The Saskatchewan Roughriders presented a united front Sunday.
Players and coaches linked arms during the national anthem prior to their CFL game against the Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium, displaying their support for their brethren in the NFL.
Players in that league have been kneeling or sitting on their benches to protest racism and social injustice in the United States. Their protests ramped up Sunday, two days after President Donald Trump suggested that NFL owners should fire players who don’t stand for the national anthem.
Despite playing in a different league in a different country, many of the Roughriders decided to take a stand during O Canada.
“It was just a sign of unity that we’re together,” quarterback Kevin Glenn, a product of Detroit, said after his team’s 15-9 loss.
“Sometimes people don’t understand that we have to go back to that kind of stuff. We’re here for six months (during the season) but then we have to actually go back and live in that. That’s why we did it.”
Most of the Roughriders who participated are from the U.S., but a few Canadians took part. Guard Derek Dennis, who hails from Queens, N.Y., said the players just wanted to let African-Americans in the States know that they’re not alone.
That said, Dennis noted the idea of kneeling during the anthem — an act first done last season by then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick — was not considered by the Roughriders.
“That was unnecessary,” Dennis said. “We all have the opportunity to play in a great country like Canada. We didn’t want to disrespect the Canadian flag or the Canadian armed forces because this country has done wonders for a lot of us. If it wasn’t for the CFL, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to play professional football.
“That’s not what our thought process was. It was just a way for us to show solidarity and show support for our brothers and our families back home that we understand what’s going on and we’re not blind to it.”
Trump is known for making his views known on Twitter, so Glenn used that social media platform Saturday to share his thoughts on the American president and his notion that those who don’t stand for the anthem are being disrespectful.
“#trump is the (disrespectful) one, he should be fired,” Glenn wrote.
“You have social media and sometimes you want to get some stuff up,” the quarterback explained Sunday. “Everybody else uses that platform to speak their mind, so I felt that, at that point, I wanted to speak my mind.”
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The Roughriders are hoping the CFL and its players will take a stand against the type of hit that forced Saskatchewan slotback Naaman Roosevelt out of Sunday’s game.
In the second quarter, Roosevelt absorbed a high hit from Calgary defensive back Tunde Adeleke following a reception. After the shot, Roosevelt’s head hit the turf and he appeared to be unconscious for a short time.
Roosevelt received medical attention on the field and subsequently was escorted directly to the Roughriders’ locker room. His status wasn’t known after the game.
“I was pretty upset about that hit because it was as clear as day that the DB led with his head,” Dennis said. “That should have been an easy call for the officials (who did penalize Adeleke for unnecessary roughness).
“I’m not saying it was malicious or on purpose. It was just one of those plays where, especially after what Calgary went through with B.C. last week, you would think they would know how the game should be played.”
A week earlier, Stampeders running backs Jerome Messam and Roy Finch both took hits to the head from B.C. Lions linebacker Micah Awe. The CFL issued the maximum allowable fine to Awe for his actions.
Watching Roosevelt take a similar shot had the Roughriders discussing player safety in the CFL.
“As a player, you don’t want to see guys go down like that,” said slotback Bakari Grant. “We need to get together, set a precedent and set a standard for how we’re going to treat our players.”
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Finch entered the game with a league-best 1,009 yards and three touchdowns on punt returns this season, but the Roughriders held him to 55 yards on eight returns.
His longest effort was 17 yards, his lowest such number since he managed a game-best 10-yarder against the Montreal Alouettes on July 14.
“I wanted excellent location and good hang time to give our gunners and our cover team time to get down there and make his life as hard as possible,” said Saskatchewan’s Josh Bartel, who averaged 48.7 yards on his nine punts. “Our cover team did awesome. I’m so stoked. They made me look pretty good, so I’ll have to buy them a beer.”
Finch, who’s the frontrunner to be named the CFL’s top special-teams player, relies on his quickness and shiftiness to excel on returns. On Sunday, Bartel regularly pinned Finch near a sideline and the special-teamers did the rest.
“I’m just so happy that our guys stopped him because if he gets to me, he’s going to make me look really stupid,” Bartel said with a grin. “That’s the last thing we want.”
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The Stampeders had five sacks — including three by Ja’Gared Davis — and held Saskatchewan to 13 first downs, 28 yards rushing and 210 yards of net offence.
The inability to run the ball was particularly worrisome to Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones, who said his team’s offensive woes were a combination of good work by the Stampeders and sub-par work by his club.
“When you run the football and you can’t get a yard, that’s a little bit of you can’t block them and they’re a little bit better than you,” Jones said. “When you line up with your five or six (blockers) and they’re sending four or possibly five (pass-rushers) and they’re consistently getting to your quarterback, then that’s a concern.”
