As the Saskatchewan Roughriders chase their fifth Grey Cup in franchise history, they’re motivated by something much different than their predecessors:
Love.
“We just love ’em up,” head coach Corey Mace said a couple days ago, repeating a common mantra as his team prepared for this year’s CFL championship game against the Montreal Alouettes on Sunday inside Winnipeg’s Princess Auto Stadium.
It’s hard to imagine that very first Riders championship squad in 1966, with rugged fullback George Reed and take-no-prisoners defensive lineman Ron Atchison, professing love for head coach Eagle Keys and their teammates. Reed was wont to say, “Eagle treated us like men, not like dogs,” in apparent umbrage to former head coach Bob Shaw.
As the generations changed and attitudes changed, the Roughriders won CFL championships in 1989, 2007 and 2013. There were celebratory postgame, affectionate shoutouts to beloved teammates, but there weren’t any stories beforehand about Ray Elgaard, Reggie Hunt or Darian Durant motivating their squads with calls of, “I love you, man!”
There has rarely been a squad so devoted to each other as the 2025 Riders.
It started the opening day of this year’s training camp, when offensive lineman Jermarcus Hardrick was asked to describe his team under second-year head coach Mace.
“This year we’re a little bit more familiar with each other,” said Hardrick. “We love each other a little bit more.
“We know how to push each other a little bit more. Last year was like, ‘I don’t know you as much; I don’t want to step on your toes.’ Now I know your kid’s name, I know what you like to eat, I know your why. And all that stuff matters.”
It continued all season. The players hung out together, supported each other, never really got into trouble and always spoke about having each other’s backs. Almost every interview with every player or coach included a “love” reference.
Running back A.J. Ouellette, quarterback Trevor Harris and kicker Brett Lauther happily described the love inside their locker room, how it crossed from offence to defence to special teams and included absolutely everyone involved with the organization, from the ticket office to the training staff to the administration.
It got repetitive. Maybe even corny. Except that they believed it so completely.
“We’re a lot more comfortable with each other this year,” said centre Logan Ferland, just before the Roughriders qualified for the Grey Cup by defeating the B.C. Lions 24-21 in the West final. “It all comes from the chemistry we have.”
“Chemistry” is another word for “love,” isn’t it?
As Ferland spoke, in the background and recorded on the same device, two other players were kibitzing about a teammate. Maybe it should be off the record, but their voices were unfamiliar and it fits this trope so perfectly.
“I think he was just giving me some love,” said a player. “I was laughing at him.”
They talk about it all the time! That doesn’t mean love, respect and team chemistry automatically win championships.
Like this year’s squad, those other winning Riders teams had talented players who responded to their coaches. Reed and quarterback Ron Lancaster respected Keys.
In 1989, the team was internally renamed “89ers,” at the insistence of head coach John Gregory, to wash away the 23 years between championships. The quarterback from that team, Kent Austin, returned as head coach in 2007 and told his players that anyone who didn’t believe they were going to win a Grey Cup should leave immediately.
The 2013 squad was an odd mix of returnees and CFL veterans, put together by general manager Brendan Taman to win the Grey Cup at home. There were some internal spats under head coach Corey Chamblin. They loved winning and shared the credit with their “brothers,” but the team that won Saskatchewan’s last Grey Cup wouldn’t be called a “big, happy family.”
Not like the over-riding sentiment from Mace’s troops. Along with general manager Jeremy O’Day, plus his assistants Larry Dean, Kyle Carson, Paul Jones and Jordan Greenly, Mace said the intention was to bring in good players who are also good people. Now they’re sharing the love, looking to share something else on Sunday.
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