Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Yes, I played at Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field today. The Riders are short some players due to injury, so they can use as many people in their 20s as they can get. Seriously though it was just a group of about 25 guys who shelled out about $10 each for the chance to play 2 hours on the legendary field.

The turf has tiny chips of rubber not much bigger than large boogers if you’d like to picture that. And I only just realized now, 30 minutes after playing for nearly 2 hours, that I hadn’t had anything to drink… oops. (chugs water) OK, back to the description of the field. I tried running half the field, and did alright, but turning around at the goal line and trying to sprint back to the 55 wasn’t working out so well. Plus that was just a minute before we all left the stadium, so I was a little bit more tired I guess. In the first “quarter” I got beat (barely) for a touchdown, but Wayne (the runner) hurt his leg by outrunning me in high gear. Later in the game another player tried the same thing, but I ran him down (and fell over him without injury to either of us).

Overall, I kicked a practice field goal from a foot held tee, from 20 yards out, and was short and wide from the 30. I had 2 sacks, and was sacked twice. Punted twice fairly well for an average of probably 35 yards with the wind. I caught two passes for positive yards, and made at least 2 passes and 2 rushes for positive yards. It looked like everyone had a fun time, and everyone caught at least a pass. We played the whole length of the field, and half the width or to the near hash markers. I was hoping for a touchdown, but maybe next “season”.

Video to come later, including interviews with some of the players, and field goals. Photos are here for now until I add 200 more to Flickr.

UPDATE: Here’s the video –

February 19, 2002
This web format is a bit of an experiment. I may change the interface in my editor so that I can write more effectively. [update Mar. 18: experiment failed; I'm going to put my text in another way, since much of one of my stories was half deleted.] Ah, don’t go! I’ll keep the tech blab at a minimum from now on… Today was a slow TV day, so I did some exercise, laundry, and updated my web site for the first time in weeks. I got my DSL installed yesterday, so I can finally video conference with my family, friends, and girlfriend. Too bad I’m going to Toronto on the weekend and won’t get to test it out ;-)