It's the night before gameday and I think I've got everything ready for tomorrow. I feel really good about the Riders chances this week, maybe too good. The team only practiced twice this week but they looked sharp. Kerry Joseph had his very best week of practice that I've seen. He looked very good. I think this will be the week we have been waiting for. Joseph will finally break out and dominate a team.

This week was really fun for us. This summer Saskenergy put on "Wear your Green Day" downtown. They had a "Fan Idol" contest and my 6 year old son Terry got up in front of the crowd and sang "Green is the Colour". Of course he won and took home $200 worth of Rider gear. Then they had a "Wackiest Fan" contest. I was there in my full costume and really there were other people dressed up but nobody as hardcore as I was. And of course with my luck it started raining and they didn't announce a winner for that contest. But they did take our family picture and used it in the new "Roughriders Charity Calendar" with all proceeds going to "Kerry's Catch for Kids" which is a great cause so buy a calendar. The Wheatheads also got into the calendar, but it's my blog so it's mostly about me and my family. But Daryl and Keiri are great people. I hope I got their names right. Anyway enough backstory. Because we are in the calendar we got invited to the VIP reception for the launch. And they brought in Donald Narcisse for the weekend. So there I was in the Green and White lounge with all these Regina bigshots in the business community and Narco was there. I got a few pics with him and talked to him a little bit. He is still one of the nicest people I have ever met. He signed my calendar along with Kerry Joseph, Andrew Greene, Scott Schultz and Roger Aldag. I think I was the only one who realised that Roger was also in the calendar and got him to sign. Roger is also a very nice guy. I hadn't seen him all season until the day before the launch and he rememberd my name and talked a little bit about the away game in Edmonton where I ended up spending about half the caberat after talking to him and his cousin. Anyway I mentioned to Narco when I was getting my picture taken that it would be cool to have a pic with him and me in my costume. So he asked where I sit and said he will come over for the pic on Saturday. And when I seen him this afternoon at the Cornwall Center he still said he was coming on Saturday for the pic. So I'm like a little kid looking forward to Christmas. And before I finish this thing I have to mention another ex-player who is a great guy. Cleveland Vann. I met him at the Wear your Green day and got a pic with him when I was in costume. And I got a pic with him last night with me lloking "normal". I asked him if he could sign the costume pic sometime and he told me to call him at work or leave the pic in the Rider office and he would be happy to sign it for me. I chose to leave it at the office because I don't want to bug him at work. I thought he would talk to me for a minute and then move on but 5 minutes later we were still talking. A very nice man and one of my heros from my youth.

Anyway my ramblings are worse than ever today. Thanks for reading. And buy the calendar, $20 at the Rider Store with all proceeds going to KidSport. And if you don't have a ticket for the game hurry up and get one because this will be a great game.

Andy, Andy, Andy!! Damn that rookie saved our asses yesterday. Especially when Joseph almost fumbled away the game. Yeah I said Joseph and fumble in the same sentence, again. He HAS to fix his fumble problem if he wants to be anymore than a very average QB. And scoring a TD or two in the first quarter wouldn't hurt either. I know. We won. And the best QB in the league played badly in that game. But Dickenson playing badly doesn't make Joseph any better. He was average at best. And almost single handedly lost the game with his fumble. He didn't throw any interceptions because B.C.'s defense is that good. They were up covering the receiver instead of sitting back 5 yards. If they would have sat back they would have picked off 4 bad overthrows easily. Watch the tape. We won so everybody thinks he played well. He didn't but we won in spite of his play.

But Andy Fantuz does deserve the praise he's getting today. His heads up play to recover the fumble was huge!! And his sliding catch to win it was a thing of beauty. Sliding catch. Why wasn't it an instride catch? Oh yeah Joseph. But back to Andy. This kid is looking really good. Not Elgaard good as people are comparing him to. Not yet anyway. But a very skilled rookie none the less. Great job Andy.

And Kenton Keith was incredible yet again. This guy is possessed right now. Give him the ball and great things will happen. I was worried when he came down on the ball and went off for a couple plays because he has had rib problems this year. But he didn't seem too sore after the game so he is probably all right. I hope so because we need him down the stretch. He will win one game by himself.

Matt Dominguez had another game like we all expect out of him. Tough catches, good yards after his catches and great blocking downfield. He is a pure football stud. Our best receiver no doubt.

Yo Murphy made a very favourable impression on me. I said I'd wait to judge him until I saw him play a game. Well he played and I watched and he is for real.

