CLERMONT'S CORNER

Saskatchewan Roughriders' Jason Clermont
Photograph by: leaderpost.com, photo illustration

When pigs fly ... well, the swine flu: There is a lot to consider when deciding how to protect your family from the pandemic of swine flu. And yes, I know the name has been formally changed to H1N1, but that sounds more like a short, round robot from Star Wars than a worldwide contagion. Although I am not big on vaccinations and have never gotten the shot for seasonal flu, I am thinking that I may get the vaccine to help protect my family.

With the travel that we do for football, as well as the physical nature of the game, I would hate to catch the virus and spread it to our teenaged daughter, nine-month-old son or my pregnant wife. Also, we have to consider the possible risks of vaccination while sifting through mountains of information out there. Some of it is downright frightening.

Mohawk Vaccine?

The Rider Mohawk has been spreading around our locker room. In a mid-October Leader-Post article, Andy Fantuz explained: "Some guys grow playoff beards, we're growing Mohawks. It's good to see a bunch of guys buying into it. They don't care what other people think and it shows that we're in this together.'' At the time, only a few guys had braved the clippers and they were recruiting others to join them.

Chris Getzlaf claimed that he had to maintain a level of professionalism for his job at Investors Group. A couple of days later -- Hawked up. I stated that the idea was great to have the starting five receivers and quarterback show unity with their Mohawks (conveniently, I was not included in that group). Last week, that statement bit me back when I was inserted into the starting lineup. By game time, both Johnny Quinn and I were Hawked up. In that same Leader-Post article, our leader proved to be a bit of a soothsayer ...

"We're trying to build something here,'' said Durant, whose head is normally clean-shaven. "I know that we're going to have more guys jump on the wagon this week. Hopefully we'll have a team full of Mohawks going into the playoffs.'' It's getting awful close to the playoffs, Stevie Baggs and Joel Bell ...

Our last Wild Game was not on TSN: The annual Wild Game Dinner took place on Monday night for Riders players, staff and alumni. It is an event that combines food, fellowship, a few cold ones and some stiff competition. The annual crib tournament seems to feature Jeremy O'Day in the final year after year (Team Szarka took the title), and an 11-player poker tournament lasted for hours with Andy Fantuz claiming bragging rights. The main event of the night was the dishes of wild game served for dinner. Pheasant, elk, duck, venison, bison and many other wild game were served and enjoyed by all of us at the Seven Oaks.

(Clermont's Corner appears weekly during football season.)

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PS - HOW LONG DO YOU THINK IT WILL TAKE FOR THE FANS TO GET THE IDEA !!