When bad CFL fans, of good and bad teams, have a losing year or a long losing skid, they lash out at others to inflate their self-esteem and take the victors down a couple of notches. Good CFL fans are happy win or lose.
How Only Four Grey Cups in Team History Is Such a Source Of Pride
The non-green often bark at the idea that the average Saskatchewan Roughriders fan is overflowing with pride over their four Grey Cup triumphs. Often non-Rider fans wonder to themselves, and in public, how can only four Grey Cups in team history be such a source of pride? I gather that they compare their rings in juxtaposition to cities with multiples like Toronto, Winnipeg, or Edmonton. Well I have breaking news on the topic.
Actually, to tell you the truth, I don’t. I just find it amusing to participate in the rampant over-use of the phrase “breaking news”. I’m not absolutely positive why there is pride, from such a large group of people. However, if Scooby Doo and the gang want to dig up answers to these and other mighty puzzling questions, I’d start by asking in cities far West like Victoria.
“Like, it’s just a hunch Scoob'”, but I’d keep searching for clues in Nanaimo, Courtney/Comox, Prince George, Vernon, Chilliwack, Kamloops, Kelowna, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, Wood Buffalo, Saskatoon, Brandon, Thunder Bay, Barrie, Sudbury, Kingston, Brantford, Guelph, Kitchener/Waterloo, Sarnia, London, Peterborough, Belleville, St. Catharines, North Bay, Norfolk, Cornwall, Kawartha Lakes, Chatham-Kent, Windsor, Oshawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Granby, Quebec City, Rimouski, Shawinigan, Saint-Hyacinthe, Saint Jean-sur-Richelieu, Trois Rivières, Drummondville, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Moncton, Fredericton, St. John, Halifax, Cape Breton, St. John’s, and Charlottetown. Some of you might be questioning me right now or thinking I’m being a smart one. I am being a bit of a smart one but don’t question my frustrated reasoning here.
It still doesn’t make sense! Let’s set the record straight. The provincially-named teams in Vancouver and Regina belong to those cities. Yes, of course a Saskatoonian and a Victorian are well within their rights to consider the Riders and Lions their own. I won’t argue that. But don’t get it twisted. These clubs belong in, and to, Vancouver and Regina for all intents and purposes.
Math Time
Out of all the 54 Canadian cities I listed that have over 50,000 people, there are three Grey Cups: two in Sarnia and one in Saint-Hyacinthe. That doesn’t include all the population bases under 50,000 people. Zoinks! That’s, like, well over 17 million Canadians living in towns or cities with three Grey Cups to share, Scoob, old-buddy, old-pal. That’s half the country!
Don’t bother looking down south for too long. Only the 700,000 of metro Baltimore, Maryland have watched theirs sip sweet nectar out of the Grey Cup. There’s another 360 million people that will just have to go through life without knowing what it’s like to party in the street for a week to eventually watch your team pound another in the Grey Cup game and come out rosy.
What’s A Scooby Doo Mystery Without Food?
People get hungry for these trophies and the people of Saskatchewan have been well fed as of late. When I’m hungry, I like to eat. How about you, Winnipeg? Hungry, Ottawa? Want a little nibble, Hamilton? We all love our history but sports aren’t really about the past for true fans. No one gives a hoot about the record number of Stanley Cups in Montreal at this point of the current drought. Nope. Sports fans know it’s always about the present and the future.
An Eskimos fan right now might be feeling pretty full despite the gutting of the staff. Even Calgary. Both just had a good meal and they’ve got their eyes on a tasty feast in 2016. If I’m a fan of any other team, I’m going to keep sniffing for clues. Maybe when I solve the mystery, I’ll realize how the answer has been right under my nose the whole time!
Good CFL Fans Are Happy Win Or Lose
The simplest explanation is, your victories matter to you and my victories matter to me. We all celebrate the wins instead of dwelling on the losses. I now know the reason that good CFL fans of the other teams have a tough time finding the source of pride for Rider fans over a measly four Grey Cups.
A big part of my conclusion is a riddle left for each of us to decipher where the answer is actually a question. That question is — what have you done for me lately? I hate going back even just ten years in history to 2006, but six clubs have won the Grey Cup. Twice in those ten years it was the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Never wonder again!
Main Photo.
