Photo credit: Facebook Saskatchewan Roughriders
It’s my Parting Shot for some Weekend Short Shots…..
Or, as some of you might say – finally, no more of The Fearless Predictor’s C-F-L picks and we get to hear some sports opinions – whether we like them or not! Just a final thought from T-F-P on the C-F-L, I correctly picked the winners in four of the five playoff games, including the Saskatchewan Roughriders winning the 112th Grey Cup Game. That goes along with being better than 60 per cent right during the regular-season so, all-in-all, a very good year for me – if I may say so myself!
I see where the Three Down Nation website says the Green and White have 45 pending free agents going into the off-season. On the surface, that may sound scary to many in Rider Nation, but it’s not that big of a deal considering most C-F-L contracts for players are one year in duration with no such thing as option years – as are the cases in the bigger pro sports leagues like the N-F-L, N-H-L, Major League Baseball and the N-B-A. In many respects, I like having players needing to prove themselves year after year in order to get a contract, rather than signing a multi-year pact for big money and then, seemingly, coasting through a year or two – or more – and collecting the big paycheque! While the 45 player pending free agent list seems to include all of Saskatchewan’s big names, the off-season will be a good time to determine who needs to return and who the Roughriders can get by without and replace with, maybe, a big-time free agent! It will be interesting!!
I can’t say I was surprised at looking the crowd shots from last Saturday’s Grey Cup Game and noticing that the majority of fans wearing Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ gear not cheering along with the Green and White faithful in attendance whenever the Riders did something good! You do know that rivalries run deep and cheering for the West Division champ doesn’t matter! I now a lot of Saskatchewan fans really didn’t want the Bombers to win the big prize over the last five years, just like Winnipeggers didn’t want the Roughriders to win this year! I mean, I detest the Edmonton Oilers and got great joy out of the Florida Panthers beating them for the Stanley Cup the last two springs. I’m not cheering for Edmonton just because they’re a so-called Canadian team! Same thing with the Riders and Winnipeg!!
Lots of luck to the Saskatchewan Huskies tomorrow in the 60th Vanier Cup in Regina – they’re going to need it in order to help Saskatoon football fans realize a trifecta for one year – that being the Riders, Hilltops and Huskies all winning national titles! Problem is, the Montreal Carabins are very good – they had to be in order to knock off the professional-like juggernaut in Laval just to get out of the Quebec Conference!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
