Five days before the Grey Cup Championship Game this Sunday, Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach Ken Miller revealed that he suffered from prostate cancer 2 years earlier and underwent treatment during the football season. What a stroke of genius, deflecting attention from his team so that they could focus on the upcoming game against the Montreal Alouettes.
However, this tactic has not fooled us at Head to the Net, and we are not going to lose direction! Don’t be distracted, people, from the fact that Darian Durant is playing in his first Grey Cup Final and the weight of the world is on his shoulders. Don’t forget to ask Jason Clermont about his struggles this year, and how he has faced those inner demons that haunt his dreams every night. Remember to remind each player that their General Manager, Eric Tillman, is embroiled in a sexual assault case, and find out how it has affected the team’s mindset throughout the season. Tell Chris Getzlaf that his brother has a championship ring from the NHL, but he has yet to achieve the ultimate success in his sport.
All of these facts should be brought up and explored before the game, with no stone left unturned. Surviving scrutiny like this is a large part of winning in any professional sport, so let’s not give the Roughriders a pass just because their coach was not well a few years ago. Fans: if you see the players in the street, remind them of what’s at stake! Media: to use a football term – send the blitz!
This post was not intended to make light of the serious issue that is prostate cancer. In fact, I have been growing a mustache for the "Movember" prostate cancer awereness fundraiser, and if you would like to learn about or donate to the cause, please visit my "Mo Space" here.
Four years later, he’s back after a failed attempt in the NFL and an unsuccessful, unproductive year with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The Lions reach out the olive branch largely out of desperation, as both Buck Peirce and Jarious Jackson are fighting injuries.
Printers is desperate for a new beginnining, and claims to have spent the last eight months reforming himself, as he states in Lowell Ulrich’s article in the Vancouver Province:
“I've been in a lab… trying to figure things out; what does a quarterback do, what does he say, how does he handle things? Have I changed? We'll see.”
Perhaps the Tiger-Cats told him to find a solution to his problems, unfortunately he must have taken it the wrong way:
If you listen to Vancouver sports radio, or read the sports section in the Vancouver Sun or Province, you will realize that the city is in crisis mode. The BC Lions are 1-4 and everyone is calling for the head of GM/Head Coach Wally Buono. It is very reminiscent of what happened to Canucks Head Coach Alain Vigneault during a losing skid in January.
The Team 1040 Radio Station fields calls like, “I think Buono’s over the hill. He used to be good but he’s lost his passion.”
And, “Buono has always had a talented team and that’s why he’s done well. He can’t succeed without a very talented group.”
I’m not going to get into refuting these ideas, because there’s no need. The point I want to make is that the majority of radio callers are going to be negative and this is because of who they are. The hardcore sports fan is a blue collar worker, to whom the local sports team is most important. He or she does not have a very balanced approach to life and is from a largely uneducated segment of the population. As such, he lacks the scope to understand that a loss in any given week, or even 3 weeks in a row, is not the end of the world.
The Lions have over 20,000 season ticket holders, and the almost all of them attend every game in support of the local team. They understand that Coach Buono sports a 75-37-1 record as Lions Head Coach and is ranked second in the CFL in all-time wins with 227. They comprehend the idea of a rebuilding phase and a movement to younger players. It’s just too bad that instead of calling the radio, these people just sit back and listen, chuckling at the mindlessness of the comments and focusing on the more important parts of life.
