Saskatchewan Roughriders General Manager and Director of Football Operations Roy Shivers<\/a> consummated a blockbuster CFL deal that brought Kerry Joseph and Darian Durant to the Green and White.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ll go down in history for that one, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Joseph said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
The Ottawa Renegades were history after the 2005 CFL season.<\/p>\n
The folding of the franchise after four seasons led to a dispersal draft. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats owned the first overall selection because they had the dubious distinction of finishing last in the league\u2019s overall standings in 2005.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan was to pick third, after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. A quarterback being foremost among the Roughriders\u2019 needs, Shivers sought to acquire the No. 1 pick from Hamilton.<\/p>\n
That he did, sending running back\/returner Corey Holmes (who had been named the league\u2019s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player in 2005), defensive back Scott Gordon and a first-round Draft pick in 2007 to Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Shivers then opened the dispersal draft by selecting the multi-talented Joseph, who had thrown for 4,466 yards and rushed for another 1,006 with Ottawa in 2005.<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t all.<\/p>\n
Without much fanfare, the Roughriders and Tiger-Cats also exchanged the rights to two negotiation-list quarterbacks \u2014 Durant and Reggie Ball.<\/p>\n
Durant, whose CFL rights were initially owned by Ottawa, had been claimed by Hamilton in the Renegades\u2019 negotiation-list dispersal draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were desperate for a quarterback,\u201d Shivers reflected, \u201cand it worked out pretty well all around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh, did it ever!<\/p>\n
Joseph was the Cup-winning starting pivot in 2007, when he was also named the CFL\u2019s Most Outstanding Player.<\/p>\n
Durant was behind centre for heartbreaking championship-game losses to the Montreal Alouettes in 2009 and 2010 before guiding Saskatchewan to an historic home-field Grey Cup win in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing when you think about it,\u201d marvelled Roughriders Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager Jeremy O\u2019Day, who was the team\u2019s starting centre in the 2007, 2009 and 2010 Grey Cup Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve only won five Grey Cups and that one trade resulted in two quarterbacks who won the Grey Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2007, Joseph enjoyed his finest year as a CFLer, throwing for 4,002 yards and 24 touchdowns. He added 13 TDs on the ground, rushing for 737 yards and averaging 8.2 yards per carry.<\/p>\n
He soon became just the fourth Roughrider to win Most Outstanding Player honours, following George Reed (1965) and Ron Lancaster (1970, 1976).<\/p>\n
Joseph capped a storybook season by piloting the Roughriders to a 23-19 Grey Cup victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Nov. 25, 2007. He rushed 10 times for a game-high 101 yards and threw a 29-yard TD pass to Andy Fantuz.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a story written in heaven,\u201d Joseph reflected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to see (offensive lineman) Gene Makowsky get his first Grey Cup after 13 years in the CFL. I remember telling him, \u2018You\u2019re going to be the first one to get this trophy.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Next in line was O\u2019Day. Still with Saskatchewan as its Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager of the reigning Grey Cup champions, O\u2019Day hoisted the trophy to punctuate his ninth season as Roughrider.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Day had joined the Roughriders in 1999, following two seasons \u2014 including the championship year of 1997 \u2014 with the Toronto Argonauts. As a first-year Saskatchewan player, he endured a three-win season that ended with nine consecutive defeats.<\/p>\n
Hired in December of 1999 with the mandate to rescue the Roughriders from virtual rock bottom, Shivers soon named Danny Barrett the Head Coach.<\/p>\n
The win count steadily improved under Shivers and Barrett, increasing to five (in 2000, when the Roughriders also registered a tie), six (2001), eight (2002) and 11 (2003). Three consecutive 9-9 seasons followed.<\/p>\n
The team returned to the playoffs in 2002, after being excluded six times in a seven-year span, and advanced to the Western Final in 2003, 2004 and 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we progressively improving from year to year,\u201d O\u2019Day said. \u201cWe were kind of at a point where we just couldn\u2019t figure out a way how to win the division final and get into the Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were close, getting into the playoffs every year, and it was progressive all the way up to 2007. The team kind of got a little better each year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The progress appeared to have stalled in August of 2006, when the Roughriders\u2019 record fell to 3-5. The team rallied with a 46-15 victory over the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats, but that resounding win wasn\u2019t enough to save the GM\u2019s job.<\/p>\n
Shivers was surprisingly dismissed on Aug. 21, 2006, two days after the rout against Hamilton. Eric Tillman was then hired as the Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager. Barrett was retained as the Head Coach.<\/p>\n
Five days after Shivers\u2019 departure, the Roughriders blew out Hamilton once again. Saskatchewan won 51-8 at Ivor Wynne Stadium.<\/p>\n
Joseph did not play in either matchup with the Tiger-Cats due to a troublesome right knee. Marcus Crandell started the Aug. 19 game at Taylor Field, only to suffer a dislocated elbow. Rocky Butler, the next man up, finished the home game in fine style and was the quarterback of record one week later in Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Joseph dressed for the finale of the home-and-home set but, as a precaution, watched the proceedings from the sideline. With Crandell on the injured list, Durant suited up for his first of 157 regular-season games as a Roughrider. Among quarterbacks, only Ron Lancaster (246) played in more.<\/p>\n
Seeing late-game in Hamilton, Durant completed his first CFL pass (to Shermar Bracey for a 14-yard gain) and carried the ball for a 20-yard gain.<\/p>\n
