Ridermania
Winnipeg - Thursday, September 1, 2011
The Riders are not only synonymous with the province of Saskatchewan but the hard luck team that in the fities, sixties and even the seventies was considered to be in to small a market to justify being part of the league is now the epitome of what makes the CFL successful in the professional sports world of North America.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders sell more franchise good than all of the rest of the teams in the whole league. In their last game, their seventh loss of the eight games they have played this season it seemed to us watching the game on television that Rider fans were in the majority in the Toronto stands.
The picture above was taken north of the Polo Park Mall in Winnipeg Sunday, August 21. It is advertising in Winnipeg a Facebook page that hypes the Rider Oath.
After losing their seventh game this season and now in a desperate situation about making the playoffs the team fired the head coach and the offensive coordinator put the team back in the hands of the aging Ken Miller who took the team to the Grey Cup in the last two seasons, both of which the team lost but that is quite another story. This week the hype has been building to monumental proportions as the spirits of the players are dramatically lifted with the departure of the coaches and they are going to give the very best team in the league this year, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a game to match all the other years of the so-called “Banjo Bowl”.
Winnipeg’s team is really good this year, as good as the Riders have been bad, their offence is clicking and the defence has rocked every team they have played. The Riders on the other hand have played some outstanding football this season but been inconsistent to the point of causing frowns in Riderville. Sunday the annual Labour Day classic could turn the season around for both teams. One way or another the Rider fans in every part of Canada will be yelling “Go Riders.”