Having played in all three Labour Day weekend rivalry matchups across the CFL, Trevor Harris can attest to which one is the best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s one right answer,\u201d said the Saskatchewan Roughriders<\/a> quarterback. \u201cAnd I think anybody that\u2019s in a certain rivalry is going to say that.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think the CFL longtime people would tell you it\u2019s this one.\u201d<\/p>\n Early in his CFL career, Harris experienced the Ontario version of the annual Labour Day matchup as a member of the Toronto Argonauts who annually go up against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n Later in his career, he took part in Alberta\u2019s Labour Day weekend rivalry with the Edmonton Elks against the Calgary Stampeders.<\/p>\n This season, Harris, 39, is set to start in his second prairie rivalry<\/a> as the Roughriders host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 60th edition of the Labour Day Classic on Sunday (5 p.m., TSN) at Mosaic Stadium.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been in all three rivalries and I know it\u2019s talked about quite a bit,\u201d said Harris, who was sidelined for the game in his first year with the Riders in 2023. \u201cI\u2019ve even heard fans say like, \u2018I don\u2019t care how many games you win, just beat Winnipeg on Labour Day.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI was at Costco yesterday and I think six or seven people stopped me, said, \u2018Hey, big game this weekend.\u2019 And they were like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ve got eight wins, but we need nine.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so quite a few people stopping and talking to you. You kind of feel the game in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n The Roughriders hold the all-time edge over the Bombers in the Labour Day Classic with a 38-21 record over the last 59 years. Saskatchewan has won 15 of the last 19 however Winnipeg has won three out of the last four.<\/p>\n Last year, Winnipeg beat Saskatchewan 35-33 in what was Corey Mace\u2019s first Labour Day Classic as a head coach of the Roughriders.<\/p>\n Like Harris though, Mace has been in all three as he was a defensive lineman and coach with the Stampeders in their annual Labour Day matchup against the Elks before experiencing the rivalry between the Tiger-Cats and Argonauts as a member of Toronto\u2019s coaching staff.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just lived up to the expectation,\u201d said Mace. \u201cEverybody told me that this was the best one of them all.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd when you\u2019re part of the other ones, you\u2019re like there\u2019s no way. And then you\u2019re part of this one and you get it.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving experienced being a part of the main three Labour Days, this one\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n Mace also knows there\u2019s some extra attention around the team this week given the magnitude of the sold-out game, which is expected to break Mosaic Stadium attendance records.<\/p>\n \u201cWe try to instil it into the guys too,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know what it\u2019s going to be and it\u2019s an awesome time around the entire league, but certainly here.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be an excellent atmosphere. I know our fan base is already waiting in line to get in the building right. So we\u2019re just hoping to put something together and give them something to cheer for.\u201d<\/p>\n The last three Labour Day Classics have been decided by just two points each and Mace noted that records don\u2019t matter in a rivalry game like this.<\/p>\n However, Sunday\u2019s matchup has plenty of implications in the West Division standings with eight games to go.<\/p>\n The Roughriders currently sit in first place with an 8-2 record followed by Calgary \u2014 the only team to beat Saskatchewan this year \u2014 at 7-3.<\/p>\n The Blue Bombers, who have been to five straight Grey Cups as the West Division champions, currently sit in third place with a 6-4 record followed by the B.C. Lions at 5-6 and Edmonton Elks at 4-6.<\/p>\n And while Saskatchewan currently has an edge in the standings, they also know how quickly that can be erased given how tight things are and the fact that they have to travel to Winnipeg the following weekend for the annual rematch.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve really been the class of CFL for the last five years,\u201d Harris said of the Bombers. \u201cThey\u2019ve been to five straight Grey Cups.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re kind of the top dog right now, until they\u2019ve proven otherwise. I think people need to prove in November that you can beat Winnipeg. And so for us to do that, we\u2019ve got to just become a better, better team every day this week and be ready to execute the best we can on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n tshire@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n The Regina Leader-Post has created an\u00a0Afternoon Headlines\u00a0newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day.\u00a0Click here<\/a> to subscribe. <\/p>\n With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark leaderpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here<\/a> to subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having played in all three Labour Day weekend rivalry matchups across the CFL, Trevor Harris can attest to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,943,48,521,522,520,60449,13264,60448,60450,46243,4400,82,15656,11135,7504],"class_list":["post-105841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-calgary-stampeders","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-corey-mace","tag-edmonton-elks","tag-labour-day","tag-labour-day-classic","tag-mosaic-stadium","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-sports","tag-toronto-argonauts","tag-trevor-harris","tag-winnipeg-blue-bombers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}