By Mike Abou-Mechrek67 Wed, Nov 25 2009 COMMENTS(3) Out and About
After signing with the Riders on February 16th 2007 my wife, Kathie, and I flew into Regina for a weekend to get a feel for the city we were moving to and to find a home where we could raise our 6 month old daughter.
After signing with the Riders on February 16th 2007 my wife, Kathie, and I flew into Regina for a weekend to get a feel for the city we were moving to and to find a home where we could raise our 6 month old daughter.
As soon as the plane touched down we headed to Mosaic stadium to meet up with Coach Austin, who I played under in Ottawa, and introduce myself to the Rider staff. Upon opening the door to the office I looked down and on the matt I read “GREY CUP CHAMPIONS 1966 1989.” My first thought was “what kind of organization is this? They don’t even update their door mats to reflect when they won the Cup.” Then we took a few more steps and saw in big letters along the main wall of the office “GREY CUP CHAMPS 1966 1988” and a lot of empty space for more years to be added. So I asked Coach Austin why they didn’t put ALL the years up there. He said that WAS all the years, but not to worry, we were going to win another one that year….of course we were!
It’s now three years later and we have the opportunity to double the amount of GCs that we took years accumulating. Now the obvious place to look for the reason behind this recent success is at the player who has won more games in his 2 year career with the Riders than any other player in Rider history and who has left a winning attitude behind when he retired….ME. But I think that there is more to it than just me and my championship attitude.
There is no contesting Rider Pride. Being in a league where revenues are heavily based on attendance it serves to reason that we should have had the most success, not the least. This did not factor in the deep pocketed owners around the league signing guys to “personal service contracts”, paying guys with an unmarked envelope filled with cheques from miscellaneous holding companies (or so I’ve heard).
Not to diminish what Jim Hopson and ET have done for Riderville but the hard salary cap and the crack down on moneybag owners and their side contracts has defiantly helped the Green and White. There is now a level playing field across the league and we can now use our natural advantage to catch up to Edmonton in the Grey Cup accumulation department. It’s about time the best fans in Canada get what they have been so deserving of for so long.
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