For those of us that thought Covid-19 had reared its ugly head for the last time, well, we were sadly mistaken. Covid-19 is as stubborn as they come apparently (it’s variants at least), and although it put a damper on everything since it first appeared, we can all agree that it did a number on the CFL we love so much.

Of course viruses mutate and adapt…like the common flu, or Influenza we had mostly gotten used to as a society, it mutates every single year to adapt. And such is the case for Covid-19.

Yes, people are getting vaccinated, but at the same time there are those that aren’t. Also at the same time, even when vaccinated, you can still get the virus.

I know dear readers; it seems impossible doesn’t it? That’s because it is.  

Well, it was the Roughriders themselves that pushed the game back because five members of the staff and a total of 13 players got infected with the virus, all testing positive. This will be the first time a game is moved like this because of Covid-19 this year/season, as has also been reported by thestar.com.

This is an official statement made by the Riders’ president and CEO, Craig Reynolds:

“To have to move our game is a worst-case scenario for us and something we never want to have to do…We know that our fans often plan to attend Rider games weeks and months in advance and there can be a lot of travel and logistics involved in that decision…

For that, we are truly sorry, but we hope by keeping the game on the same weekend and moving it to Sunday our fans will still be able to make it out to enjoy Family Day at Mosaic Stadium…

We have had an unfortunate reminder that COVID-19 is still a reality in our lives, but we will put our best foot forward when we play Sunday night…Family Day is one of my favorite games every year, and I can’t wait to have our fans there to cheer us on.”

via The Star

“…Unfortunate reminder,” indeed.

It’s odd that the game has been postponed by just a single day, or rather it would seem like it at first. A lot of us know that in this case, a day makes zero difference, but apparently, these tests were taken earlier in the week and the CFL urges that the cases have improved since then, making the single day postponement a safe one apparently.

The CFL added this to the above:

“The postponement was caused by a number of positive COVID-19 tests among Roughriders players and staff earlier this week…The situation has improved, and medical officials are now confident the game can go ahead safely on Sunday.”

via The Star (link above)

Related but not exactly, I give the following information to give a general idea of how the issues with Covid-19 are developing as fall approaches in Canada at least…. Fall was a time in which last year saw a massive spike in cases. Saskatchewan’s neighbors to the East, Manitoba, are seeing a spike in cases of the BA.5 variant of the virus…a variant of Omicron…and those infected, well half of them in fact, are made up of that variant exactly.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer, made the following statement regarding the variant:

“…(it) has been steadily increasing over the past many weeks and we anticipate that it will continue to trend…”

via CBC

Is this just the beginning of many more postponements in the CFL? What does the fall look like? For now, dear readers, we have no answers; only a hope that we won’t see another fall like last year’s.

Duke Williams Suspended For Actions During Last Week’s Game

And the disciplinary actions just keep on coming for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. At first it would have seemed that Duke Williams got away with throwing a helmet at Shaq Richardson of Toronto, but the player has been disciplined after all, the CFL suspending Williams on Wednesday, as CBC reports.

What makes this even worse is that Williams threw Shaq’s own helmet at him (it had gotten off his head at some point before the two got in each other’s faces)! For the record, Eli Mencer was also suspended for another incident but during the same game.

*For all your 2022 CFL Season News: CFL News Hub

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