Rob Vanstone: Roughriders’ Mason Fine handles outside noise with a professional’s poise
External chatter doesn’t matter to Mason Fine.
As one who resides in the football fishbowl that is Saskatchewan, the 26-year-old quarterback knows that he is always subject to dissection by the people who follow the CFL team with such devotion and, oftentimes, emotion.
And that is, well, fine with Fine.
“I think there’s always going to be outside noise, especially when you’re a quarterback and play for the Saskatchewan Roughriders,” he says leading up to Sunday’s CFL game against the Ottawa REDBLACKS (5 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
“I’ve been asked that question (about the intense scrutiny) a lot and what I’ve said is there’s no one who’s a harsher critic than myself.
“I want to win just as badly as anyone else does so, when we don’t, I feel like I’m not only letting myself down, but I’m also letting the team and the fan base down.”
Fine took over as the Roughriders’ starting quarterback after Trevor Harris suffered a serious knee injury six minutes into the fourth quarter of a July 15 home game against the Calgary Stampeders.
Despite being thrown into the game with hardly any notice, Fine threw back-to-back touchdown passes — including a 69-yarder to Tevin Jones on a third-and-24 Hail Mary — and nearly engineered a Mosaic miracle.
Saskatchewan led 31-30 before Rene Paredes kicked a 50-yard field goal on the final play to give Calgary a 33-31 victory.
Over the subsequent two games, Fine has completed 58 of 79 passes — a 73.4-per-cent accuracy rate — for 580 yards but, despite some close calls, has not been able to direct a touchdown drive.
The Roughriders’ lone major over those two contests was a 31-yard toss from Jake Dolegala to Shawn Bane Jr., late in the fourth quarter of a July 29 date with the Toronto Argonauts in Halifax.
A crisp performance by Dolegala, who threw for 100 yards on his one drive, incited a lively public debate as to who should start versus Ottawa.
However, Head Coach Craig Dickenson was quick to endorse Fine, who has stayed away from the fray.
“Obviously, you avoid the outside noises and you only listen to the opinions in that room and in that building — which are those of your coaches and your teammates,” he says.
“At the end of the night, I’m going to be my harshest critic. I’m going to go back and watch film. I’m going to be unbiased, but I’m going to be biased negatively sometimes toward myself. I’ve just got to keep growing and growing.
“There’s the noise and all that, but I’m going to put the pressure on myself. I’ve always been that way. I’m just a competitive person. I want to win games. When you’re not as successful as you want to be, I’m going to be disgruntled and upset with myself more than anyone else will be.
“I think you grow as a player, and you’ve got to have a certain attitude and a mindset that you use the negative to your advantage. You become a better player from it, and a better teammate.”
That is merely the latest example of the 5-foot-10 Fine turning a negative into a positive.
This is someone who, as long as he has played football, has dealt with and silenced skeptics who point to his height.
“Look, I know there’s going to be negative people,” says Fine, who starred at Locust Grove (Okla.) High School and the University of North Texas.
“I kind of grew up in a negative aspect of high school ball. In college, it was always like, “You’re just too short, too small. You’re not going to play.’
“With the negativity, I’m not going to let it bring me down. Instead, it was, ‘How can I use it to motivate me more?’ That’s kind of how I’ve done it — to use it as motivation and as an opportunity to succeed.
“I think that a player becomes better with pressure. I embrace it. I look forward to it. You try to make the most of it.
“In my past, it has usually worked out to be a positive and a success. Now, obviously, it’s a new situation — professional football — and it’s a new chapter, but I’m looking forward to it and I want to succeed.
“I want to bring success to this team and I want to win games. At the end of the day, no matter how we get it done, I want to win football games.”
Even when the desired objective is achieved, Fine is resolutely disinclined to spike the ball.
“It’s weird, because I feel like I’m never satisfied,” the third-year Roughrider says. “That’s how it was in high school. When you make it to college, it could be like, ‘Man, you made it to Division I. You’ve got your school paid for. You’re a starting quarterback as a true freshman. Now you’ve made it.’ It was like, ‘No, I haven’t.’
“As soon as I accomplish something, I want to climb that next mountain. I had this weird feeling, even after I got here and I made the team. It was like, ‘Proud accomplishment.’ Nope. I’ve got a lot more things I want to accomplish.
“It’s a feeling of looking at yourself in the mirror and never being satisfied and never really being kind of happy with where you’re at.
“I think that’s what makes good players great, though. No matter where I’m at in my situation, there’s always something to work on. There’s always something to improve on. I don’t know why it is but, the way I’m wired, I’m never really satisfied and I’m never really happy with my performance.
“I’m never happy with how the day went. I’m never happy with how the practice went. There’s always something to get better at and I always kick myself for not doing something.”
Consider this episode from Friday’s practice.
“I missed a corner ball and I was so upset, because it was a perfect play and I felt so mad,” he says. “You control what you can control but, at the end of the day, for some reason, I’m never happy, no matter what. It’s always something.
“Once I reach something, I set a new goal and try to accomplish that. It’s weird. I don’t know why, but it is that way.”
There isn’t really a choice.
“You’ve got to strive to be a perfectionist at this professional level, at this high level,” Fine states. “You can never be complacent with your play.
“Whether it’s fair or not, that’s the mindset you’ve got to have — strive for perfection and never be complacent. That’s just the way it has to be.”
