It was a long, and sometimes downright frustrating season for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. After an undefeated start it appeared that the Riders decided to concede the months of September-October to the rest of the CFL. Losing dubious games with poor offensive, defensive, and character along with the lack of star running back Kory Sheets. 2013 was looking like a dream turned into a nightmare by Thanksgiving time for the Rider Nation. After losing to the Calgary Stampeders to fully relinquish any chance of hosting what felt like an inevitable Riders-Stamps West Final, things were looking grim, but Dwight Anderson and a handful of Riders made it clear they felt otherwise. Claiming that they would be back at McMahon Stadium, Anderson said that they were the better football team after the loss, something that was played off as sour grapes, but quietly was a prophetic guarantee for a two week span that might as well have been spent in a coma for football crazy Saskatchewan. With the Grey Cup at Taylor Field for likely the last time the Riders, who have long tormented their diehard fans, rose to the occasion.
For a generation of Riders fans that have endured the 13th Man, Paul McCallum's miss (and other less famous heartbreaks that are too long to list) this month has been long coming and while it isn't over yet and there is a game to play on Sunday, it has been one of best in the history of a franchise that has only three Grey Cup's in an over 100 year history.
It hasn't always been this way for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and it is easy to forget that based on where things are now. This is a team that where at one point a winning season was as big of a miracle as 2013 was. A team that had to actively be saved by its fans on occasions, and failed to make the playoffs for four straight seasons from 1998-2001. They even had to host telethons to simply keep the team from collapsing financially on more than one occasion.
Now the Roughriders are a country wide phenomenon and are the most popular team in the CFL based nearly entirely on the passion that Saskatchewan has for its team. From merchandising on the level of a major professional sports team and more creatively named Co-Op Brand junk food items you can think of, Pilsner box cowboy hats, fake watermelon heads, and trinkets you can think of the Riders are a bustling money making machine that is set to get a new stadium and is always considered at the very least an outside contender to make the Grey Cup. Since the first time they made the playoffs in 2002, the Riders have rattled off playoff seasons in all but one year (2011, Greg Marshall, don't remind us) and have made the Grey Cup now four times. Still it has been mostly heartbreak for the Riders in those Grey Cups.
2007 against Ryan Dinwiddie still marks the only time for all of the Riders playoff successes that Saskatchewan has lifted the title. Getting their hearts stomped out by the Montreal Alouettes twice in 2009 and then in 2010 in games decided by a combined four points was fitting for a franchise that always seemed due for a stomach punch loss just as soon as they got your hopes up.
That history and those years of near misses, and the heartbreak that came along with it, had last Sunday looming on the calendar like the date of an execution. Combining last year's loss on the final play of the game at McMahon in the West Semi-Final with all of the buildup to what was one of the more highly anticipated West Finals of all time could only be a build up to another crushing defeat for the Riders. I was prepared for the worst and it turned out to be one of the best start to finish showings of execution from the Riders in recent memory.
Darian Durant was brilliant, making plays with his legs and connecting to every receiver for a big play, Kory Sheets dominated Jon Cornish and left no debate on who the best rusher in the CFL is, and Geroy Simon, who has been hit and miss since coming to Saskatchewan as a free agent to bring the Cup to Regina as hosts, even chipped in with some big catches. What we all witnessed at the start of the season as we prematurely dreamt of a Grey Cup run before things fell apart came back when it mattered the most. Big running holes for Sheets, timely defensive plays, Durant winning the turnover battle and making big plays to the Riders talented batch of wideouts. It was all there. And in front of a ground that was 80% Riders fans by the end of the game, it couldn't have been sweeter.
The Riders are favourites on Sunday, and in a home game against a team they have been historically good against they should be expected to win. Win or lose on Sunday, I am already chalking up the 2013 Saskatchewan Roughriders season as one of the best years of my life as a sports fan. Writing about my childhood team making a run to host a Grey Cup in my first years as a writer will be something I will never forget and I am sure hundreds of thousands of people across the province and the country feel the same way. In a league that is often criticized and dismissed to the NHL and the NFL in its own country the Riders are a symbol for how much one, small, and perpetual frustrating sports team can matter to an entire province more than you would ever think. For three hours on Sunday, a dream that every Riders fan has had will become a reality. Win or lose, that is why we fell in love with the game in the first place. Dreams will come true at Taylor Field
