WILLIE JUST WANTS TO HAVE FUN BUT BOMBERS AREN’T LAUGHING
Willie Jefferson was robbed!
Reason No. 1: The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ defensive end returned an interception at least 130 yards for a touchdown and still did not receive credit for a Cfl-record jaunt. (We’re joking here, but please play along with the fake news. This is not serious journalism.)
Reason No. 2: Scandalously, Jefferson wasn’t named one of the CFL’S three Top Performers of the Week on Tuesday, despite his all-galaxy performance in Saturday’s 32-27 victory over the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The three stars were offensive players, all of whom enjoyed superlative games. But, with football being the ultimate team sport, how could the defensive side of the ball — and especially Jefferson — be ignored?
Against Winnipeg, he had the aforementioned pick-six, a tackle for a loss and a crucial fourthquarter sack. He nearly picked off another pass. And, oh yeah, he pressured Bombers quarterback Matt Nichols on a play that resulted in an interception by Samuel Eguavoen, who raced 103 yards to pay dirt.
Also consider the timing of Jefferson’s touchdown. The Bombers were leading 10-0, and seemingly poised to fatten the lead, when the towering Jefferson plucked a pass from the sky and took off toward the end zone.
It was at least a 10-point turnaround for Saskatchewan, given that Winnipeg was within range of a chip-shot field goal before Jefferson flipped the field.
Yet, the Top Performers of the Week were Edmonton Eskimos teammates Mike Reilly (397 passing yards, three TD passes, three TD runs), Eskimos receiver Duke Williams (seven catches, 172 receiving yards, one TD), and Hamilton Tiger-cats receiver Brandon Banks (six receptions, 153 yards, two TDS).
Reilly was a no-brainer after piloting Edmonton to a 48-42 victory over the front-running Calgary Stampeders. Williams and Banks also had fine games, but couldn’t one of them have been bumped in favour of Jefferson?
After all, he owned the Bombers, not to mention the 15th annual Banjo Bowl.
Jefferson’s first big play was his interception return — a 97-yarder, officially.
So what’s with the earlier reference to 130 yards?
Well, he ran at least that far while taking an indirect, unimpeded and rather leisurely route to the end zone.
Jefferson started off on the left side of the field, near the numbers, before crossing midfield and veering to his right — performing some Walter Payton-like high steps along the way — and eventually crossing the goal-line near the numbers on the right side.
It took him 15.56 seconds to travel 97 yards, factoring in the left-to-right detour.
“Just watching him run, I was like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ ” Roughriders quarterback Zach Collaros said with a chuckle after Tuesday’s practice.
“It was very interesting. Willie’s a funny guy. I think his justification was that he was trying to run the clock out, but there were 13 minutes left in the second quarter.
“He’s just an unbelievable player. That group (on defence), they’ve been lights-out all year long. It’s fun to watch those guys play.”
That includes Eguavoen, whose subsequent pick-six — covering six more yards, statistically, than Jefferson’s return — consumed a breezy 11.64 seconds.
Why did Jefferson take his sweet time en route to the end zone?
“I made one of the offensive linemen miss and then it was pretty much like a foot race between me and Matt Nichols to the numbers,” Jefferson explained. “He missed his tackle and then it was just me and grass from there.
“I was pretty much having a good time from there, just trying to run it in for the touchdown, even though I almost gave Coach Jones a heart attack on the sideline. It was just all in good fun.”
Chris Jones, however, wasn’t exactly clicking his heels over the showboating.
“It’s not what we’re about,” said the Roughriders’ head coach and general manager, whose team sports a 7-4 record and a fourgame winning streak. “We need to get the ball in the end zone.
“At this point, we haven’t really done anything other than just win some football games, right?
“These games are too important. It’s good for him to have fun and enjoy playing, that’s for sure, but we’ve got to make sure that we take care of the football, as well.”