By Mitchell Blair
For Riderville.com
Jason Clermont and Chris Getzlaf will both come to Mosaic Stadium on Saturday hoping they can help their team win its home finale against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. They hope to leave a few hours later having gotten that win and reaching a personal milestone.
The Regina-born receivers are both looking for a career accomplishment in Saturday’s battle. Clermont goes into the game with 499 career catches while Getzlaf is 83 yards away from registering his first 1,000 yard campaign.
For Clermont, the 33-year-old has had a distinguished career already and this would add to the legacy of arguably the best Canadian receiver in the CFL in the 2000’s. He does admit though that the next catch will be special and will equal a goal that he had set out at the start of the season.
“I wanted to come into the year and get to that 500 mark,” Clermont said. “It would be nice to get some playing time and make a few catches on Saturday and in the finale against Edmonton. Truthfully, I thought three years ago, I would have been above 500 by now but I’ve gotten to that level and now I just want to get it done.”
Clermont also feels that getting to the 500 catch mark won’t put validation on a career that has already been outstanding.
“I think with the time I spent in B.C and the things I did there speaks volumes about what I have done.” Clermont believes. “I don’t think I really have anything more to prove when it comes to how people talk about my career.”
There is a possibility that Saturday’s game could be the last one in a Riders uniform for the grad of Robert Usher high school who went on to a great career with the University of Regina Rams before finally getting his chance to suit up with his hometown team in 2009. It’s something that he doesn’t want to talk about at this time.
“I just want to get a win,” Clermont stated. “What happens after the season happens. I just want to get a win and so does everyone else in that room.
As for Getzlaf, he flirted with the magical 1,000 yard figure last year finishing with 946. He acknowledges that the number is close, but he says he’s not going to do anything out of the ordinary to get to that mark.
“You’ve got to take it how it comes,” Getzlaf admits. “If the passes are thrown in my direction that’s great and it would be a tremendous accomplishment, but my bigger concern is winning football games and finishing the season on a strong note. If that means the wins come without me catching the football, I’ll take it.”
Getzlaf also hopes that the accomplishment if it should happen is something that isn’t diminished because of the team’s win-loss record.
“I don’t know, it’s up to the media to decide if it’s a big deal or not.” Getzlaf said. “There is a top Canadian award out there and there are a lot of good Canadian football players out there, so there is a good race. My season may be overshadowed a little because of the record, but you’ve got to go out there and win games to be noticed and we have struggled doing that this year. If I was to win that honour or get the team honour, it would be a great accomplishment because of the Canadian talent we have had on this team now and in the past.”
Your last chance to see the Riders in action at Mosaic Stadiun will be Saturday against Hamilton. Game time is 1 p.m. with 620 CKRM bringing you all of it beginning with pre-game activities at 10:30 a.m. If you can’t make it to Mosaic, TSN will have the game starting at 1 o’clock.
