Jamie Nye: West Division all-star voting should be filed away to fuel Riders

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ defence didn’t get any respect Wednesday when the CFL’s West Division all-stars were announced.

The Riders’ defence had two representatives in Micah Johnson and Nick Marshall, while players like Ed Gainey, Loucheiz Purifoy, Jonathan Woodard and especially A.C. Leonard were likely wondering what more they could have done.

The issue I take with all-star nods is sometimes there are bonuses written in, and when a player like A.C. Leonard clearly has an all-star season, it’s hard not to ask if other voters fell too deeply in love with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers that Jackson Jeffcoat and Willie Jefferson got the nod.

As for Leonard’s suspension, that shouldn’t have been an issue when these same voters gave Andrew Harris an all-star nod in 2019 despite an actual positive doping test.

Purifoy was the Riders’ own defensive player of the year and Winnipeg’s Brandon Alexander got the vote at safety. Again, maybe we should have just given the all-stars to the entire Bombers team and called it a day.

Let’s keep note of this. If the Riders get by the Calgary Stampeders in the West semifinal, they’ll have loads of baggage to unpack to get fired up to play Winnipeg.