Remember in A League of Their Own when Tom Hanks states “There’s no crying in
baseball!”?
Well, there was some crying in football on Sunday in Regina.
In what was possibly the most emotional event of any type that I have had the
pleasure to attend, the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeated the Calgary
Stampeders 26 – 24 to advance to the Nov. 18 West Final in Vancouver.
I saw grown men sit crying in joy at games end, and I felt
wonderful for them. It had been a long times between playoff games in
Saskatchewan, and there had not been a home playoff victory since 1976. The
emotion was clearly pent-up, and a very large amount released during the
suspenseful contest.
The Riders came to play this day, and struck quickly when D.
J. Flick put a neat move on his defender to score on Saskatchewan’s first play
from scrimmage. When Calgary QB Henry Burris then immediately fumbled into
Rider hands on his first series, it looked like the rout was on.
But give Calgary some credit. They held the Riders to a
field goal on that possession, and hung in there long enough to keep the
Saskatchewan faithful on the edge until the very end. The score was 19 –
7 Riders at halftime, but could have almost as easily been 26 – 0 for the
Green at that point. The Stamps picked away for the entire second half, scoring
a major with 53 seconds left to pull within two. An onside kick was negated due
to an offside penalty, and, to the relief of an entire province, clear MOP
Kerry Joseph ran out the clock.
The plays from scrimmage, really, were just a part of the
story. The Mosaic Stadium crowd was ready, fueled by a noisy pep rally and
jammed practice field tailgating prior to the start. The noise began well
before the kickoff, and never once let up on any play the Stampeders ran. Henry
Burris looked a bit confused the entire afternoon, and I for one could not
blame him. The nineteen years of frustration melted away in the screams of a
fine November evening.
I’ve already mentioned to several that it is very difficult
to recount in words the emotions of the day. A spring chicken I am not, but it
is hard to pull out many events in my life matching the tone of this Rider day.
As a person on edge about flight times (my plane arrived in Regina 2 hours
prior to kickoff) I was a bit on the raw edge of nerves anyway. The crowd on
the practice field was gigantic, many times the normal, and the excitement was
as obvious as the watermelons on their heads. The stadium atmosphere was simply
electric; I can compare it in my experience only to the 1991 Minnesota Twins
World Series triumph.
But, in the end, the mix of raw emotions came together for
me. I think I understood my own feelings, and can easily state I was extremely
moved by the multiple facets of the afternoon. Finally, without words, but just
from the post-game expressions of my game companions Joe and Nancy McNeill and
Will Chabun, the many edges of the day transformed into a single, peaceful
conclusion. You see, the best thing about the day was simple to absorb –
those fine folks who live in Saskatchewan, some friends, some strangers, but
all of them Rider fans, finally had their well-deserved day.
Had Tom Hanks been there, he might have cried, too.