I don't know about you, but I am still basking in the afterglow of a brilliant performance by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Grey Cup game.
I was over at a friends' place watching the big game on Sunday on an impressive HDTV in North Battleford, where I watched a thorough and complete dismantling of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats by Darian Durant, Kory Sheets and the rest of the Riders team.
I wanted the Roughriders to destroy the opposition. I didn't want high blood pressure from watching another nail-biter like the 1989 Grey Cup, or the 2007 Grey Cup or, most definitely, the awful 2009 or 2010 Grey Cups.
The Roughriders were overdue to blow out an opponent in a Grey Cup game, and they took 101 years of frustration out on the Tiger-Cats.
Some say this was the greatest Grey Cup ever. I don't know about that - 1989 was far better in terms of excitement and big plays. But there is no doubt that Nov. 24, 2013 was the greatest day in the history of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. For them to win a Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium at long last was a special moment indeed, one that will never happen again.
The parades have been held and the hoopla is all finished. Now we are faced with a problem familiar to Riders fans every year around this time.
That problem is Saskatchewan Roughriders withdrawal.
Football season is the high point of life in Saskatchewan. Every week, fans live and die with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. It starts with training camp, and then in June it's two weeks of preseason, and then 18 weeks of regular season action including nine home games at Mosaic Stadium. Then, hopefully, the Riders are good enough for three weeks of playoffs in November.
For all of those weeks, Roughriders talk dominates the province. The sports talk shows are filled with the latest information and gossip on the Roughriders. Folks like John Gormley do their weekly Riders prognostications on the radio. After every game, people call in to the postgame shows to basically freak out about the performances of the Riders on the field.
It really is a soap-opera atmosphere, with people obsessing over the team and ranting and raving over Darian Durant's quarterbacking abilities.
Here's the truth: much of the fun about Roughriders season comes from watching fans react. These fans here are crazy. The reason, of course, is because the team has driven them crazy.
The 13th Man, the Tony Gabriel catch, the Reign of Error years - it adds up.
That is why football season in Saskatchewan is such a joy. Our fans provide as much entertainment as the team itself.
Now, it's over.
The drop off from "Riders season" to "Riders off-season" is a real shock to the system. The reason is because there are no other big-league teams in Saskatchewan to follow. Nothing measures up.
Other places never have this problem. When I lived in Toronto, there were always other sports. Once the Argos were done you turned your attention to the Leafs and Raptors. After they were finished, you watched the Blue Jays.
Here, though, the only real option left is junior hockey going on all over the province with the WHL and the SJHL, including locally with the Battlefords North Stars.
It's a great product, but that isn't the point. No one kids themselves that these are the big leagues.
Hockey is just different. For one thing, these games don't have Gainer the Gopher. Furthermore, getting to a junior hockey game is far too easy. All you have to do is drive down 100th Street and turn down 18th Avenue to get to the Civic Centre.
Rider fans, though, must fight traffic on Highway 11 past Davidson, Chamberlain and Lumsden. Then when you get to Mosaic Stadium, the place is usually packed. The atmosphere is intense. It's always an event, and every game is terribly important as far as your final placement in the standings.
Hockey, though, has this system where too many teams get into the playoffs, which goes a long way towards muting enthusiasm.
The worst of it at many junior games in Saskatchewan is that many fans look bored out of their skulls. (Saskatoon, this means you.) Even if there is a good crowd, fans will sit on their hands, no pom-poms or flag-waving, nothing. They'll clap if someone scores, but the only times you see them actually cheering is during the fights.
I know it's the regular season and games aren't life or death, but I don't get it! These fans include the same people who go to Riders games and scream at the top of their lungs in the most ridiculous green outfits. Yet at hockey games they muster all the enthusiasm of a trip to the library.
Maybe they are still recovering from being frozen stiff in the parking lot. (That's another thing not common during football season.)
For football fans, transitioning to hockey takes time. Fortunately, fans get into it and the excitement level picks up considerably once the playoffs approach. Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs! Are you kidding me? Playoffs?!
For now, though, the party is over. Everyone has to get over the big green hangover before they move on to something else.
The thing about this football season is it ended on the most positive note imaginable. Usually, when the season ends for the Riders it ends with a thud.
That was especially true in 2009 when the "13th Man" incident happened. In fact, that is usually the way it is for Rider Nation. Every year fans enter the off-season miserable, and it lasts all winter.
Now, everyone is so happy that they wish the Riders' season would keep on going. Everyone's still in a mood for football.
