Saskatchewan Roughriders image has changed drastically: Dave Naylor

In light of the changing front office of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, CBC Radio's The Afternoon Edition checked in with TSN's Dave Naylor about what's in store for the Roughriders and how their image has changed over the last several years. Here is a partial transcript of the interview, edited for length and clarity.

How common is it for the entire staff to follow the head coach to a new team?

It's fairly uncommon. I mean, the nature of when coaches are interviewed for a head coaching job in the Canadian Football League, usually one of the first questions they will be asked — and they know they will be asked — is, who will you bring as your staff? Who can you recruit to come with you?

And I'm sure that was something that came up when Chris Jones spoke to the Saskatchewan Roughriders initially. The unique situation in this one is that you had an entire staff of coaches who had expiring contracts at the same time. A team doesn't want to leave itself in that vulnerable of position. That's something the Eskimos did and made it easy for Chris Jones to basically bring all but one of his coaches with him to Saskatchewan. 

You've got a staff now in Saskatchewan both in the front office [with John Murphy] and along the sidelines that have a history of working together, which is a very good thing for the Roughriders. 

If you're an Edmonton Eskimos fan you can't be very happy with Riders organization today. How does something like this reflect back on the Riders?

It's not like they've gone out and over paid to get Chris Jones and his staff.- Dave Naylor

I think that people understand the Riders are being very aggressive because one, they can pay people. And I don't think they pay people beyond the market, it's not like they've gone out and over paid to get Chris Jones and his staff. And everyone knows they've got a great opportunity because of the fan base there and because of the fact that in 2017 they're going into that new stadium. 

There's no question I think there's going to be a rivalry between these two teams. I think though, in Edmonton's case, fans may be more angry at the Eskimos for not doing more to try to stop this, to try to retain the staff. They're not so much angry at Saskatchewan for going after these guys than they might be at their own organization for trying to stop it. 

Has the Riders image changed over the years? 

It's changed drastically. I worked in that market in 1994, 1995. I remember when there were players in those days when the salary cap was not being enforced and you just knew they weren't going to be in Saskatchewan for very long because they couldn't afford to pay them. And there was this sense that the Riders were in the business of survival, not necessarily of winning.

I think it's one of the great metamorphoses I've seen in professional sports in my career.- Dave Naylor, on the Saskatchewan Roughriders

But there is no question that the Roughriders image around the Canadian Football League has completely changed and their fan base has kind of helped bolster that by their presence. It's almost like they've become the Saskatchewan Yankees, if you know what I mean, [that's] the image people have of the league, that whatever the Riders want they can get done with the economic means to do it or by promising players and coaches now great facilities coming in 2017. And that they're going to play in a market where the Canadian Football League matters like it matters nowhere else. That combination of things makes the Saskatchewan Roughriders the Titan of Canadian Football League franchises. 

I think it's one of the great metamorphoses I've seen in professional sports in my career and I've been doing this a quarter century.

Does a strong Roughrider team benefit the entire league?

No question. I think when we talk about the ratings that were down on TSN nationally, I believe about 15 per cent overall, and you talk about the reason why. There were two, I think, that stood out above all others. One was the Toronto Blue Jays, whose rise from the end of July to mid-October really dominated the storyline in Canada and television sports viewers.

 But the other one was the Saskatchewan Roughriders having a down year. And the fact that the Roughriders got off not just on a bad year, but had a bad year right out of the gate — that kind of moved the needle on the television scale. 

I'll tell you where else it played out a little bit was at the Grey Cup. You look at this Grey Cup, it was one of the smaller crowds for the Grey Cup. You put it on the prairie, you think that will be a slam dunk, but I think a big part of it, and I was at this Grey Cup, was the absence of fans running around in green with [letter] Ss on their chest. They weren't there in the numbers we were used to seeing them. Again, I think that's part of the malaise.

There's no question the Saskatchewan Roughriders are a huge economic driver for the Canadian Football League and when you see them have a year like they did this past year it's measurable right across the CFL.