Friday Rant

With the Riders on bye I’m going to take this opportunity to get something off my chest. Now I am a man known for his rants. Ask me about Jon Ryan, Brandon Bridge or any of the other players to grace the Prophet hatred list and just watch the words start flying as my blood pressure visibly increases. Add a little whiskey and things really get going. But most of my rants are football related.

I guess today’s rant is football related though very loosely. I’m talking about the fact that the Riders apologized for the A&W beyond meat commercial that featured Rider fans.

Look, I think those glorified dog food patties are stupid and personally won’t partake in one. But I don’t begrudge anyone who does. Nor do I feel threatened by their existence. I won’t eat them but if others will, good for them. The fact that even having Rider fans appear in an ad can be seen as the Riders “insulting” beef producers is ridiculous. That’s like saying Mothers Against Drunk Driving can’t advertise via the Riders because that is an insult to Pilsner. If people just don’t buy these beyond meat burgers then they will go away. If enough people buy them to keep them around, so be it why should people care. I get that agriculture is central to our prairie identity but guess what? Those plant based burgers are made from… wait for it…. Things grown by farmers. So while your ridiculous “we can’t even acknowledge the presence of these things” stance may support cattle farmers, it also shows a lack of support for other farmers.

Finally, A&W is a sponsor. That means they give money to the team. The Riders would be stupid to turn away sponsorship money. If they did, they have to raise our ticket prices. Unless its illegal, I say let the Riders peddle whatever stupid crap will keep that sponsorship money flowing. 

I’ll end with this thought, if you are so insecure that an ad about a product you have no interest in buying causes you to freak out and write complaint letters, odds are good you are the kind of person that needs to buy a massive truck to “compensate” for other shortcomings.