Our defense was fantastic. I would break it down player by player but I type slow and want to do other things today. As a whole they were very solid. They gave up ONE TD against B.C. and that's something to be proud of. One TD in a game that went to overtime. I can't remember the last team that did that. Amazing job all around. Lloyd looked good at MLB considering that this was the first time he has even dressed for a regular season game. That's right they didn't even have him playing special teams this year. Straight from the developmental roster to a starter. The kid did good. Reaper was solid not spectacular yesterday. No big stats but B.C. knew he was on the field. And if you watched him he was flying around. I'm not just saying good things about him because he gave my son the gloves he wore yesterday and gave me a set of the custom eye black things the team has. I was a Reaper fan long before I ever said anything more than Hi to him.

Anyway thanks for reading my ramblings. But one more thing. My son and I took part in Saskenergy Wear your Green Day downtown this summer. He won a bunch of prizes . And they were taking pictures for a Fan Calendar to be released soon and we will be in it. I got a call from Saskenergy this afternoon and they are having a VIP reception at the Green and White Lounge(invite only) this Thursday and my son and I are invited. Don Narcisse is going to be there!!! I'm really excited about that. I will take a ton of pics and post them on here afterwards.

The day before game day. Usually it's the longest day of the week. Nothing to do but head over and watch paint dry, I mean watch walk through. A very boring thing to do. But if you have never done it I encourage you to head over some day. It's the best time to get a couple autographs and sometimes you run into the national media guys. They give you a new perspective on the game because they are not homers. They will give you their opinion on the Riders compared to the other teams because they see them all up close.

And now to how much info to release about Rider practices on the internet boards. My belief is just to give people an idea of who looks good and who doesn't. I mean that is the questions that are asked the most. But when it comes to dinged up players I won't mention them until the team does. Like the Andrew Greene thing. The media didn't pick up on the fact that he wasn't practicing so why should I report that? I knew and asked Andrew about it and of course he LIED to me. I gave him shit and called him a bastard for lying after the game but I understand why he did it. He did it because he was told to. And that's fine with me. As fans we don't need to know every secret move that the team makes. I know lots of fans WANT to know but we don't NEED to know. This week there were a couple of players who didn't practice on Friday and one of those players was confirmed by the media today, Jason Armstead. But it wasn't comfirmed by the team and I didn't mention it because the team wasn't going to. Now people are pissed off that it wasn't mentioned. Too bad for them. There is at least one other guy who is going to be a late decision but I won't mention him either. And if you get pissed off then too bad. Go to practice and check for yourself!! If you live out of town and can't do that then just be happy that the people that do watch practices give the info that we do. If we keep getting heat about what we aren't telling then why should we report anything?

Anyway I'm going to my first Rams game of the year today. And my son's first Rams game ever. We got free tickets from The-Ultimate-Fan on Riderville, if you read this thank you for the tickets, and right now I can't remember his real name. That happens to me often. I have a really bad memory when I take my meds and lots and lots of pain when I don't. It's a no win. But I am looking forward to watching a football game where I don't know anything about either team and can just sit and watch the game. No expectations, no favourites, just football. That's why I watch US college on TV. Just for the game. I love football.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. And I have opened up the comments again, no moderation right now. So if you have something to say just post it. Try to keep it cleanish and don't spam me.

Just a short one before practice. I know I said that I wouldn't censor any comments but today I did. Before anybody things that it was a negative rant or attack on me that didn't get posted I have to say nope. It was just typical spam. But spam that took a little effort so I'll just paste it in here, without the link to the site though.

"Hi, i was looking over your blog and didn't
quite find what I was looking for. I'm looking for
different ways to earn money... I did find this though...
a place where you can make some nice extra cash secret shopping.
I made over $900 last month having fun!"

Now if the poster had this miracle site that lets you make money having fun why is he still looking for other ways to cash in? My thoughts are that he makes his money by getting refferals and letting somebody else do the work. But hey if anybody is actually interested in the link to the "money making" site just email me and I'll ship it off to you.

Thanks for reading.

My take on the bye week discussions.

First the "Barret is gone Thursday" rumour. What a crock of shit that turned out to be. Rider89ers is the guy who started that rumour on riderfans.com and to be totally honest I have never liked anything the guy has posted. He is a troll of the worst sort and should have been permabanned over a year ago. I've had my wars with the loser dog and have come out of them the winner. If he actually had a "source" in the Rider office for this rumour then the source should be fired right now. Too many leaks are being posted in the last couple of years. I won't name who I'm 99% sure is behind them but I will say to check out who has been hired into the upper positions in the last couple of years and make your own mind up.

Now we turn to the Corey Holmes will be traded back to us discussion.
14. Player Trade Policy
- Deadline moved up to the 12th week preceding Grey Cup.
- Trade-back clause of less than one year will not be allowed.
- Future Considerations must comprise of cash and/or draft pick only.
- Compliance officers empowered to investigate trades.
That SHOULD take care of that. But it won't. Too many people think that wishing will make it so. Sorry, I loved Corey as a player and a person but he won't/can't come back here this year.

