Saskatchewan linebacker Jerrell Freeman may have saved the Roughriders' season with a crucial fumble recovery in the West Final, but he wasn't expecting the reward he got when the Riders returned to Saskatchewan. When the team plane touched down in Regina amidst a tumultuous celebration, Roughriders' fan Giovanni Palamara handed Freeman $100. Here are the details from Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post:
"I watched the game with my brother,'' Palamara said at the Regina International Airport. "After (Freeman) made that play, I said, 'I'm going to give him $100.'
"I just went up to him and said, 'Here's $100. You saved the game for us.' ''
Freeman responded with an enthusiastic thank-you, after which he posed for a photograph with Palamara.
At Thursday's media breakfast with the Roughriders, Freeman (pictured above, middle, at the Riders' media breakfast Thursday with Rider president and CEO Jim Hopson, fullback Stu Foord, offensive lineman/long snapper Jocelyn Frenette and CFL commissioner Mark Cohon) said it was quite the situation.
"This guy just walked up and handed me five $20s!" he said.
Freeman said he didn't see that coming.
"I was surprised, I was shocked, I was like ‘Okay, well, I'll take it!'" he said. "I signed some stuff for them. It was a great welcome, it was crazy."
Freeman said gestures like that are proof of the tremendous fan following the Riders have.
"You notice it when you go to other cities, you're going to see green," he said. "We've got the most passionate fans."
Freeman, from Waco, Texas, is in his second season with the Roughriders. He said the pressure of playing in Regina is nothing new to him, considering the rabid audiences for high school football in Texas (which Buzz Bissinger described in the original Friday Night Lights).
"My high school's stadium was almost as big as the one we play in right now," Freeman said. "Football's a pretty big thing down there. There's a lot of competition."
He said the CFL environment in Regina is just as intense, though.
"The pressure's about the same," he said. "You have a game, the whole city shuts down. Everyone's at the game."
Going from Texas to Saskatchewan was quite the culture shock for Freeman, especially with the cold, but he said his teammates helped him through it.
"When I first got here, I was a little homesick, but guys took me in," he said. "We've got a lot of good leaders on this team. They showed me the ropes; I walked around with them and had fun on the weekends. It was a big change, for sure."
Those teammates also helped him on the field. Freeman only saw limited action in 2009, but he said playing on the same side of the field as CFL veterans like Eddie Davis and Omarr Morgan helped him acclimatize quickly.
"My rookie year, when I did get into games on defence, it was with Eddie and Omarr on the same side as me, so I didn't have to do too much. I just had to do my job and not worry about anything else," Freeman said. "Wily veterans like that showed me the ropes."
Freeman is working with another veteran this season, Riders' middle linebacker Barrin Simpson, a six-time CFL all-star who's been in the league since 2001 (and should have earned another all-star nod this year in my mind). He said he's learned a lot from Simpson.
"It's a privilege to play along with him."
Freeman said the transition from Texas to Saskatchewan hasn't been easy, but it's been worthwhile.
"I've enjoyed it," he said.
If he comes up with more big plays like the ones he made in the West Final, the fans in Saskatchewan might give him even more to enjoy. $100 won't last long, but the adulation of such a passionate group of fans can last forever.
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