Dariusz Bladek readily admits that he wasn’t focused during the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ most-recent game.
On Saturday morning, before the CFL’s Roughriders took on the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Bladek got a call informing him that his grandfather, Stanley Bladek, was recovering after suffering a heart attack in Wallington, N.J.
“It was tough for me in the first half (of the game) not knowing what was going on,” the younger Bladek — the Roughriders’ starting right guard — recalled after returning to Regina.
“I knew that he had a heart attack, I knew that he had to go into surgery and I knew that I had to get home. But I also knew that I had to finish out the game. Luckily we got the win, so that always feels better.”
Saskatchewan won the contest 32-27 and Bladek made it through with a little help from his friends.
“I have a lot of good guys around me,” he said. “Not many people knew what was going on. Some people saw me tearing up while we were getting dressed. I tried to do my routine but it was tough. I couldn’t really focus during the game.
“But around halftime, when I got to call my family and figure out what was going on, all the guys saw how I was. They gathered around me and they helped me focus. It still wasn’t easy, but I got it done. That’s being a professional. You’ve got to be able to block things out, even if it’s family.”
Bladek got permission from the coaching staff to return to New Jersey, so he flew from Winnipeg to Toronto to Newark.
By the time Bladek arrived at the hospital in Hackensack on Sunday morning, his grandfather had had one operation but needed another. That bypass surgery could happen at any time.
Bladek got to spend time with his grandfather and other family members during his brief stay. He missed Tuesday’s practice with the team’s blessing, but returned in time to prepare for Saturday’s contest against the visiting Ottawa Redblacks (7:30 p.m., CKRM, TSN).
He’s still thinking about his grandfather, but the second-year CFLer knows he has a job to do.
“If anyone understands what it takes to work hard, it would be him, coming from Poland and working in New York City and eventually making enough money to bring the whole family to the States,” Bladek said. “He made it easy for me to leave (and return to Regina).
“When I told him I had to go but wished I didn’t have to, he asked me, ‘When are you getting married? When are the grandkids coming?’ That hit me hard because my grandma is also sick and I would love to do that for them. But all in good time. It was a good laugh and we took a nice picture together; that was the first time we smiled the whole time.”
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Saskatchewan may be playing host to Ottawa on Saturday, but the Roughriders still piped in crowd noise in the latter stages of Thursday’s practice at Mosaic Stadium.
They practised with the noise prior to Saturday’s game in Winnipeg, but that’s because the crowd at Investors Group Field is notoriously tough on visiting teams. The game against Ottawa, however, is a home game.
“The last time we played here, we had a large crowd, so anytime you get that many people in a small area, there’s going to be noise,” Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones explained. “We just wanted to make sure at the end that we had worked all of our substitution issues out prior to getting to game day.”
Did the ploy help during the contest in Winnipeg?
“I thought so,” Jones replied. “But we took a time count and there were two other times where the quarterback had issues getting the call from the speaker in his headgear, so we’ve got to try to do everything we can do to make sure that we’re ready to play.”
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The Roughriders will have strong-side linebacker Derrick Moncrief back in the lineup Saturday.
Moncrief missed the past six games due to the shoulder injury that he suffered in Saskatchewan’s 31-20 victory over the host Hamilton Tiger-Cats on July 19.
Matt Elam has played the Sam spot in Moncrief’s absence, so the Roughriders now have a logjam at linebacker and in the secondary. With the ongoing rotation of older defensive backs like Crezdon Butler and Jovon Johnson, the roster possibilities for Saturday’s game are numerous.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who buy into our system and buy into what we do and the way we practise,” Jones said. “The common denominator is we all can man-cover.”
One other roster move is in the offing, as Jones noted that defensive end/special-teamer Jordan Reaves won’t play against Ottawa due to an undisclosed injury.
Late Thursday, the Roughriders announced they had released international receivers Derek Keaton and Jordan Smallwood as well as international DB Will Blackmon.
The receivers were signed to the practice roster earlier this week, while Blackmon played in one game — the Labour Day Classic on Sept. 2.
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After surrendering 158 yards rushing to Winnipeg tailback Andrew Harris in the Labour Day Classic, Saskatchewan held Harris to 21 yards last Saturday.
The Redblacks don’t run the ball as much as Winnipeg — they’re eighth in the league with an average of 89.2 yards per game — but Jones isn’t convinced that Ottawa will solely launch an aerial assault Saturday.
“Every time we’ve played them, that little back has been a thorn in our side,” Jones said of William Powell, who has rushed 63 times for 389 yards and a TD in four career games against Saskatchewan. “We’ve got to be prepared for them to hand the football off.
“If you’re them, you’ve got to look back and see the last team that had success in the run (against the Roughriders) is Winnipeg (in the Labour Day Classic). I don’t expect (the Redblacks) to do anything to deviate from what they’ve done the last few times.”
