RIDERS LOVE TO HEAR SOMEONE SAY THEY CAN'T DO IT

EDMONTON — One of the tastiest morsels at Thursday's Grey Cup media breakfast was served up shortly after the final piece of bacon had been (burp) digested.

This correspondent waddled over to Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Jason Clermont, who was cordial and chatty. About five minutes into the conversation, Clermont referenced a pre-breakfast meeting that had included the Roughriders' quarterbacks, running backs and receivers.

The informal session apparently was more formal than usual, being that the players were resplendent in suits — recommended attire for the media breakfast — while discussing possible strategies and poring over footage of the Montreal Alouettes' defence in preparation for Sunday's CFL final.

"Those are things that we look forward to doing — finding ways to win, especially when the rest of the league doesn't feel like we should be,'' Clermont said after explaining the purpose for the meeting, which was over and above the coach-driven sessions.

Sensing a column in the making, a salivating scribe asked Clermont if he cared to elaborate.

"You draw your own conclusions,'' he responded. "After we beat Calgary last week, we had two all-star defensive backs (Brandon Browner and Dwight Anderson) talk about our receiving corps in not such a great light. So you draw your own inferences as to where the respect lies there.
"We take pride in the fact that no matter what people are saying or how they feel, we just win. We want to continue to do that. The way we do that is we work together and we come up with plans and find different wrinkles in defences and things we can exploit, and try to get those into our game plan.''

It quickly became clear over breakfast that the skeptics have been noted, and hopefully discredited.

"But that's not why we do it,'' Clermont emphasized. "I think that's just our identity. A lot of the guys who are on this team are guys who were counted out or dismissed as being too small, too slow. Chris Getzlaf . . . where did he get drafted? The fifth round? Rob Bagg was undrafted. Weston Dressler is an under-sized player who a lot of NFL scouts wouldn't have even taken a look at out of the University of North Dakota. We've got guys like that all across the board. They're not trying to prove anything, but they've had to work a little harder, a little bit extra, to be able to stand out with their play, as opposed to maybe standing out with their physical attributes.''

Darian Durant is among those players. At 5-foot-11, he is hardly out of Central Casting when it comes to quarterbacks. Yet, he has reached the Grey Cup to punctuate both of his seasons as the Roughriders' unrivalled starting pivot.

"That's what makes us successful — when we hear naysayers, when we hear people say what we can't do,'' said Durant, whose team has won three consecutive games since losing four in a row. "We had people telling us about the kind of slump we're in when we're thinking the complete opposite. I think that's motivation for us.

"You hear everyone say we're lucky, and this and that. Well, luck didn't throw or catch a touchdown pass. Luck didn't run into the end zone. That's us being good and making plays. I think when people don't give us the credit, it kind of motivates us to go out there and prove people
wrong.''

Durant was then asked about the fact that the Riders had only two all-Canadians — slotback Andy Fantuz and safety James Patrick. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers had four CFL all-stars while winning an equal number of games.

"That's fine. Where's Winnipeg?'' Durant said. "You can have as many all-stars as you want to. If you're playing for individual goals, then you're playing the wrong game, because 12 guys are on the field at the same time, and this is the ultimate team sport. They can have MVP. They can have all-stars. They can have league leaders. They can have what they want. We're where we're supposed to be, and we're where they wish they were.''

This is clearly a source of satisfaction.

"It's just a great feeling to prove people wrong,'' Durant said with a smile. "When someone has something negative to say about you when they don't even know you, you just take it and you want to stick it up their you-know-what, because, 'What have I done to you for you to tell me that I can't do it or that I'm terrible or that I'm sorry? No one says that about your kids, so why would you say that about someone else's kids?'

"When someone does it, it gives you that extra motivation — not only for yourself, but for your mom, who has raised you the right way and has taught you not to talk about people and things like that. And when people do it, you want to stick it in their face.''

rvanstone@leaderpost.com
Leader-Post sportswriter Murray McCormick will be tweeting Roughrider news this week from Edmonton. You can follow him at twitter.com/McCormickMurray
Don't forget, the leaderpost.com will be frequently updating you during the Grey Cup game on Twitter at twitter.com/leaderpost and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/reginaleaderpost.
© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-PostRead more: http://www.leaderpost.com/sports/VANSTONE+Naysayers+motivate+Riders/3885499/story.html#comments#ixzz16MUe42Xe