I didn’t’ think theses words would ever come out of my mouth but I’m no longer a virgin Blogger how far I’ve come in the last few months.
My pal Stormin Norman asked me a while back if I would be interested in being a part of his new venture and add my sporting thoughts to a Blog and anyone who knows him realizes that you NEVER turn down the Late Night Vampire.
So here I go, off like a prom dress & go figure I’m going to start with a little football, if you’re a football fan especially of Canadian football the last weekend of the season was outstanding.
Lets begin with the high school championships at the Rogers Center, on November 25th 5 bowl games were played by some of the best teams in Ontario and the level of talent was tremendous. You couldn’t swing a dead cat around without hitting CIS scouts from across the country and there were a few scouts from US schools as well and that’s the way it should be quite frankly.
Then on Saturday the Vanier Cup was played in Laval with the two best teams in the country going head to head for national supremacy, the Calgary Dinos were heavy favorites over the Gaels from Queens, at least that’s what the experts were saying.
Now candidly the OUA never really gets the credit it deserves when it comes to their standard of play, Queens wasn’t suppose to have a chance against the defending champs from Laval and most didn’t give them much hope when it came to beating Calgary.
Well as the saying goes that’s why they play the games and frankly I’ve never bought into that crap about all the other conference are better than the OUA. Each conference has their weak sisters and always will have that’s the nature of the sport but more on that at another time.
Then Sunday the 97th Grey Cup game in Calgary and what a game it was, a tale of two half’s that was decided by a coaches sideline mistake not a missed FG, I’ve been asked how I thought the player would feel and honestly and thankfully I’ve never lost a big game so I don’t really know.
What I do know is football especially at the pro level is played with a great deal of emotion by very emotional people and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if there was still a few Rider players sitting in their dressing room at McMahon Stadium drinking a few Coors Lights with a very blank look on their faces.
Did the Riders loose the game or did the Als win it, that will be discussed for many years to come, the other thing that will last for many, many years & maybe forever is the bitter taste in the collective months of the players and coaches of what was theirs for a brief & glorious moment only to be yanked from their grasp for ever. Imagine this Grey Cup winning hats were already being handed out to the players on the Rider’s sideline once Duval missed the FG only to be taken back 45 seconds later.
I know what many might think or say, hey they’ll get another chance at the Cup and maybe some of them will but the chances that this complete group of players & coaches will be together again and experience everything they did this past season is slim and none & slim has left town.
You don’t ever get back the one you loose and this one will haunt them forever.