Now I have to talk about the "Riders have their destiny in their own hands" people. Sorry but they don't!!! We need help to host a home playoff game. We are currently 2 games back of Calgary and they hold the tiebreaker. So we have no hope of finishing ahead of them. But we are also 2 games back of B.C. and play them again and we hold the tie breaker with them by 8 points. So we can finish ahead of them with some help from Calgary who plays them twice. If Calgary sweeps B.C. then our hopes of playing in Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field on a cold day in November are very much alive. But a loss to B.C. next week by more than 8 points could eliminate that chance too. But the good thing is that we do hold our third place destiny in our own hands by having to play Edmonton twice more. If we win both of those game then we SHOULD make the playoffs. How can you tell it's stretch run time when I've got playoff implications of every game worked out already? I need a life.

Anyway thanks for reading my ramblings. Maybe I will post my impressions of Yo Murphy this week after seeing him at practice.

Damn!!!

Where to begin? I'll start with the bustrip. The way up was a good time. Maybe too good because I paid for it on the way home. I have to thank BigNorm for looking after my drunken ass at the game. A word to the wise, if somebody hands you a cup of booze and it tastes good it is probably not a good thing to pound it without asking what it is. It might turn out to be Vodka and Redbull. That shit will screw you up. Especially when you throw 12 beer on top of it. If you don't belieeve me just ask J.J. He ended up passed out on the floor of the bus. He says napping I say passed out and it's my blog so who are you gonna believe?

Now to the game. 14 yards in the first quarter. Do I need to go on? $350,000 a year and that gets you 3 quarters of work most games. I say give him a raise so we get the whole damn game!!!! Why not? A lot of people are happy with what he does for $350G why not give him $500G and make me happy? Do whatever it takes to get him to play a whole freaking game!!!! And wait, let me fill in the blanks that all the Joseph fans are going to say. He is hurt, he needs time to sync with the O(12 games into the season), the receiver ran the wrong route, he's the starter and people who know more about football than Rick see something so he must be great. People who know more about football also picked Aundray Bruce first overall in the NFL draft(who? exactly my point), Andre Ware was also picked in the first round by football people who know more than me and he got the chance to suck in 2 leagues, how about Rick Mirer? Another flop that was picked by good football people. Sometimes good football people are just as dumb as the rest of us when it comes to picking talent.

If we are happy with a QB with a strong arm, good speed, poor decision making and inaccurate throws right now then why weren't we happy when we had Nealon? And no I'm not joking!! Joseph is a much more expensive Nealon Greene. The only difference is that Nealon knew he couldn't win the game by himself and Joseph hasn't figured that out. But I will put that throw to Grant as Grant's fault for not catching it. It was one of a handfull of good throws that Joseph made this game. And it was still a little overthrown!!! Take away MattD and Armstead from this receivig core and see waht Joseph would do. It wouldn't be pretty at all. Those guys are studs!!! Super athletic receivers who still can't make Joseph look any better than average. This was the third game where our starter directly caused the loss. Big deal that it was close. It would have been a hell of a lot closer if Joseph could play the first 20 minutes of a game like a pro QB. Grant wouldn't be wearing the goat horns if we could have scored earlier. Or even converted a first down!!


But enough about that guy. The game itself was an experience. I admit that I went into Winnipeg expecting the fans to be assholes. But I was pleasantly surprised. Sure I got the "Sask sucks" and "Where did you park your combine?"(at your mom's like always) comments but we do the same thing when their fans are here. If you can't take the verbal abuse then you probably shouldn't watch a game in their park. Big deal if somebody calls you an asshole. That is to be expected. But what I didn't expect was the Winnipeg fans coming up and talking and high fiving and really making me feel welcome at the stadium. There are classy people in that crummy city. And General Taylor was one of them. A good guy who I spent most of halftime talking to. I would go back for another game, just not a hell ride up and back again because that takes a lot out of my beatup old body.

Anyway it's a bye week so how am I going to fill my morning? No practice to watch. I'm going to lose my mind this week. But at least TC has Football 101 to look forward to on Saturday. She should have a blast. I don't know how much more she will learn about football though. She is already a pretty knowledgable fan.


Thanks for reading and if you want to comment please do. You don't even need to use your real name. But it takes a while for Blogger to forward the posts for moderation to me so don't think I censored you if it doesn't get posted right away. I haven't censored anything yet and I don't plan on it. Maybe I'll spend the morning rewatching the game.

