Monday Morning Sentimonies: I Have A Problem

My name is Rider Prophet and I have a confession…I’m addicted to Rider football (I’m also addicted to caffeine, whiskey, rage-ahol, sports-related gambling and a few other things I should probably seek help for, but that’s a topic for another day). 

It’s been almost 7 months since my last fix. I went through withdrawals the whole offseason.  At first even the smallest things were enough to keep me going: a free agent signing, new Rider paraphernalia at the LB, the draft. But eventually it got to the point where only the real thing would do.

The opening of training camp helped quell my cravings for the real thing… for a bit. But after 13 days, I’m just not getting the same high I used to. My cravings have gotten so bad that not only I’m actually looking forward to a Rider football game that will dominated by players that will soon be cut … I’m also looking forward to watching other teams’ field their future cuts just so I can get my football fix.

While the right thing to do would be to try and conquer my addiction, I’ve never been big on doing the right thing. And besides, I am just going to relapse anyway when the preseason kicks off on Friday so I’m just going to accept my fate, get pumped for Friday, drink some whiskey, punch a cat and bet on elementary school track meets.

Until we actually get to see the players in game action, there’s not a lot of news coming out of training camp. Its same old, same old. I guess on one hand we should be happy that training camp seems to be running smoothly and the competition is still fairly close. On the other, as someone who blogs on a regular basis (I said regular… not timely), it would be nice if I had something to talk about.

Oh well, Friday will be here soon enough… and we will all get to return to our beloved football stadium to watch out beloved Riders (as well as the not so beloved ones… and even Ryan Dinwiddie).

In the meantime, there are a few good stories from around the league that warrant my patent-pending hilarious commentary on.

- The Calgary Stampeders signed a player called Scorpio Babers. Scorpio! As if that is not one of the awesomest names ever! (**Note: Upon further review, Scorpio’s mom apparently named him after a character on General Hospital.  Though the association with a soap opera certainly drops it down the scale of manliness, I still contend Scorpio is a great name)

- Word out of Montreal is that the starting kicker job is Sean Whyte’s to lose. He is getting significantly more reps in practice… which of course is royally pissing of everyone’s favourite prima donna Sandro DeAngelis. Is it wrong to take so much pleasure in this guy’s pain? It would be harder to hate the guy if he wasn’t so full of himself and delusional about his awesomeness. First he gets cut from Hamilton since they paid him as the league’s top kicker but his performance didn’t crack the top 5. Rather than be a man and accept the fact that he had a bad year, he blamed it on being distracted by doing home renos. Now he shows up in Montreal and is insulted when they don’t immediately appoint his as the unquestioned starter. “What me compete for a job? But I’m the best ever. You should be grateful to have me.” I wonder if we all chipped in some money if we could convince Burke Dales to fly out there and punch Sandro? I would donate heavily to that cause.

- BC has some disgruntled vets of their own. Apparently Dante Marsh and Ryan Phillips are mad that Wally chose to extend the contracts of some players and not them. . How dare he expect a player to adhere to the contract terms they both agreed to!Didn't Buono know that when Phillips and Marsh said they agreed to a 3 year deal what they meant was a 2 year deal that automatically got extended indefinitely? 

PS - Now that I have defended Wally Buono, I feel dirty and need to go take a shower.