Football is a gruelling sport — for the players as well.
From this observer’s perspective, the fine art of watching the Saskatchewan Roughriders has been known to wreak havoc upon what was once a functional central nervous system.
As the latest example, we present Saturday’s 31-27 victory over the B.C. Lions. The CFL classic was witnessed by upwards of 30,000 people at Mosaic Stadium, including an anxiety-plagued staff writer.
The stress boiled over late in the fourth quarter. Inexplicably, I started bleating in the press box — right out of the blue — about matters unrelated to football and, for that matter, common sense.
I am not too proud to confess that I cracked as a result of the tension. Trevor Harris, as a welcome contrast to the bowl of mashed potatoes that occupied my seat in the press box, calmly directed an 11-play, 82-yard drive that culminated in a six-yard touchdown toss to Samuel Emilus.
Alex Hale’s convert, with 46 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, gave Saskatchewan a four-point advantage that held up for the duration.
The Lions’ Nathan Rourke, who collaborated with Harris to treat the attendees to a brilliant display of quarterbacking, marched his team to Saskatchewan’s 33-yard line before the drive stalled in the waning seconds.
In typical fashion, the Roughriders had won a nailbiter.
“That’s what you live for,” Harris said after masterfully completing 30 of 36 passes for 417 yards.
“As a competitor, you were never in the backyard going, ‘We’re up by 45. Hand the ball off.’ You’re down by a certain number of points and you need to score and there’s X amount of time left. When you’re a kid, that’s what you do.
“Obviously, we’d rather not be that close, but those are the moments that are fun. I always love those moments, because one of my favourite things to say to people if I’m playing them in basketball or darts or whatever and they misstep is, ‘Moment too big.’
“My dad has always told me, ‘Never let a moment get too big, because every moment’s just a moment,’ so I just try and treat every moment the same.”
Every Saskatchewan touchdown was the same, in a sense.
• Harris to Emilus, 11 yards.
• Harris to Emilus, four yards — to conclude only the fifth 109-yard drive in Roughriders history.
• Harris to Emilus, six yards … for the win.
“To be honest, it just felt like slow-motion,” Emilus recounted after registering the 21st three-touchdown-catch game in franchise history.
“I know I’ve beat my man, so I’ve just got to catch it. My job is to catch balls and that’s what I did.”
Emilus was also proficient on Nov. 8, 2025, making nine receptions for 100 yards to help Saskatchewan defeat B.C. 24-21 in the Western Final at Mosaic Stadium.
The game was decided when Harris found Tommy Nield for a three-yard touchdown with 11 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
Eight days later, Saskatchewan registered a 25-17 Grey Cup victory over the Montreal Alouettes in another down-to-the-wire affair.
The Roughriders’ tendency toward dramatic endings has reached the point where even a pre-season game can electrify the nerves.
On May 23 at Griffiths Stadium in Saskatoon, the Roughriders defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 31-27 — the same score by which Saskatchewan prevailed on Saturday — on the strength of a last-minute, three-yard TD pass from Brayden Schager to Daniel Wiebe.
The Roughriders returned to action three weeks later by opening the regular season in victorious fashion for the sixth year in a row.
“We just believed in each other,” offensive tackle Jermarcus Hardrick said on Saturday. “It could have gone the other way. With these tight games in the CFL, we could be 0-and-1 right now, but we’re 1-and-0 and I’ll take it. It felt great.
“I heard the crowd. Thank you, Rider Nation. Keep showing up.”