“What we do now echoes in eternity.”  Or so said, allegedly, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Do football teams have some sort of institutional memory? Alan Ford, the Swiss Army Knife of the Golden Age of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and the general manager of the team during that weird but legendary flare-up of competence in the 1989 CFL playoffs (and the even weirder 1997 playoffs), has a grandson.  That grandson is Jaxon Ford, the rookie safety for the 2023 Saskatchewan Roughriders who was pressed into service—during the biggest game of the season (so far)—for injured starting safety Jayden Dalke.

Yesterday’s Labour Day game was not only the biggest game of the season (so far), it was the biggest win of the season (so far). And who sealed that win?  Jaxon Ford did, doing the same kind of thing Alan Ford did to win games over 50 years ago. Right place, right time.  Right man for the job. Right name for the job.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes (Mark Twain, allegedly), and on that evening, in the dying seconds of an overtime classic, Ford rhymed with Ford.

The Football Gods looked down upon Mosaic Stadium, wondered what the hell happened to Taylor Field, but nevertheless decided the butt-headed headbutt of Pete Robertson was not going to stand as the defining moment of a potentially season-defining game.

And how do those same Football Gods reward the Saskatchewan Roughriders?  By making them play the Blue Bombers again, next week, in Winnipeg.