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Riders Rolling to Season’s End

Oct 18, 2016 | 7:23 PM

As the Toronto Blue Jays move relentlessly towards elimination, the Saskatchewan Roughriders may have already been eliminated, but could very well end up with a better record than the first place finisher in the Eastern Conference.

The Riders beat the Toronto Argonauts 29-11 to move to a 5-10 record and a four game winning streak over a Toronto Argonaut team that after cutting their four best receivers now looks like the Kelliher Kobras of the Saskatchewan High School Football Association.

The Riders used an aggressive defense which did not miss many tackles and took advantage of a nifty punt return for a touchdown by Roger Craig and even more impressively, a 150 yard rushing effort by former Edmonton running back, Joe McKnight in his first game in a Rider uniform.

That was perhaps sweet karmic redemption for McKnight who, in his last game in Edmonton colors, ironically against Saskatchewan, fumbled the ball twice. McKnight, a former University of Southern California Trojan football star, may not be the second coming of Kory Sheets who will hold a special place in Rider fans hearts, but his efforts last Saturday were an excellent first step.

As impressive as McKnight was, it was equally fun was seeing Ricky Collins Jr. back in the lineup making great one handed catches and Darian Durant moving the ball relatively effectively. The Riders spent the week between the Ottawa and Toronto games working out on the front law of Parliament Hill where even Prime Minister Trudeau came out to see them and run a passing play.

Now, I understand many don’t like Trudeau, but in the case of him coming out to see the Riders, it served to focus national attention on a 4-10 team at the time that is the biggest draw in the CFL for other teams. It was a marketing move that was sheer genius and as Chris Jones continues to create the conditions for long-term success he wants to see in Saskatchewan, stuff like this will pay off down the road.

Another interesting sight from the game was Henoc Muamba who against Ottawa was mostly concerned with playing special teams, but got into regular rotations on defense and got a sack. Muamba said he wanted to come to the Riders because Chris Jones defenses have fun and there is a lot for defensive players to do, and if that attitude is getting around, Saskatchewan will be a destination place for quality players.

Which brings us to whether the Riders can turn this into a five game winning streak and the news from Montreal that they released Duron Carter and Kenny Stafford, probably due to a salary dump although Carter seems unstable at the best of times, indicates the Riders should do well especially with Vernon Adams Jr. getting his first start.

Adams was formerly BC Lions property before being traded to Montreal for its first round pick. With Montreal in danger of losing its first round pick, probably now in 2018 because of being over the salary cap, it begs the question of whether Montreal managed to do what it has done because of smoke and mirrors because it is a privately owned team.

Clearly Jim Popp’s days in Montreal must be numbered and one would think this capitulation by Montreal, much like Toronto dumping its receiving corps, may be a prelude to Montreal being sold to local interests in the off-season. Attendance in Montreal has taken a bit of an upswing after the hiring of Jacques Chapdelaine, the first francophone coach in Montreal football season.

One might think the person to step up into a head coaching position in Montreal would be Anthony Cavillo, currently spotting in the Montreal booth, but I don’t think Cavillo is ready to take over the head man’s job yet. Marc Trestman, the former Montreal coach was let go as offensive coordinator by Baltimore, but will be collecting cheques until 2018 and if Trestman wants to wash the stink of his NFL experiences off, he might be tempted to go GM and Coach, like Chris Jones, Kent Austin and Wally Buono and that opportunity may present itself in Toronto, even though Jim Barker and Scott Milanovich signed contract extensions.

Toronto though was the subject of Rod Pederson’s recent column urging the team to move out of the city because the City of Toronto does not seem to care about the Argonauts. The Argos moved to BMO Field from the underground parking garage known as Skydome and that was supposed to help attendance.

It has to an extent, but the fact of the matter is the massive damage known as David Braley and his lack of marketing combined with having Toronto lose money as a tax break, has reduced the Argos fan base to cult band proportions, which many in Toronto would argue explains the Argos. It is going to take more than one season to turn the Argos around, and doing so means being attentive to both traditional and expanding the envelope when it comes to marketing for the Argos.

