If nice guys finish last, then the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos should end up in a two-way tie for fourth place in the CFL West this year.
You couldn't find two nicer guys to put on opposite benches before 55,000 people in Commonweath Stadium in a battle for first tonight than Ken Miller and Richie Hall. Which is perfectly appropriate for the retro game celebrating the '60s era when Nice Neill Armstrong was the coach of the Eskimos.
The two are a study going into this one for more than their niceness, however.
Playing on the wind in the background is the question if the Roughriders picked the wrong Mr. Nice Guy to be head coach two years ago when they took a pass on longtime player and defensive co-ordinator Hall to hire the 66-year-old offensive co-ordinator.
Hall was hired this year as head coach of the Evil Empire, which hired Rider icons Hugh Campbell and Ron Lancaster before him.
And Hall is 2-0 lifetime going against Saskatchewan -- 3-0 if you count the pre-season -- going into today's 4 p.m. game in the big stadium where Gang Green has only managed to win one of their last 11.
"I absolutely detest being 0-2 against him," Miller laughed at yesterday's press conference.
"But he's a great guy. Philosophically we're very similar."
It is my contention that when it came to picking between Miller and Hall it was so close they ended up going with the guy who most looked like he'd be at home sitting on a self-propelled swather.
Hall swears he had no hard feelings.
"I was happy for him," he said of Miller.
"I'm not going to lie. I wished I'd had the opportunity. But I was happy for him because he's a heck of a man and I admire the way he carries himself.
"He's a man of integrity. He's a winner. He's a good leader. We had a great relationship as coaches together in Saskatchewan. I wanted to be the guy but I wasn't. Life goes on. I have so much respect for the guy that I went back to work on his staff. Why would I stay on there if I had any animosity toward him?"
Hall said he was actually happy they hired a nice guy even if it wasn't him. It's like there's a rule in football that you don't hire a nice guy as a head coach.
"Why not?" asked Hall. "It's about being successful. Why not hire a nice person? Why not have fun when you do it? It's all about getting players prepared to play and having players play hard for you."
Miller, in his first two years as a head coach, has definitely had his players playing hard for him.
As for being 2-0 against Miller, Hall laughs.
"I'm happy to be 2-0 against anybody."
But why not get greedy?
"Being 2-0 against them is nice. Nicer would be 3-0."
You wonder how Miller felt watching Hall get a standing ovation before the first game in Regina this year during a weekend to celebrate Saskatchewan's 1989 Grey Cup team for which he played.
Even Sunday, on his second game back, Hall received an exceptionally warm stadium-wide sitting ovation at the start of the game.
"There was a difference in my emotions," Hall said of the first visit from the second.
"The first one? I can't even describe it. It was very emotional.
"The way they welcomed me back, I didn't even know how to react. It wasn't easy to coach a football game after that.
"In that first one we were down 22 points and came back to win. I'd have been just as happy if we'd done that against Calgary or Toronto.
"The second time in, last weekend, we were playing for first place coming off a devastating loss the last game out and I really wanted to see how we'd react with that crowd and going into that wind and we started with an eight-minute drive.
"It was about us, not about Saskatchewan. And that's what it is for me now.
"It's about getting the Edmonton Eskimos to Calgary in the last weekend of November. We both want to be there."
Saskatchewan obviously finds it hard not to cheer for Richie Hall. And there's probably one guy in Edmonton who can't help but cheer for Miller, that being Pat Quinn, the 66-year-old coach of the Edmonton Oilers.
"The big concern of most of my contemporaries is keeping the ball in the middle of the fairway," said Miller.
"It keeps me motivated. If I look a little younger than some of my contemporaries, it's because I'm working hard to achieve something that is special."
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA
