, and no player plays forever, so I fully realize the importance of making money while it’s there to be made. But let’s be honest about it and see things for what they are – Kerry thought he’s worth more than we were willing to pay him so he found a situation where he could get it. That makes this whole “I loved Regina and I felt betrayed when they traded me” about as believable as “Of course the Lions are under the salary cap.”

For me, the bottom line is that Kerry’s not with us, he’s against us. To borrow a line from Dave Chappelle, come this Sunday, “I hope all the bad things in life happen to you, and no one else but you!”

As for our own quarterbacking situation, we found out on Wednesday that Marcus Crandell is not yet ready to play, and as such Darian Durant will get his third consecutive start. The best part of that is that now all of the Rider fans as well as the Rider “fans” can support our offense – because I really get the feeling that there would have been some in attendance on Sunday that would have liked to see Joseph outperform Crandell this week. Sick.

But Saskatchewan isn’t the only place where quarterbacks are a big deal this week. In Winnipeg, Ryan “My Eyes Will Steal Your Soul” Dinwiddie took over for a struggling Kevin Glenn for week 5 against the Calgary Stampeders, and he managed the improbable by guiding the Bombers to their first win of the season. Not only did he win, but he looked extremely impressive doing it! Earlier this week the Calgary media was building up our game against the Stamps on August 2nd as a Battle of the Undefeated. That was a head scratcher when Calgary was 3-1, but it’s really going to be a tough sell for them now that the Stamps are hovering just over .500. “Well to be accurate, we meant undefeated… today.”

Elsewhere in the CFL, the Montreal Alouettes spent the first part of the week in Regina before flying off to Vancouver for their game against the Lions. Head coach Mark Trestman expressed a desire to have an extended road trip like this with his team in hopes that it would serve as some type of team building exercise. That’s actually a really good idea… in theory. In reality, their team building week consisted of a night of bowling (attended by roughly half the team), a barbeque at Scott Flory’s parents’ house (by invitation only – attended by 8), and the release of Jason Armstead and Rayshaun Kizer as a direct result of stupid mistakes in the last game. If that doesn’t bring the Als together, I don’t know what will.

That’s all for today, enjoy the game Sunday! I’ll have a complete summary next week of the showdown between the Durant-led Riders taking on What’s-his-Name’s Argos.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where's the rest of the intrigue with this match up? It's not just Joseph's return to Mosaic...it's Cates versus a fairly porous Argo D...a bunch of rookie Argo receivers against a veteran and stingy Rider defence...and the ultimate question: can the Riders remain undefeated? You offered no insight [not even humourous insight] and to me displayed a lack of insight into this game. May I suggest that Mr. Karwandy be given a laptop by a Regina company, and the ability to connect to this blog on a weekly basis [let's face it, he can take vacations during the off-season!] so we don't have to continue to read your drivel. Sorry, man. I visit this site every week as part of my Rider fix...and this week I'm feeling empty. You just didn't do it for me.

Anonymous said...

Wow... well, this isn't as good as the AJ Gass Public Defender from last season, but I did enjoy it in it's own strange little way.

Dear Mr. Anonymous, if that is your real name... allow me to explain. My job here is to provide commentary on the major stories surrounding the Riders and the CFL in general. I can take that in pretty much any direction I choose, and if you don't think that the single biggest story leading up to this game is what I talked about, you've clearly been living in a cave for the past week. But welcome back anyway.

For the record, since I seem to have hit a bit of a nerve with my "drivel", I can't help but think that you may be one of the "fans" that I was targeting with this piece. But have fun cheering for the opposition buddy, all the power to you.

Sorry I didn't quite do it for you. I could have sat here and talked for days about Wes Cates and defensive backs, but I didn't realize that is what it takes to get you off. Didn't realize I was trying to either.

By the way, I'm sure that Prophet feels terrible about his vacation interfering with your enjoyment. We'll look into getting that wireless internet connection hooked up. Get over yourself.

Anonymous said...

Before you go off half-cocked, I did post my "handle" at the end of this comment...


What an interesting set of comments!

Reed's: did you stay up all night thinking of that "intelligent" and "quick-witted" reply? I'll bet your momma would be proud to see you spewing forth such an intellectual dialogue on the comments posted by Anonymous. NOT!!!

And Craig: I find it very interesting that you would reply in the manner that you did. When you post on the Internet, and especially on a blog that allows forums and feedback such as this one, your reply is uncalled for and totally out of line. If you can't take criticism or don't wish to be subjected to it or you take it as personally as you did the remarks posted by Anonymous, then I suggest you get out of the blogging game or develop a thicker skin.

I felt you were both WAY out of line in your replies to Anonymous' posting. I didn't think their criticism/suggestions were totally appropriate but I didn't think they deserved the filth the two of you spewed out of your pie holes.

Just my two cents' worth.

Bleedin' Green
Kitchener, ON

Anonymous said...

My two cents: Maybe the subsequent comments were over the top, but to show up with a message that is essentially "bring back Karwandy so we don't have to read this drivel" and then try to hide behind the idea that you're offering constructive criticism is kind of absurd.

And I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that the part about take your vacation in the offseason was meant to be a joke... I sure hope it was anyway.