…could you have a homeless bum on the roster of your professional sports team.
Of course, I’m only kidding. The Edmonton Eskimos kicker, Hugh O’Neill, isn’t a hobo (as far as I know) but he sure looks like one. Either that or maybe the fifth member of The Sheepdogs.
It’s a little like the Radiohead song, ‘Just’.
You do it to yourself, you do… and that’s what really hurts…
In a flurry of civic pride after it was announced that the Edmonton Eskimos would be going head to head against their arch-rivals, the godless Calgary Stampeders, I hit Ticketmaster and secured four seats to this Western Semi-Final match-up. The way I figured this would go would be that the Duke of Ginger and I would occupy two seats and the father-in-law and uncle-in-law could join us and occupy the other two.
Enter: Wrinkle #1
The father-in-law goes back to work and is working that weekend. And the uncle-in-law wasn’t too keen on sitting through a frosty November football game to begin with.
What I was trying to accomplish was to give a little back to some folks who have been pretty good to me but this is a little lesson to think a little before I act.
Enter: Wrinkle #2
The Duke of Ginger and I have season seats and, with season seats, you already pay for a pair of playoff tickets when you fork out your money in the off-season. But how the hell was I supposed to know that? This is only my second year as a season ticket holder and the Eskimos haven’t hosted a playoff game since 2004 anyway! Who’da thunk it?!
So now, I have six tickets and only two butts to actually fill them. Since the tickets I bought from Ticketmaster cost me $198, I would like to try to at least recoup some of my money.
I made a couple of feeble attempts to sell them on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter; hoping that maybe there would be an excited fan who would snap them up right away.
So far, I’ve yet to get even a nibble. (To use a fishing metaphor.)
Now, I’m resorting to Kijiji; daring to brave the world of Kijiji Low-Ballers. The process itself is pretty simple for setting up an ad. However, I got some weird message saying that I’ve activated too many ads today and prevented me from actually posting my ad for these tickets!
How could I have posted too many ads when this is the first time I’ve ever used this fucking site?!?
This is about where I would go thermonuclear… if I weren’t at work right now. With two bills hanging in the balance, I’m really praying for a miracle at this point. And I only get more desperate from here on out.
…and it was fucking cold. Two monsoon style rains later, the king of NJLE was crying for mercy and I didn’t even consume any beer.
It’s the weekend of the CFL’s 2010 Grey Cup; a rematch of last year’s championship between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Montreal Alouettes. This year, the Grey Cup is being played in Edmonton.
Now, I’ve been in the stands in Commonwealth Stadium when Saskatchewan rolled into town against the Eskimos and the attendance swelled from the average 29,780 to 47,829. The likeliest scenario is that more than one third of fans in attendance were full of Rider Pride. This meant that over 18,000 Roughrider fans made the pilgrimage from the ‘Old Country’ to Edmonton to watch their football team play. And this was a regular season game. Picture Edmonton with the Rider Pride rolling into town because of the Grey Cup.
To say it gets crazy when the Saskatchewan Roughriders come to town would be an understatement.
Getting a basic understanding of a Riders fan isn’t difficult; you really need to go no further than the internet. However, to help out, I’ve chosen several Riders fans photos from a quick search to demonstrate a typical fan to those who may not have ever seen this phenomenon in person. Besides their fanatical dedication to their team, they are also known for their small town attitudes and are stereotyped as lovers of Pilsner beer.
For real lovers of Old Style Pilsner
To get on with my story, I headed out to a nearby liquor store to grab some beer for the evening and as I pulled into the parking lot, a white crew-cab truck pulled in and parked. I watched as six large men stepped out of the truck, all of them wearing the emerald green home jersey of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. I wanted to perform a bit of a social test of the whole ‘Riders fan loves Pilsner’ stereotype for my own interest so I lagged behind a little and observed.
Two of them briefly lingered by the vodka shelf before following the other four guys headed for the beer cooler. I followed and casually observed them head to the domestic beer section. I was on the other side of the beer cooler mulling over my options at the import beer shelf, keeping one eye on the six Riders fans.
Half of the motley crew left around the same time I did and the other half remained in the beer cooler for a little while longer. At the end of the day, all six of these Riders fans ended up at the till while I was still there. Five of the six of them ended up with a box of Pilsner beer with the sixth being the rogue of the bunch and carrying a 24 can box of Wildcat Strong.
So what does this mean? It’s hard to say, really.
One could also say that five out of six Riders fans prefer Pilsner to Wildcat Strong, however I don’t feel this is truly a scientific conclusion. My main thought revolves around whether a stereotype is actually a stereotype if it’s true. Because, in this case, I’d say that it is.
Hopefully, the Eskimos can come away win their second win of the season and turn around this train wreck of a season!