The latter scramble was reminiscent of Durant\u2019s first play as a Roughrider. In a June 3, 2006 pre-season game against Edmonton, he took off on a 24-yard run on a pleasant spring day in Regina \u2014 a city with which the former University of North Carolina Tar Heels standout was unfamiliar until the trade of April 12, 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to Canada \u2026 going to Re-geena, Saskatchewan,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking at the weather (before making his first trip to Saskatchewan) and wondering, \u2018What do I pack? What do I bring?\u2019 So I packed two pairs of sweats and two pairs of jeans \u2014 and a couple of T-shirts and socks. I just didn\u2019t know what to expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my very first training camp. It\u2019s Day 2. I\u2019m trying to make the team. As a quarterback, one of the worst things that can happen at practice is bad weather. And what did we have? A hailstorm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking, \u2018There\u2019s no way I can make the team. I can\u2019t even get the reps. The weather\u2019s bad. I\u2019ll never be able to make it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
In time, \u201call hail Darian Durant!\u201d became the refrain. But it took a while.<\/p>\n
After the game in Hamilton, 678 days elapsed before he would again run or throw the ball in the regular season.<\/p>\n
With Joseph back behind centre, the 2006 Roughriders finished third in the West Division before defeating the Calgary Stampeders 30-21 at McMahon Stadium in a first-round playoff game. The season ended a week later with a 45-18 loss to the host B.C. Lions.<\/p>\n
Tillman soon announced that Barrett\u2019s contract, which was about to expire, would not be renewed. Former Roughriders quarterback Kent Austin was hired as the replacement.<\/p>\n
Under Tillman and Austin in 2007, the Roughriders won 12 regular-season games (the team\u2019s highest total since 1970), earned a home playoff game (the first in 19 years) and won the third championship in franchise history.<\/p>\n
It was an overnight success story that, upon reflection, was nearly seven years in the making.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that some people probably overlook the Roy and Danny era,\u201d O\u2019Day noted. \u201cThey really established that foundation of players and that family atmosphere among us, so they had a big part of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what got us over the top was just a new voice and a few tweaks to the roster. The next thing you know, we\u2019re winning what was at that time our third championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second championship-game victory was celebrated after Austin threw for 474 yards and three touchdowns in a 43-40 conquest of Hamilton on Nov. 26, 1989.<\/p>\n
Named the Offensive MVP of the 1989 Grey Cup, he added CFL Coach of the Year honours to his lengthy list of laurels after the 2007 season.<\/p>\n
By the time the latter award was presented, though, he had been hired by his alma mater (the University of Mississippi) as its Offensive Co-ordinator.<\/p>\n
Austin\u2019s departure was the first shocker of the off-season.<\/p>\n
On March 5, 2008, Tillman traded Joseph and a third-round Draft pick in 2010 to the Toronto Argonauts for offensive lineman Glenn January, defensive lineman Ronald Flemons, a first-rounder in 2008 (used to select defensive lineman Keith Shologan) and a second-rounder in 2010 (receiver Jordan Sisco).<\/p>\n
The trade took place after Tillman and Joseph were unable to agree on contract terms for 2008. Joseph had signed a restructured deal, calling for a salary reduction, leading up to the 2007 season. Renegotiations took place with several players that winter, with a CFL salary cap about to become enforceable for the first time.<\/p>\n
A year later, an impasse was reached before Joseph was dealt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a man of faith and I truly believe God does things in a certain way,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to leave Saskatchewan, but it opened the door for Darian to come in and become the starter and win his Grey Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durant started four games in 2008, when he was among four quarterbacks to see front-line duty for the Roughriders during a 12-win season.<\/p>\n
Installed as the full-time starter in 2009, Durant helped Saskatchewan earn top spot in the West\u2019s regular-season standings for the first time since 1976. He then started his first of three Grey Cup Games with Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n
A fourth such appearance looked like a realistic possibility when the 2014 Roughriders won seven straight games to improve their record to 8-2.<\/p>\n
In the eighth win, however, Durant suffered an elbow injury that ended his season and, for all practical purposes, that of the Roughriders.<\/p>\n
The offence struggled with two untested pivots, Tino Sunseri and Seth Doege, at the controls.<\/p>\n
Having seen enough, then-GM Brendan Taman signed a familiar name \u2014 Kerry Joseph \u2014 on Oct. 9, 2014.<\/p>\n
Sunseri started one more game before the 41-year-old Joseph, wearing No. 5, handled the quarterbacking for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n
Although Durant was on the injury list, he and Joseph were teammates once more.<\/p>\n
Joseph announced on Dec. 5, 2014 that he would retire as a Roughrider. He returned to Saskatchewan in August of 2019 to be enshrined in the SaskTel Plaza of Honour.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people in the city of Regina and the province of Saskatchewan really opened their arms and welcomed me,\u201d Joseph reflected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was only there for two years, basically, but it still feels like home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph was joined in the Plaza by Durant and Shivers in 2024<\/a>. Fittingly, they were inducted as a tandem 18 years after one franchise-altering trade facilitated their alliance and, as history would show, so much more than anyone could have imagined on April 12, 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty years ago today, the Saskatchewan Roughriders completed a blockbuster trade from which the team derives enduring benefits.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-599784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599784","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=599784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}