Saskatchewan Roughriders’ quarterback Cody Fajardo has been sacked a CFL-worst 54 times this season.
Somehow not one of them hurt as bad as the booing he got from Rider fans in his own backyard during the green and white’s 26-24 loss to the Edmonton Elks on Friday night in Regina.
“I feel like the whole world is basically against us”, a visibly disappointed Fajardo admitted post-game.
“I’ll be honest, it wasn’t great when you hear your own fans booing you, especially when you’re at home. We need a great energy and good crowd and I’m always going to give you guys the honest truth and it hurt. But we ended up scoring and gave them something to cheer about there at the end and unfortunately weren’t able to make it happen. But tonight was a tough one because I felt like a lot of people gave up on us.”
It was the second such episode in less than a month, as the Riders’ signal-caller was first victimized by boos during an 18-point loss to B.C. on August 19.
Fajardo was better this time around, completing 20-of-27 passes for 230 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 47 yards on the ground, but an anemic Riders’ offence once again struggled to put drives together. The result was another loss, this time to Chris Jones in his first return to Saskatchewan since leaving the Roughriders in early 2019.
“It’s okay because the guys in that locker room are trying to stick together,” Fajardo said. “The worrisome part is just not letting the team fall apart and trying to be together for one another. It will be nice to let guys go home, recharge their batteries and come back.”
The past month has been packed with emotions for the quarterback. First the booing he had to endure in the Lions game, then improved efforts in B.C. and against Winnipeg before the birth of his son, Luca, early Wednesday morning.
And now this.
It remains to be seen how this episode will impact Fajardo’s relationship with Rider Nation but it probably isn’t going to be good.
