'It hurts the whole family': Riders look to honour George Reed's legacy at next game

On Saturday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders will take to the field at Mosaic Stadium for their first game since the legendary George Reed passed away.

“We stand on the shoulders of the men that came before us and he was a great man. So all of our accomplishments or our proud moments, we have to recognize that a lot of that was made possible by the George Reeds,” shared Craig Dickenson, head coach, on what message he gave the team ahead of this weeks’ game.

“He’s what encompasses everything it means to be a Rider so to lose a legend like that, it hurts the whole family,” said quarterback, Jake Dolegala.

Reed, who was a day away from his 84th birthday, passed away on Sunday.

It will be a special occasion on Saturday as the team not only honours Reed’s legacy but will also see members of the 2013 Grey Cup Championship team in attendance for the annual ‘Plaza of Honour’ game.

“You just want to go out there and play. You don’t want to go out there and lay a dud. You want to go out there and play great football in honour of them,” shared running back, Jamal Morrow.

“I think that sort of acknowledgment of history and those that came before us is an important part of what we do as leaders in the organization. I think it just continues to shine and continues to be a point of emphasis for us and for me personally because we’re not here without the work that those guys did. So we appreciate it and really respect them,” said Dickenson.

However, the win will not come easy for the Riders who are on a four game slide. Of those four losses, the team has allowed 11 turnovers.

“We talked about that ironically this morning. We’ve given up 36 [turnovers] and we’ve taken away 23. So we’re minus 13, which is dead last in the CFL, which that is an indicator of winning and losing,” said Dickenson.

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“We have to protect the ball and we have to take it away. I mean, it’s pretty simple. You know, I think coach showed us some stats today and we’re towards the bottom tier of that category. So we are going to clean that up big time,” added Dolegala.

Despite the string of losses, the Riders are still in a playoff spot with three games remaining in their regular season. However, they know they need to make some changes to remain in that position.

However, Dickenson would not pinpoint exactly what those changes will entail.

“I think you’re going to see some new faces this week. I’m not going to tell you who but we’ve got some people out there that hopefully can give us a spark and give us a chance to win a game,” he said.