Sam Hurl has looked at life from both sides now.
The 28-year-old linebacker began his CFL career with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2012 after being selected in that year’s draft out of the University of Calgary.
After three campaigns with the Roughriders, Hurl signed as a free agent with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and spent three seasons with them.
Now Hurl is back with the Roughriders — he signed as a free agent in February — and he returned to them knowing what it’s like to be on the other side of their annual Labour Day rivalry with the Bombers.
“I feel so fortunate to be part of this rivalry for seven years,” Hurl said after Thursday’s closed practice at Mosaic Stadium. “It’s amazing, really. There is no other rivalry like it in the CFL and I feel like, in Canada, it’s one of the biggest rivalries in sports.
“It’s just fun to be a part of it as a player because it means so much to the fans. Not that that changes its importance for us as players, but it’s just fun to see the fans really excited about it. It’s fun as a player to feel the energy that’s going on in the stadium in a big game like this.”
Saskatchewan plays host to Winnipeg on Sunday in the 54th edition of the Labour Day Classic (1 p.m., CKRM, TSN).
Among the current Roughriders who are former Bombers are Hurl, defensive back Jovon Johnson, guard Brendon LaBatte and tailback Cameron Marshall. Ex-Roughriders now with the Blue and Gold include receivers Nic Demski and Weston Dressler, offensive linemen Jermarcus Hardrick and Pat Neufeld, tailback Kienan LaFrance and long-snapper Chad Rempel.
Playing on both sides of the annual feud would seem to be like one of the Hatfields attending a McCoy family reunion, but apparently it’s not that bad. In fact …
“It’s great,” said LaBatte, who spent four seasons (2008-11) with the Bombers before signing a free-agent deal with Saskatchewan in 2012. “To be able to think back about all the abuse that we took being on the other sideline, it was fun.
“It has definitely made me a better player and able to handle the big games that you can get a little emotionally charged for. It has helped me be able to control that a little bit, so it has been a good thing for my career.”
Roughriders fans on the east side of historic Mosaic Stadium were known to be particularly nasty during the Labour Day Classic, heaping all kinds of verbal abuse on the Bombers.
Former Bombers kicker Troy Westwood in particular was a favourite target, especially after his comments about Roughriders fans and banjos prior to a 2003 playoff game.
Even LaBatte — a Weyburn product and a former member of the University of Regina Rams — heard some things while standing on the Bombers’ sideline.
“I remember some pretty good chirps coming from over there,” he said. “Where it can really start to pile on is if you have a bad play and then you start getting heckled about it. Then it’s like, ‘Well, I’m not going to let that guy say that again,’ so you try to do a little bit more.
“I think when I was a younger guy, that used to get to me. If I gave up a hit on the quarterback or something and they started talking smack to me from behind, it was tough to block out and just flush.”
Hurl, on the other hand, wasn’t put off by the fans’ behaviour.
“I get so engaged in the game, it’s tough to even hear it; I almost block it out,” he said. “I know how intense they are into the whole game and I know it’s not going to help me to get too caught up in that.
“The only thing that I do pick up on is the energy and you can really feel that in these games.”
Some even feel the energy before the game.
On Thursday, LaBatte said his lasting memory of Labour Day is a “a pretty good rumble” between a fan of each team at the old stadium — and LaBatte wasn’t sure the contest had even started. LaBatte, who was just a kid at the time, was attending his first-ever Classic.
A first-round draft pick of the Bombers in 2008, LaBatte played in his first-ever Classic that year. He had to provide tickets for a long list of friends and relatives, but it was worth it for him.
“That was definitely the biggest game I was able to play in that year,” he said. “It was one I had circled right from the time I was able to join the Bombers. It definitely couldn’t have come fast enough.”
He’s preparing to play in the 10th Classic of his career — he missed the 2016 game due to injury — so he now is able to treat it like any other game.
“When I was younger, I used to get a lot more emotionally involved and tried to do more than what I was capable of doing,” LaBatte said. “I tried to do a little extra and usually ended up doing a little less.
“As I’ve got older, the one thing I’ve come to be able to do a little bit better is treat every game the same whether it’s a pre-season game or the Grey Cup. You’ve got to focus on yourself and not let the situation get you to do anything that you wouldn’t regularly do.”