Hamilton and Ottawa draw full houses, so it would be foolish to say the problem is a “southern Ontario” dislike of the CFL, whose power base is basically in western Canada although BC is a bit worrisome and Calgary with its apathy with a 14-1-1 team is both surprising and not surprising.

Of course it would be sticking it other CFL teams by pointing out that Rider games at their respective fields result in an upswing of attendance because Rider fans in other cities enjoy coming out and cheering for their team.

But that would ignore the fact the Riders themselves had to rebuild and it was not always an easy process to get fans back to Taylor Field after years of successive mismanagement. This past year I’ve had the opportunity to see fans of other teams come to Taylor Field and hear from them what they think of how things are done here and the game day atmosphere at Taylor Field and next year at Mosaic Stadium has taken years to develop.

The Riders do a constant engagement of fans, from the Pros and Joes Evening where guys can pay $100 to get a tour of the team facilities, then do a question and answer with players, coaches and management to Ladies Night where women get an introduction to football in the same format. Not everything works with the Riders, but the team is constantly trying and refining and that spirit is something the Argonauts need to be doing.

What works in Saskatchewan may not work in Toronto, but there are markets in Toronto that have not been appealed to and if the team can be creative in attracting people in from those markets then the team has a chance to grow and develop and become “Saskatchewan Roughrider like” in its draw appeal in southern Ontario.

This is not a process that will take place overnight and until then, you will hear Rogers Sportsnet people constantly belittle the CFL because it doesn’t have that property and it used to interfere with the Blue Jays. That’s fine because the bottom line is the attendance in Toronto and making sure the fans come back is more important than making some Sportsnet hack happy.

So while Pederson says the CFL or the Argos are getting the respect they deserve, there are a few other facts to consider. The NFL is seeing its ratings drop this season, some due to the hellish and unreal US election, others to the lack of competitive match-ups and the muzzling of players for expressing themselves.

The NFL is telling its advertisers to wait until after the American election to see if the ratings go back up, which is when the playoff drives should start, maybe. But the NFL after seeing its bank accounts grow fat are finding out people are cutting the cord to their cable and among the victims are live sports.

So in an effort to keep eyes on the screens and advertisers coming back, the NFL is experimenting with televising games on Yahoo, Twitter or anything else to become more portable and accessible to fans. So if Toronto can access the new Canadian market by bringing in those potential fans who might be inclined to just being soccer fans, and reaching out to those markets, the team is adapting to a future that is changing from what is was 143 years ago when the Argos first were started.

The other day I had a conversation with an RCMP cadet who noticed my Grey Cup ring and asked me about it. She mentioned her family in Ottawa played flag football and were big Dallas Cowboy fans and I pointed out that west of Thunder Bay, the CFL is a big deal and we don’t take a back seat to anyone and if you are going to serve the public, at least out here, at least have a passing knowledge of the CFL for casual conversations.

I don’t blame her for her lack of appreciation for the CFL because of the way previous Ottawa ownership had blown up football in that town. It makes me think that if the CFL can get into Atlantic Canada, it may be able to do well considering the way junior hockey has done when it got introduced into the Maritimes.

So I think Rod Pedersen is wrong about moving the Argonauts because that is a knee jerk reaction to correcting a situation that took years to run down and will not be turned around in an instant. In an interesting way, the changing demographics in the United States and Canada indicate that simply wishing for things to be “great again” is not going to happen.

The CFL needs to be adaptive to the changing demographics and finding ways to appeal to families in those demographics. Fans need to feel welcomed at CFL games and provided with an experience that will get them coming back.

That public experience is what sells Rider football and with all the people from outside the province that I have brought or seen to the games in more years than I care to remember, they come away with a common reaction – WOW!

So if we can do that here, it can be done elsewhere. And that communal experience is what will allow the CFL to live and thrive now and in the future.