Photo: Rene Paredes has been traded, if you believe the plaque on his CFL award
REGINA—It was a pretty good Grey Cup week for Calgary Stampeders' kicker Rene Paredes, but only until he actually looked at his award. At the Gibson's Finest CFL Player Awards Thursday, Paredes picked up the league's Most Outstanding Special Teams Player Award, and did so in a blowout, collecting 47 of the 50 total votes in his matchup with Hamilton cover man Marc Beswick. However, as Scott Mitchell of The Calgary Sunpointed out, the league made a rather significant error on his award. Let's use the photo above and zoom in on that plaque...
Yes, stating that Paredes plays for the Saskatchewan Roughriders instead of the Stampeders is problematic, especially in a Grey Cup held in Regina. It's that sort of thing that's led players to complain about Saskatchewan bias in the past. Perhaps the engravers were Rider fans? Or maybe they just wanted to break up Calgary's dominance at the awards, as fellow Stampeders Brett Jones and Jon Cornish also won. Regardless, Paredes wasn't thrilled, and neither was his former teammate Romby Bryant, as you can see from their Twitter discussion below:
Still can't believe they wrote roughriders on my trophy.HUGE mistake on their part #stampederforlife
— Rene Paredes (@RParedes30) November 22, 2013
@RParedes30 wow so disrespectful — Romby Bryant (@tharbryant) November 22, 2013
“@tharbryant: @RParedes30 wow so disrespectful” very lol
— Rene Paredes (@RParedes30) November 22, 2013
Paredes' season was definitely worth recognition. He finished with an outstanding 94.7 per cent success rate on field goals, best in the league, and also set a league record for consecutive field goals with 39 (even if that was aided by an unusual rule). The error isn't a huge deal, of course, and the CFL will reportedly fix it. It would have been nicer for Paredes if the league had gotten his team right in the first place, though...
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