Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
Ron Lancaster, George Reed, Roger Aldag are Roughrider legends and Darian Durant deserves to be spoken of in the same regard as those three greats.
Winning hasn’t come easy for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in their history, with just four Grey Cups so the teams that did accomplish a championship are instant heroes to those in Riderville.
As for the quarterbacks who led the teams there, they’re held to another level and Durant is there with Lancaster, Kent Austin, and Kerry Joseph.
For Durant, he should have two championship starts under his name if it weren’t for an extra player on the field at the conclusion of the 2009 Grey Cup.
But the one he does own is the biggest win in Roughrider history alongside the first ever Grey Cup in 1966.
You could say 2013 was the year of Darian Durant for the Roughriders. He had career highs that season in many key statistical categories but it was more than the numbers that told the story of that magical season. Many of his former teammates say Durant willed that team to a title on home soil.
He would not be stopped.
“If you cut me open, I am sure that I would bleed green. I named my daughter Amayah Taylor, after Taylor Field.”
– Former Riders QB Darian Durant
The 101st Grey Cup silenced anyone who doubted Darian Durant’s abilities, capturing what many argue was the team’s most historic title win in franchise history on home turf.
The 2013 Western Semi-Final was looking ominous for the Roughriders against the B.C. Lions. Nothing was going right until Durant had enough.
He called his own number several times, running for a season high 97-yards and leading them to a berth in the Western Final. He threw three touchdowns against Calgary the next week to capture his third West title as starting quarterback for the Riders in five seasons.
The Grey Cup seemed to be a given once game day came and Durant came through with three more touchdown passes, completing his goal; to win his first Grey Cup as a starter at Mosaic Stadium.
He finished those playoffs with eight touchdown passes and zero interceptions, in one of the greatest playoff efforts by a quarterback in CFL history, let alone Rider history.
The moment will never be stripped from the memory banks from the 44,000 in attendance and millions of Rider fans watching around the globe.
When Durant lifted the Grey Cup, it was another image engrained in memory as the years of heartbreak, struggle, disappointment and determination was lifted off his shoulders.
Saskatchewan all wanted Durant to get that chance. They all knew he deserved that moment.
That is why today, tears were shed by his biggest fans when they read his letter.
“If you cut me open, I am sure that I would bleed green,” wrote Durant. Adding, “I named my daughter Amayah Taylor, after Taylor Field.”
It was clear when Durant was traded and contract negotiations stalled that he didn’t really want to leave but it was a relationship with the current brass that wasn’t going to be mended.
The cliché of you can take the boy out of Saskatchewan but you can’t take Saskatchewan out of the boy is usually reserved for those who are born and raised here. But clearly it applies to Durant.
And that is why as much as Durant loves Saskatchewan, the fans love him right back for helping give them their greatest Rider memory.
He says he’ll be back soon and Saskatchewan can’t wait to see him and meet one of the newest members of Rider Nation that bears the name of a field they all hold so dear.
