It's (almost) here!

It’s here! It’s here! Well, okay, it’s almost here.

After six long months of no football in Riderville (which makes this Rider Chick very grouchy!) the fact that training camp is a mere week away is like finding well-stocked cooler in the middle of a long desert trek.

The long awaited redemption season is here.

I’m calling it redemption season because really if there was ever a team on the planet that needed a season of redemption it’s the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Let’s review, shall we?

First we win the Grey Cup for the first time since I was in junior high (no comments on my age, please!).

Then we endure in ’08 what I call the broken season. As in broken BONES. Do you remember that? I lost track of how many Riders broke limbs. At one point the sidelines at Mosaic resembled a MASH unit. I’ve never witnessed so many fractured limbs in my life and quite frankly, I’d like never to again. I was watching tackles between my fingers.

We never made it to the Grey Cup that year and really no one seemed surprised and too terribly bothered by it.

Fast forward to Grey Cup 2009: Saskatchewan has the lead in the dying seconds of the game. As time ticks down, the final play of the game of the game is a Montreal field goal attempt for the win. Everyone lines up. Everyone holds their breath. The ball is snapped and the kick goes wide. Jubilation in Rider nation was short-lived however as the men in green were tagged for too many men on the field. The play was redone and this time there was  no missing the uprights.

After the searing pain of that loss subsided (truthfully, I don’t think it ever will), the Riders picked themselves up and got it together for the next season.

After a rather lackluster season, the Riders made it to the Big Dance again. But it was clear from the start it wasn’t meant to be and Montreal ended up Grey Cup Champions two years in a row. It was hard not to relive the disaster of 2009. And even the “broken” 2008 season seemed to taunt us, as Montreal accomplished what we had longed to do: win back to back.

But things were going to get better. We told ourselves this. We congratulated our team on being in the Grey Cup three years out of four. Revenues were up and things were bright and rosy in Riderville. Or so it seemed.

New coach. A few new players sprinkled in here and there. And all the old “championship-calibre” structure still there. Papa Miller still manned the front office and given his track record as coach we were all inclined everything would continue on its winning trajectory.

Nothing could have been further from reality.

Losing the first three games of season may have been a disappointment, but falling to 1-7 caused even the most die-hard fans to cry out: something’s rotten in the state of Riderville!

After losing 24-18 to Toronto (the resident basement dwellers), Coach Greg Marshall was fired.

With prejudice.

I won’t say that Marshall caused the pile of crap that was the 2011 season. That might be giving him too much credit. Then again, two gophers driving a manure spreader could have done less damage. Crap was everywhere. It stank and it stuck to everything. By the time the playoffs started the Riders’ 2011 season was already a rotting corpse, covered with crap. There was nothing left to do but bury it and wait for the flies to leave.

Even the players seemed relieved to walk off the field and wash that stink off of them. I still stay it is the reason it took so long for Gene Makowski (Big Mak) to announce his retirement. You want your last season to be your victory lap. Not a putrid pile of poo.

We all knew there would be wholesale changes. If anyone went into the off-season expecting the Green and White to look the same as they did last year, they were delusional.

On Monday, I’ll review some of the changes the Green and White made in the off-season and who to keep your eyes on in training camp.

For now mark Wednesday, May 30^th on your calendar. That’s the day the rookies will be reporting for training camp trying to make a splash before the veterans join in the fun on Saturday, June 2.

Til then… cheer long. Cheer loud. Go GREEN!