Good Day fellow Rider Fans. Rider Prophet here with my thoughts on what has been a crazy week for the Rider Nation. There's so much to talk about. I don't even know where to start. I'm completely overwhelmed. I feel like an attractive cousin at a Winnipeg family reunion.
The Riders endured rain, lightning, a power outage and a 1 hour delay and came up with a huge come from behind victory over the Eskimos to extend our winning streak to 4. Not bad for a team that was missing 2 D-lineman, 2 DBs and the league's best O-lineman. The game was close the whole way but a big catch and run by Dominguez followed by a 2 yard run from Kerry Joseph for the major turned out to be the difference.
The truly amazing thing though was the fans. About 16,000 toughed out the storm to see the final 13 minutes of the game and when the game was finally restarted the crowd was louder than any sell-out game I've been to! At the end of the game Kitwana Jones was partying in the stands with the fans and Eric Tillman was waving a Rider flag on the sidelines, completely drenched, just like the fans. It was a moment you will always remember. After the game, star receiver Matt Dominguez called the Rider fans a bunch of crazy yahoos and that's about bang on. Some fans never even left their seats and most people seemed more annoyed at the lack of alcohol sales during the delay than they were with the rain or the lack of power.
The win leaves us with the CFL's best record at 6-2. The last time the Riders started 6-2 the Toronto Blue Jays had just been created, movie goers got their first glimpse of a boxer named Rocky Balboa and ABBA's Dancing Queen ruled the airwaves. That's right, we are off to our best start since 1976 and spirits are flying higher than the CBC staffer that made the decision to not broadcast the 4th quarter must have been.
And just when you thought the weekend couldn't get any better... along comes Eric Tillman to prove you wrong. Not being satisfied with nabbing an O-lineman, WR, Punter and the majority of the secondary from Hamilton, ET decided he also wanted their kick returner and a young Canadian receiver. That's right ladies and gentlemen COREY HOLMES is coming home!! Kick returner, running-back, slot-back, humanitarian... Corey is the complete package. Corey Holmes in Hamilton looked about as right as Bob Poley playing for the Stampeders, Bobby Jurasin suiting up for the Toronto Argonauts, or Roell Preston on a football field, but fortunately Corey is now headed back to a team that might actually utilize him correctly.
A part of me does feel for Jason Armstead though. It certainly can't be easy to go from being a member of the CFL's best team to being a lowly Ti-Cat. He's a nice guy and quality player and I for one wish him well. The one redeeming thing here is that given Jason's experience playing for the Renegades at least he's used to disappointment.
There's still a lot to talk about but I will save it for another day.
This is the Rider Prophet signing off...
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