Saskatchewan Roughriders<\/a> can put the 8-8 Bombers on the playoff ropes by completing the season sweep.<\/p>\nArticle content<\/p>\n
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Don\u2019t think that wouldn\u2019t taste sweet for Gang Green, no matter which players they\u2019re bringing and which ones they\u2019re leaving in Regina.<\/p>\n
Because the Riders simply hate the Bombers.<\/p>\n
Just ask Winnipeg receiver Jerreth Sterns, who spent the previous two seasons with Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was close to it, if not (hate),\u201d Sterns was saying on Thursday. \u201cIt was definitely a strong dislike of the Bombers when I was there. They were always winning, and they knocked us off a few times, beat us pretty bad a couple of times in the Banjo Bowl. So it was always just trying to get them back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not just get them back, but knock them off the pedestal they\u2019ve been perched on for five years running.<\/p>\n
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The Blue and Gold\u2019s fistful of consecutive Grey Cup appearances has left black-and-blue marks all over the Riders: in three of the last five West Finals, the Bombers have knocked the Riders out cold.<\/p>\n
Sterns was there for the last one. Ask him what it was like as a Rider playing Winnipeg and he breaks into a grin.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always get a little more juice when you play those guys,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same way now when we play Saskatchewan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday marks Sterns\u2019 first game against his old team, as a shoulder injury kept him out of the first two meetings.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no bad blood for his old team, he says. He doesn\u2019t need any as motivation, anyway.<\/p>\n
But he has a pretty good idea what the Riders are thinking, and it\u2019s not that they can coast through this one because they\u2019ve clinched first place.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re worried about if they have first place or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Even outside of Saskatchewan, there\u2019s a desire to see the Bombers fall. Teams around the league, particularly in the West, are sick and tired of seeing them in the Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
With this year\u2019s championship game in the Manitoba capital, the taste of this particular topple would be even sweeter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a rookie coming into the league, you hear about the Winnipeg way,\u201d Bomber linebacker Tony Jones said, recalling his first two years in Edmonton. \u201cWhen I came into the league, Winnipeg was the team everyone wanted to beat. That\u2019s where the hate comes from. They don\u2019t like the team that\u2019s consecutively in the Grey Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
For players who had their own Cup dreams yanked out of their hands on the second-last Sunday of the season, that hate is only amplified.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe send them home multiple years\u2026 and that\u2019s what they want to do to us,\u201d Jones said of Saskatchewan. \u201cThey want to try to eliminate us from getting into the post-season. This is the biggest rivalry in the CFL. We can fairly say they don\u2019t like us, we don\u2019t like them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a game, no matter who dresses up.\u201d<\/p>\n
It always is.<\/p>\n
Shenanigans from the last two meetings hit at the pockets of a few players, most notably Saskatchewan\u2019s C.J. Reavis (for his hit on Collaros and for a social media post) and Winnipeg\u2019s Pat Neufeld for a unnecessary hit in the Banjo Bowl.<\/p>\n
Player fines and the sight of Collaros prone on the turf are like bird migration when these teams meet: they seem to happen every year.<\/p>\n
The chance to clip Winnipeg\u2019s wings before the playoffs would be mouthwatering for any team.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEverybody\u2019s aiming to knock us off,\u201d is how cornerback Demerio Houston put it. \u201cSomebody else is wanting to take that crown and represent the West for the Grey Cup. But we\u2019re not going to let it happen. We still have a chance and we\u2019re going to do whatever we need to do to stay at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston doesn\u2019t mind feeling hated. Comes with the territory, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we\u2019re hated by the whole league. Whoever our opponent is, they\u2019re going to hate us and we\u2019re going to hate them. It\u2019s part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a part Mike O\u2019Shea thinks about, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t spend any time thinking about that,\u201d the head coach said. \u201cWe\u2019re always focused on what we\u2019re doing, and don\u2019t pay attention to what the other team may be feeling. Because what they feel is really irrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n
It may be irrelevant to him.<\/p>\n
But how it unfolds on Friday will be right in his face.<\/p>\n
His team, already wobbling, can\u2019t afford to take another shot or two to the kisser.<\/p>\n
Or it can kiss its season goodbye.<\/p>\n
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca<\/p>\n
X: @friesensunmedia<\/p>\n
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Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira is tackled by the Saskatchewan Roughriders defence during the Labour Day Classic game at Mosaic Stadium on Sunday. Photo by KAYLE NEIS \/Postmedia NetworkArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Winnipeg](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/19.7.1\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-wsun-new.svg\"){kind=logo}
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