Rivals face off in Western showdown
From Jon Cornish’s malfunctioning trousers on the Mosaic sidelines to the provocative verbal callisthenics of Dwight Anderson here at McMahon.
From the shimmering/ simmering Kory SheetsCornish overland duel to those five helmet-to-helmet playoff collisions over the past seven Novembers.
From the busloads of watermelon-heads who’ll make their way east from Balgonie and Wapella, Esterhazy and, of course, Regina, to the transplanted sodbusters who’ve migrated to the opportunity-laden oil-soaked foot of the Rocky Mountains.
The Canadian Football League Western showdown is a match that’s as unavoidable as the changing colour of the leaves.
“Fated,” is how Cornish described the almost utter inevitability six days from kickoff.
“A lot of people,” reckoned Calgary Stampeders’ DB Brandon Smith with a soft, knowing nod of the head, “predicted this game would come. “And here it is.” Yes, indeedy. Saints be praised.
Why, even Dwight Anderson, channelling his inner Nostradamus in the wake of the Stamps’ first-placeclinching 29-25 conquest over the Saskatchewan Roughriders back on Oct. 26th at McMahon Stadium, had an inkling, hollering into TV cameras at nearoperatic levels: “We’re com- ing here and we’re going to beat them. Period. We’re the better team. “Calgary SUCKS!” As rivalries go, within its milieu, this is reaching epic levels; like Coke and Pepsi, Microsoft and Apple, Reason and Emotion, Man and Nature, Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.
“Saskatchewan earned this chance,” Smith said matter-of-factly. “Watching (last Sunday’s semifinal) on TV, B.C. played very well, did a lot of things right, but we all know games are won in the fourth quarter and Saskatchewan made the plays then, when they had to. “So 1 vs. 2. “It’s always a high-energy game whenever we play them.”
The last, pre-West Final salvo heard in the uncivil war was Anderson’s on-field vow 17 days ago to return to McMahon and exact sweet revenge. Predictably, the chatty cornerback suffered a bout of selective amnesia worthy of a mob informant subpoenaed to the witness stand when asked about the incident Sunday.
“What was that? What did I say?” Anderson, suddenly as innocent as a Botticelli angel, winked at reporters in Regina. “I won’t even go there. Calgary is the best team right now and they are the Number 1 team and our records are out.
“They got the bye and they were at home watching us. Much respect. I’ll give them respect where respect is due.”
With the echoes of Anderson’s defiant promise still in the air as they reconvened Tuesday to begin countdown preparations, some Stampeders were willing to let the matter slide, simply let bygones be bygones. Some. “That’s D.A.,” shrugged Stamps’ linebacker Keon Raymond. “That’s why he’s always high in Trash Talker of the Year voting, right? Whatever. We just wanna play football.”
“Dwight,” downplayed Smith, “is Dwight. He talks. But never means too much harm by it. He loves the game and that’s just his way of getting fired up. He’s an emotional guy. I played with D for a couple years and he says a lot of things on the field but, you know, he still has a good heart.
“The things he says never surprises me. It’s just a heat-of-the-moment type thing. I don’t think there’s anything too mean meant by it, y’know?’
No, actually, Jon Cornish, for one, doesn’t know.
“That’s enough,” murmured the league’s rushing king. “That’s enough. Certain words are never forgotten. I’m not saying that’s the only motivation for this week, but ... I have a lot of respect for the Roughriders. They had a really good season. I’d never disrespect them like that.
“I tend to harbour sentiments for a long time. And finally I have the opportunity to ... settle them.”
The sudden silence emanating out of Regina this week, Cornish added, isn’t in the least surprising. Not with the stakes as high as they’ve become.
“I mean, that’s one thing in football. Trash talking is something you really don’t do, especially when the team you’re going to be playing against has the opportunity to, well, you know, HIT you. I mean, in
But if you make a football player mad he has the licence … to come back at you JON CORNISH
basketball and stuff they can’t hit you, they can’t take out their anger. But if you make a football player mad he has the licence, within the rules of the game, to come back at you. So I was anticipating they wouldn’t say anything this week. And it looks like they won’t.”
And on the subject of bad feelings, he shrugged off any lingering resentment from RiderNation over his mooning incident of a year ago: “I would say if they still harbour hard feelings against me, that’s on them.”
History. Baggage. Ill will. Competitive balance.
What on earth more could anyone ask for?
With the Grey Cup slated for Nov. 24th at Mosaic (It’ll Always Be Taylor Field) Stadium, the Stampeders not only have the opportunity to reach back-to-back championship games, to atone for the deflating loss to the Argos at Rogers Centre a year ago, but also to foreclose on their archrivals’ dressing room, reserved for the home standing West Division champions, a particularly galling prospect for anyone who bleeds green.
“Yeah, that’d be good,” cooed Raymond. “Real good. I’ve been on the wrong end of that feeling. In 2009, when the Grey Cup was here in Our House, they beat us (in Regina) and then came here and took over our dressing room” — following a 27-17 Rider triumph in the West final. “Believe me, that is no fun. No fun at all.
“I’m glad to say we knocked that room down. Put up a new one.
“That’s your home, right? And a man’s home is his castle. You don’t want somebody else in your home, your castle, your locker-room, particularly if that somebody beat you for right to play in the biggest game of the season.
“These games, they never get old. Doesn’t matter how old you are or how long you’ve been playing. These games are why you play in the first place.
“Six days to go? That long ...?
“Man, I wish it was tomorrow.”
Amen to that.