Black Day in Riderville

I had just come out of the garage at my condo complex when the 79 year old Ukrainian woman who loves to talk football opened her door to yell at me.

“What the F### are those Riders doing!!??”

And that is how I heard about John Chick and Weston Dressler being cut by the Riders.

At the beginning of the week it was David Bowie dying, and for many people in Rider Nation, it felt like another pair of devastating deaths in the family as Chick and Dressler were released because they wouldn’t renegotiate their contracts.

Both players would have made a combined $500 K this year, which is 10 percent of the salary cap. The Riders needed the room to attract the talent they need to rebuild a 3-15 season.

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This raises the question about what happens with Darian Durant and his salary of $450K to $500K. If Durant doesn’t renegotiate, I would not be surprised to see Durant either get traded or released.

For Chris Jones, who has no emotional ties to the players other than building a winning team, the move was an obvious one. In a media conference call, Jones would not rule out bringing them back at a lower cost, but it’s probably a good move to have the Riders free agent camps starting soon.

Chris Getzlaf will be re-signed at a lower salary so that means anything is probably possible. The Riders also apparently have signed Shawn Lemon, who is younger and less expensive than John Chick.

But while a person can rationally explain why the Riders made the moves they did, it does not diminish the impact John Chick and Weston Dressler both had on the team and the province.

Dressler won people over with his play despite his size. Ever since his rookie season, even when he went for a tryout in Kansas City, he asked for number 13 as a tribute to Rider fans.

Chick was a beast as a defensive end and what people respected was how he played despite having diabetes. Both players represented the ideal Saskatchewan player of someone who plays at a high level and succeeds despite the odds.

Dressler signed a pair of receiver gloves for a friend in Prince Albert and a mini helmet for another friend in Winnipeg without batting an eye. He posed with little kids who looked at his size and thought if he could make it to the pros, maybe I can succeed too.

If they are both gone, then their signature game would be the 2013 Grey Cup where Chick terrorized Henry Burris and Weston Dressler scored the final touchdown.  There was another game against Ottawa where Dressler was like a pinball bouncing off of Redblack defensive backs that comes to mind.

Chick went to my church and would arrive with his eight kids and would talk with people afterwards. He just opened up a business in Regina for CrossFit training and made a lot of appearances for Juvenile Diabetes.

They came to Saskatchewan from elsewhere, but their character and their talent spoke to Rider football fans, and even to those who didn’t follow the team. They made a difference to this team and this province and to pretend someone like Maurice Price would fill those shoes is a crock.

In an ideal world, the two would retire as Riders following yet another Grey Cup win. But this is not an ideal world, and while I understand the decision, I don’t have to like it.

The Riders better win.