Riders vs. Ti-Cats II – This Time Its Personal

Sunday the Ti-cats roll into Mosaic Stadium for round 2 of a home and home. With a win the Riders can lock up their first home playoff game since 1988. They would also be only 1 more win away from their best record in an 18 game season. More importantly a win would mean that we did not lose to Hamilton this season, forever separating us from crappy teams like Winnipeg and Calgary.

You want a sign that things are going good in Riderville? How about the fact that we managed to sell out a game in late October, where the forecasted high is 5 degrees against the worst team in the league?

While fans are doing everything they can to attend this game. Players are doing everything they can to avoid it. Abou-Mechrek, Jones and McCullough tried their best to get suspended for this game, Cates' foot is "hurt", Washington's "uncle died". One Rider even went so far as to cut off his fingers so he didn't have to play the Ti-cats again.

All joking aside, best wishes to Chris Szarka as he recovers from a nasty table saw accident. On the bright side, at least now Szarka won't take any holding penalties... too soon?

With Casey Printers out this week's game won't be near as close as last time. Look for the Riders to give the home crowd a good show and lock up the home playoff game.

Of course any Rider talk this week wouldn't be complete without mentioning the myriad of fines assessed to the team and its staff. When all was said and done fines were handed out to Abou-Mecherek, Jones, Tillman, Austin and organization as a whole. Word on the street is that the league will use the proceeds of these fines to help improve the reffing situation in the CFL. I think this is a great way to get the most mileage out of the money, since apparently a donation of this size to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind is fully tax deductible.

In other news... Sean Millington?! Are you serious? For some reason when I read that Millington was coming out of retirement to play for the Argos I got a feeling of deja-vu... Maybe it's because the exact same thing happened in 2005. Millington joins a reputable list of has-beens that the Argos have taken a chance on this season. In fact, the Argo's contacted the Rider Prophet about coming to play for them but they broke off talks when they found out that I hadn't been cut by another CFL team yet. Their loss I suppose.

I'll wrap things up this week with a joke...
A guy walks into a bar with a dog under his arm. The dog is wearing a Ti-Cats jersey, helmet and is holding Ti-Cat pompoms. The bartender says, "Hey! No pets allowed in here! You'll have to leave!" The man begs, "Look I'm desperate. We're both big fans, my TV is broken, and this is the only place we can see the game!" After securing a promise that the dog will behave and warning him that if there is any trouble they will be thrown out, the bartender relents and allows them to stay in the bar and watch the game. The game begins with the Ti-cats receiving a kickoff. They march down field, stall at the 30 and kick a field goal. With that the dog jumps up on the bar and begins walking up and down the bar giving everyone a high-five. The bartender says, "Wow that is the most amazing thing I've ever seen! What does the dog do if they score a touchdown?"
"I don't know," replies the owner, "I've only had him for four years."