I’d probably say the Calgary-Saskatchewan rivalry is the best I’ve ever been involved in.
Even in St. Louis, when I was with the Rams, there were some big ones with the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle, but not as big as this one. This one really goes overboard and you can see it with the fans and with all the action that goes on outside the stadium.
The thing with St. Louis is that the geography didn’t help — we had rivalries all the way out on the West Coast. With this one right here with Calgary and Saskatchewan, we’re right up the street. Here in Calgary, there are so many Saskatchewan fans.
But it’s good, though. It’s a fun game. It’s the same thing when you play in Regina. The fans are right on top of you and it’s all green. You’ve got to love that as a competitor. You’ve got to welcome all challenges.
But no matter what’s happening in the stands, you’ve got to play every game the same. They’re all big games to me. I’m not looking into the stands — once I’m on the field, I’m focused on the players on what I need to get done.
It might not be famous nationally, but in college I was involved in a longstanding rivalry — South Dakota-South Dakota State. That’s where it all goes. We were the Coyotes and we didn’t like those Jackrabbits. It’s bragging rights for the whole year. That’s the sweetest thing about it — when you see one of your friends from the other team, you can brag on them: “We whooped on you.”
But it was a lot of fun — it’s very similar to what we have going on here with Calgary and Saskatchewan. Everybody comes from everywhere to go to the game. Yeah, rivalry games are always fun. You always have to be up for a rivalry game. You see everything in those — late hits, clean shots . . . you might see anything. You might get your ears pinched and all sorts of other things happening in that pile that I can’t really mention. Anything you can think of, it goes down.
It’s just like a Calgary-Saskatchewan game. With all the red and green, it’s like the Christmas game. Hopefully I’ll get a present out of it.
I don’t think there’s any carry-over this year about what happened against the Riders last year. Whatever happens in this game won’t change the record from last year. Last year is last year and that’s done with. We’ve got a brand new year and we’re both 0-0 against each other. We’ve got to come out here and execute our game plan and just try to stay on top. We’re pushing for first place — that’s our goal and that’s the bottom line. We aren’t looking for anything else.
Dwight Anderson, #33
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