I turned on the end of the BC-Calgary game on Friday to see a wicked back and forth tussle ending with the new (?) overtime format where the teams play two “mini-games”, each team starting at their opponent's respective 35-yard lines with regular rules in place to as they attempt to score. The game ended still tied after both teams managed to score majors on each of their possessions for each mini-game.
Then last night, Pace and I were settled in to watch the Riders-Eskimos game. It's another exciting back and forth game with first place in the West in the balance if the Riders win. Then, near the start of the fourth quarter, the CBC feed goes out. I wait as long as I can stand it but finally turn it off, my mind deadened by the “Just For Laughs – Gags” program they put on while the feed was out.
Half an hour later, I log on to TSN and see it reported that the score didn't change and the final is 32-27 for Edmonton. Darn. So close but so typical for the Riders who embody Saskatchewan's “next year country” mindset – just like our agricultural sector which so often looks like it'll have a great year but always failing to deliver due to early frost, too much heat, too much rain, not enough heat, not enough rain, plagues of locusts grasshoppers – you get the idea.
But then today, I get a call from my parent who were camping near Yorkton last night.
“Tell me about the storm last night,” my mom says.
(Hmm, that's a strange question.)
“Well, it was a pretty big storm, lots of thunder and lightning but no big deal really. We didn't even go out to watch – went to bed early.”
“You didn't lose your power?”
“No. Didn't even flicker. Why?”
“The power went out at Mosaic Stadium. I thought you guys would've lost power too.”
“No. I was watching when the CBC feed went out but thought that was just them. You mean the whole stadium lost power?”
“Yeah.”
“After the game was over?”
“No, they restarted the game. The Riders won.”
“What?”
“The Riders won.”
“I saw on TSN's web site last night that they lost.”
“No. The power went out in the whole stadium for an hour then they restarted the game. There were still people in the stands and the Riders ended up winning.”
By this point, I've made my way to my laptop and check and yep, somehow TSN reported the score when the power went out as the final. But in reality, 8000+ fans stayed for nearly an hour in the darkened stadium with a full bore prairie lightning storm happening until the game was restarted, just before officials were ready to cancel it.
How insane is that – on so many levels? That the fans stayed? That the Riders rallied to score a final TD to take the game? That they're got their best record at this point in the season since 1976? Pace (who resembles a linebacker more and more each week) was inspired to put on his gear today to celebrate…
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