Mosaic Stadium on Friday night has to be the highlight of the calendar year so far and we're already into the seventh month!
Picture it; near perfect summer conditions (sunny, 26 degrees Celsius and no wind), a record crowd for a Saskatchewan Roughriders home-opener (35,296), and an early-season first place showdown in the CFL West between a pair of 1-0 teams, Saskatchewan and Calgary.
The stage was set, and Canada's Team didn't let the Rider Nation down.
Quarterback Darian Durant passed for 258 yards and two touchdowns while tailback Kory Sheets took over the CFL rushing lead with 133 yards and a touchdown as Saskatchewan overpowered its top rival 36-21 to take over sole-ownership of top spot in the league's toughest division.
It's only two weeks in, but the Green & White are the only undefeated team in the Canadian Football League at 2-0.
Take a bow.
Many, many times over the course of the year my friends from across the country - and even from across Saskatchewan - say 'what's it like in Regina right now?'
They are, of course, referring to the Rider Nation, and always wonder how the fans are dealing with the team's inevitable ups and downs.
Well, right now, this city is coming off its hinges. It was evident even before Friday's game, as business people and random fans alike wore their Rider jerseys all day long in all corners of the city. Many knocked off for the day around noon and threw their own tailgate parties before convening at the stadium for kickoff. It turned out to be a round-the-clock party.
And while the Riders trailed for much of Friday's game, they slowly took a death-grip on the proceedings and squeezed the life out of the reigning West Division champions. The Stamps looked like a stubborn weed that had been doused with a killer spray and eventually withered up and blew away.
Cue the party! Fans tooted their horns on the city streets all night long and no one really wanted to go home as the Rider Nation sang arm-in-arm and soaked up the sweet senses of success.
It's only Week 2 you say? Who cares! The Riders are on top right now and that means the province can stick out its chest for at least another week.
As far as the team itself goes, they celebrated the win for an hour or two after the game and then immediately turned their attention to this week's game in Toronto against the 1-1 Argonauts, the defending Grey Cup champions.
"I'd rather be the best team in the CFL in November rather than in July," star Rider slotback Weston Dressler, who had 108 yards and a touchdown against Calgary, said after the game.
He's right of course. But for a fanbase which is so quick to turn on each other, and on the team, in the bad times, now is the time to get excited. The stats are right there staring us in the face; Darian Durant has been perfect so far, not turning the ball over once in two games and making excellent, smart decisions. No one seems to have more detractors than Durant but at this point in time, those people have nothing to say.
Will it stay that way?
Who knows. We were just as deliriously happy last year at this time when the Roughriders opened with back-to-back wins and, in fact, stretched their season-opening win streak to three games. However the bottom quickly fell out and the team lost five-in-a-row and carried a 3-5 record into the Labour Day Classic.
What did head coach Corey Chamblin, a rookie coach at the time, learn from those experiences last year? We're about to find out.
And you know the adversity is lurking right around the corner. They're not going to go 18-0 and nobody wants them to anyways. The Grey Cup trophy is the pot of silver at the end of the rainbow and it's still a long, long ways off.
