Dear Stampeders...

I don't want to pretend to say "It's OK - we will get them next year". That is what I said LAST year when you put on a good fight in the second half of the season and got to the semi-finals.

This year you were great from the start. You came out strong. You seemed to have a plan. You were confident. You lost as many games as you won, it's true, but you had climbed out of the loser ditch where you had been dwelling these last few years. You had succeeded in beating those Riders twice before to take the regular season series. You had clinched second place in the west and a home field advantage for this game. You even banned the Gopher - lest his fuzzy voodoo taint the field. And look what you have done. You collapsed. Again.

With your six turnovers and two interceptions and missed field goal you lost. You took your SIXTEEN point lead and lost. Again. Repeat performances of this kind are not impressive. They are sad. They are frustrating. And, considering your start to the game and the stakes of its result - they are NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! I cannot possibly understand what happened. I saw what happened but it is too pathetic to accept as real football.

Next week, as I watch Saskatchewan take your place against BC I will have a heavy heart. It was going to be our year. I really believed it was. I had all the faith I could muster in you this year and you let me down. My only consolation is now I don't have to buy the beer for Grey Cup. But I won't have any cheer either.

See you next season.
- Raye