Well it's 14 hours until I get on the bus for Loserpeg. I should be napping but the CFL schedule is preventing that. And after the Ticats-Argos game is over we have to head to a buddies place for a BBQ. So I might get 3 hours sleep before I get on the bus. I never learn. But I think I've got everything together for the trip from hell so I won't be running around like a chicken at 3 in the morning. I'm leaning towards just wearing the whole damn costume for the whole trip just to save the hassle of changing on the bus. I know for sure that I will be doing the makeup before I leave the house. It's just too much of a hassle doing it on a full bus. But on the bright side I do have a dozen cold Presidents Choice Honey Red just waiting for the trip.

But time to go and do a final check on all my crap. Thanks for reading.

Alrighty Labour Day is over and now it's Banjo Bowl time.

The weekend was a whole lot of fun and I'm hoping this one will be almost as good, it can't be as good because it's in Winnipeg. I mean who goes to Winnipeg for anything execept a football game or an occasional concert? Ask your friends. Calgary is always the trip of choice and it's farther away. But there are some good people in Winnipeg such as the guys in the pic with me. They post on riderfans.com and I run into them at the Labour Day game all the time. But damn they have horrible taste in clothes and teams.











And if I am posting pics then I had to include this one of Terry and me. He is the ultimate sidekick and a fantastic kid. I think he gets as excited about games now as TC and I do. And thats not easy. It helps that there are always some kids at the tailgate and that there are a bunch of them around us at the game. He always sets out to meet new friends every time we leave the house and usually succeeds.

This was a pic that needed to be taken. This girl must have spent a lot of time getting that mohawk to work.












This is a pic of Tbow1000 from Riderville and his wife. Otherwise known as Chris and Devan. They emailed me the night before the game wondering where the tailgate was and if they could hang out with us. It turns out that they sit 2 seats over from us at the games and had just never introduced themselves. We had a lot of fun with them and hope to see them out at the tailgate again soon. They are from Redvers, Sask. and make the drive for most of the games. Good luck with the soon to be born baby.




Well that's enough for now. I'll probably post more after practice. Thanks for reading my ramblings. 

Well we didn't have a 20 point lead at halftime, so I blew that prediction. But 16 points wasn't too bad.

Joseph started and showed what he could do. Not much. Rocky should have started. It is a good thing that Winnipeg isn't very good. And that our receivers can jump!! If we didn't have the athletes that we do catching the ball then Joseph would have only completed a handful of throws. But what the hell a win is a win.

Kenton Keith had another great day at the office. Like I've been saying all year if you get him the ball then great things will happen. My man Reggie let me down though. He promised 2 sacks and got none. But he did lead the team in tackles, again, so it's all good. Kitwana played another great game too. And the monster Fred Perry was incredible yet again. What a freaking defense we have. Best in the league right now.

At the game my family owned the Maxtron yet again, thanks gforce. But now I'm one appearance up on Atlanta and three or four up on the chicken man. And I heard that TSN showed me a bunch of times during the game. Of course I don't have a copy of the game. So anybody that recorded it and can make me a copy would automatically move up to my best friend.

I must have met 150 people from the websites on Sunday. But I only remember about 20. I would list those 20 but then I would be accused of shunning the rest. So if I met you at the tailgate, game or caberat rest assured that you are one of the 20 I remember. Really you are!! The caberat was a total gongshow. After we found the fast drink line it was all downhill for sobriety. We met a few players there and I probably made a total ass of myself so I hope they were drinking hard too and don't remember. I do remember talking to McCallum and predicting that we will knock B.C. out of the playoffs this year. He's a nice guy but still really bitter about leaving here. And I can see his point but he's now the enemy and can watch the Riders play in the Cup.

So this weekend it's off on the bustrip from hell or is that to hell? Winnipeg is all the bad parts of any city you have ever been to rolled into one and plopped onto a mosquito marsh. The best part of any trip there is leaving!!

But I gotta run so thanks for reading my ramblings. I might post again later.

YeeHaw it Labour Day weekend!! And that means Regina starts to get a peculiar odour. But it's not the water or something you might have steppedin. This weekend the smell is Bomber fans. The damn things are everywhere, just like the wasps but more annoying. But the good thing is we only have to put up with them until about the start of the fourth quarter. By then we should have a 20 point lead and Glenn and Stegall should be over at the Pasqua emergency. The Bomber fans should be crying in their beer and all will be right with the world. That's right people I'm predicting another blowout in the Rider's favour. What the hell I've been right two weeks in a row!! I say 48-18 for the Riders. And a dominant defensive performance by Kitwana and Reggie, who said he's getting 2 sacks today.

But thanks for reading. I've got to run because this weekend is busy. Brunch at 7's at 10:30 then the crazyness really starts.