A college coach once told our team “You’re allowed to have a bad day because every once in a while everyone has a bad day…but if you’re going to be a good football player, you can’t have a bad day on game day.”  Those words I heard my freshman year have stuck with me my entire career and I have worked and prepared each week to make sure that even though I may have a bad practice one day it won’t result into a bad game.  Has it always worked? I wish I could say yes but the truth is that I have had a bad day on game day a few times in my career.  Last Saturday was unfortunately one of those days where I didn’t play as well as I should have.  By no means did I have a terrible game but there are about 4-5 plays in that game I wish I could have back and done better on.  Whenever I tell my parents that they always say “But that’s 5 plays out of 60, you did well on the other 55 right?” which is true but those 5 plays might have made a difference in the game.  I spoke to a few people while running errands around the city today and they all wanted to know the same thing: “What happened?” (my favorite question!)…Was it because the flu is making its way through the team? Was it the long day of travel before? Was it because you guys were coming off two tough games? Did you guys trick or treat too hard before the game? The answer is actually simple: On that specific day in Hamilton, they simply played better than we did…simple.  I still think our defense played well but they were on the field way too much due to turnovers.  Our special teams played well too and made some nice plays.  We just needed to play better on offense to give us a chance to win the game.  The good news is we still clinched a home playoff game and have a chance to win the Western division this upcoming Saturday.  Despite all the ups and downs we’ve had this year we accomplished our goal to put ourselves in a position to win 1st place in the West…I’m telling you guys, it doesn’t get much better than that.  Now it’s time to get back to work on the field and be ready for battle on Saturday.  The next few weeks will be very exciting and our goal remains the same: to bring the Grey Cup back to Saskatchewan so that every resident can once again drink beer out of it…or have your morning Froot Loops out of it, whatever floats your boat.
   
    Late in the season, it always seems like days melt into one another and then weeks just fly by.  The last thing I remember is being at my mom’s house during our bye week and that was mid-August!  The body takes a little longer to heal after each game so light workouts, ice cold tubs and steam room sittings are a must.  I try to take it easy and stay off my feet at night by watching game tape and catching the occasional movie.  Just last week my fiancée and I went to see “Couples Retreat” at the movie theater and it was a pretty funny movie.  Since we think it’s ridiculous to pay $119 for two sodas and a small bag of M&Ms in the theater, one of us usually goes over to Shoppers and picks up some snacks while the other one goes and gets the tickets.  She offered to pick up the snacks so I ask her to get me a Snickers and soda…I was feeling like a traditional snack that night.  When the previews started she handed me my soda and a small Snickers bar…a small Snickers bar!  I asked her “Are you trying to tell me something?” to which she replied “What do you mean?”…“You got me the small Snickers, what the hell?” and she said “Oh sorry, I didn’t think you’d want a big one.”  She then proceeded to pull out her snack from her purse: a Costco size bag of Skittles!  I then asked her “So you didn’t think a 300lb offensive lineman would want a big Snickers but you got yourself a bag of Skittles big enough to feed the entire theater???”…and I tell you my friends, I’m not making this stuff up…

Marc Parenteau #57