There’s no fighting it, so why pretend otherwise? Football is the only thing on Saskatchewan’s mind right now.
It’s all green and white, all the time, as the clock ticks down to Sunday when the Roughriders play the Montreal Alouettes in the Grey Cup for the second time in as many years.
This time the outcome will be different.
What could be more fitting than a Grey Cup win in the team’s 100th year? It just makes sense.
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Even if you’re not a Roughies fan – and given the wide reach of this newspaper, that is inevitably true for many of our readers – you’ve still got to admire the tenacity and bizarre exuberance of Roughrider fans.
It’s not a stretch to assume most of us will cheer for the West over the East in the final game this Sunday, so bear with us as we explore the following premise.
Farming is a lot like football. It starts with spring training, when you check out the recruits, the new crop varieties on the scene and plan your strategy. You make some deals and you make some cuts.
Then comes the pre-season, when potential flaws in the plan become evident – market fluctuations, fertilizer costs, seed availability – (Darian Durant’s hot and cold streaks, faulty plays, injuries) and it’s necessary to rethink a few things.
In the regular season, you’re keeping a constant eye on your offence (Fantuz, Dressler) and your defence (Kornegay, Patrick) and monitoring the particularly troublesome competitors – weather, weeds, insects, disease (Calvillo, Cahoon, Cobourne, Bowman) and figuring out how to combat them (Hawkins, Byrd, Frazier, Makowski).
Before you know it, you’re into the playoffs, with some crops (players) looking good and some suffering from injury.
You make a few late season trades or tradeoffs, decide there’s nothing you can do about gophers (Gainer) and marshall your efforts to concentrate on harvest (the western final and then the Grey Cup.)
You can’t predict the outcome, but with good coaching and some strong defensive and offensive co-ordination, you can improve your chances for success.
Farming, like football, is known for its downs. You must be quick to tackle problems.
And if you use the right procedure, avoid interference and know how to count to 12 really, really accurately, then victory and profit can be yours.
