Rod Pedersen
CFL.ca
It was a really weird day covering Canada’s Team. The decision by veteran fullback Chris Szarka to enter politics probably was the biggest headline-grabber (see below), but there’s also an issue with slotback Jason Clermont.
I don’t know what Clermont’s intention was with his comment on Twitter where he chastised the Buffalo Bills for signing Terrell Owens but not using him, but it certainly got people talking.
I don’t know Jason very well and likely never will but you CAN’T tell me he wasn’t drawing a parallel between his own situation, and Owens catching no passes for Buffalo on Sunday. Was it an attempt at humour? I’m being told that it was. And if I thought he felt his minimal role with the Riders in 2009 was the least bit funny, I could actually go along with that assessment.
Jason’s been nothing but professional and cordial towards me not only this season but throughout his whole career so I’m not about to pass judgment on him now or anytime soon with regards to what he writes on Twitter, or whatever he chooses to do with his life.
Whatever. It is what it is.
But pretty much everywhere I go, several times a day, people are asking me about Clermont’s “role” with the Riders and why he isn’t used more. Certainly Jason has a LOT of fans in this town and they’re upset he isn’t getting the ball.
CKRM/Access 7 Rider analyst Marshall Hamilton (a former Rider DB) tackled the issue on In The Huddle last night:
“I suspect there’s a subtle message there (Clermont’s comments on Twitter) but none of us can prove that. I think Jason Clermont has been a tremendous athlete, a tremendous CFLer and a tremendous gentleman his entire career. And he had some remarkable years in British Columbia but what happened was Wally Buono saw a guy who was getting on in years, whose body was beaten up because of the way he played, and he was in the declining years in terms of his talent and ability to contribute. So he decided not to re-sign him.”
“The Saskatchewan Roughriders, in my opinion, had no choice but to sign Clermont even though they may have, and this is just my opinion, they may have had the same opinion as Wally Buono in terms of how beat up he is and his declining years. But it would’ve been a public relations nightmare if they had not signed Jason Clermont and he had wound up playing elsewhere.”
“So I think this season has panned out the way the Roughriders believed it would. They didn’t believe he would play a prominent role in their offence and he hasn’t. But I believe he’s played a solid role at the practice field, in their locker room and is still contributing. And the season’s not over! I think you still will see Jason Clermont contribute in a big way in the last six games of the regular season and perhaps even make some big plays in the post-season.”
ELECTING SZARKA
The news broke Tuesday about Chris Szarka running in the next civic election on Twitter too!
You can check it out at www.twitter.com/ReginaElections.
I hate when sports crosses over into news! I never know how to handle it. CKRM newsman Roger Currie is covering this story in the news this morning.
Good for Zark. I’m sure he’ll get lots of votes.
TWEET THIS
I’m sure you’re one of the many that’s NOT into Twitter. Charles Barkley said on Fox Sports Radio yesterday that Twitter’s for losers; those who write on it, and those who read it to get status updates of celebrities.
That’s Charles’s opinion.
But when something breaks like the Szarka news or the Clermont comments, the media has to take action. That’s JUST the way it is.
And Twitter will be great until it’s over-used and taken advantage of and becomes an annoyance like Facebook has.
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was on Howard Stern recently saying he just sits by his computer all day refreshing his Twitter comments page and is making a living blogging about what the celebrities are writing about themselves on Twitter.
Weird, but that’s where we’re at as a society.
OFFENDING SHOLOGAN
Roughriders defensive tackle Keith Shologan was an entertaining guest on 620 CKRM’s Sportsline last night at Capital Ford Lincoln at Rochdale & Pasqua.
Forgive the Riders for being somewhat offended when people refer to Saturday’s 23-20 victory at Edmonton as an “ugly win”. Rider coach Ken Miller seemed a bit put off by a reporter’s comment on that upon the team’s return to Regina Sunday and Shologan agrees.
“I’d have to get offended too,” Shologan offered. “It might’ve been ugly from the perspective that we didn’t score a lot of points. But our defence played awesome football and our offence ran it well and threw the ball well. We didn’t get into the endzone because of penalties or some other reason, but I would say our defence played well so from that perspective it was a beautiful win.”
Point being; the 31-27 home loss to Edmonton the week before may have been a little easier on the eyes but it was a loss. What would you rather have?
Rider coach Ken Miller gave his team Monday off as far as being on the practice field, but the players spent the day in meetings at Mosaic Stadium preparing for Friday’s match at Vancouver against the B.C. Lions.
Shologan said they aren’t concerned over who the Lions may play at quarterback in this one; Buck Pierce or Casey Printers.
They’re just looking forward to the game!
RECORD CROWD
The 62,517 fans in attendance at Saturday’s 23-20 Rider win at Commonwealth Stadium made an all-time CFL attendance record for a regular season game. Congratulations to those who were there! You were a part of history, and that record may stand forever.
ALTHOUGH, this week we head to Vancouver for a Friday Night Football clash between the 7-5 Riders and the 5-7 B.C. Lions.
Now IF Casey Printers gets the nod at QB for the Lions this week, we could be looking at another monster crowd for a Rider game but it’s doubtful B.C. Place will hit what we had in Edmonton this weekend.
It would be nice though.
PASSING THE LITTLE GENERAL
When Rider OT Gene Makowsky takes to the field Friday night in Vancouver, he’ll tie Ron Lancaster for the second-most career games played by a Roughrider at 245.
Roger Aldag remains #1 in that category but Geno may catch him before all is said and done.
HALFTIME HEROICS
A hearty congrats to the Eskimos for their stunning halftime show Saturday which featured 300 current and former cheer team members and cheerleaders doing one giant routine.
Six decades of Eskimo cheerleaders were out there aged 20 to 80.
It was like The Golden Girls meets Baywatch.
For some reason I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
Nice job. Maybe the Riders can do that some time.
THE NEXT GENERATION
I’ve asked it before and never got an answer so I’ll ask it again.
How did this younger generation of fans get turned onto the Riders? Our Edmonton hotel was full of 20- and 30-something aged fans clad in Green & White making all kinds of noise.
Teenagers and kids are Rider crazy too. What flipped the switch?
In the 90s, it seemed like only the baby boomers and grey hairs cared (and a few of you younger diehards).
I bring this up because last week on In The Huddle, Dan Farthing said he wished he could’ve played in this era of Rider Pride, rather than 1991 to 2001 where crowds at Taylor Field were routinely 16,000 to 17,000.
Was it the winning? Was it the marketing? Was it Kent Austin?
What got you turned onto the Riders if you weren’t before?
THESE are the questions t
hat keep me up at night. Not the X’s and O’s of the game of football.
RIDER AIR
You would’ve liked this:
The flight attendant on the mic on the way home from Edmonton asked for a round of applause from all Rider fans on the airplane.
There was a round of applause, and the pilot dinged the bell too!
I wonder if other CFL teams get this.
Who knows, but it’s fun to be with the Riders when things like this happen.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Comments have been enabled for this article. Please click here for the CFL’s commenting policy guidelines.
