Durant awaits right opportunity to visit new stadium

Thousands of Roughrider fans have been through the doors of new Mosaic Stadium, but Darian Durant is still holding out.

It’s not that he hasn’t had the opportunity; it’s just that he’s waiting for the right one.

After years of success with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and still no contract, Durant doesn’t want to get a taste of something he may not get to experience.

“A lot of that stadium comes from the success that (Rob Bagg and other long time Riders) had during our tenure,” Durant said. “So I would hate to put in all that work and not get rewarded and be able to play over there. So (I’m) just staying away until it’s signed on the dotted line.”

That signature may not be too far away. Durant certainly sounded like a quarterback close to a deal when he made a bit of a Grey Cup guarantee last Friday.

“We will hoist that trophy again before I walk out of town, you can mark that down,” Durant said at the time.

When pressed on that statement on Tuesday, he tried to temper it a bit, albeit with a smile.

“If I am here, which I want to be here, then you best believe we will hoist that grey cup trophy again before my career’s over,” he said.

“I want to get it done as soon as possible,” he added. “Hopefully they feel the same way and we can speed up this process.”

And according to General Manager and Head Coach Chris Jones, things are moving at a good pace.

“I don’t want to pigeonhole myself (on a timetable) … I just know the talks are going real well and we fully expect to be able to get something done,” he said, adding Durant has nothing to prove to them. 

“He’s our quarterback and if he had something to prove he wouldn’t have been our quarterback … He’s a good leader in the locker room and he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.”