Three years ago, before the Labour Day Classic, the blue bombers admin team stoked the rivalry between the two cities by posting that Regina style pizza is ‘trash.’ This year, they doubled down with another post on Tuesday. It read, “In 2023, this account posted four words that we knew, even as we hit send, were going to cause problems: “Honestly, Regina-style pizza is terrible.” “The response was immediate. It was not kind. Our notifications did not recover for several days, and if we’re being honest, neither did some of our interns. We’ve had three years since then, three years to sit with what we said, to think about the timing, to consider the fans on the other side of that rivalry who felt, understandably attacked over cheese and ketchup. We wanted to take a moment, on this anniversary, to finally say something about it.” A subsequent post goes on to say, “it’s still terrible. Honestly, it’s worse than we ever even thought. It’s like someone took a three-week old lasagna and slapped it on a piece of dough. It’s awful, and our opinion will never change. Thank you.” The strongly worded post was brought to the attention of Saskatchewan Roughriders Head Coach Corey Mace during Wednesday’s media availability. He was unsure as to why the admin team would be attacking pizza. “Really, I think one of the first few meals that I had in Regina was Regina-style pizza. And, as you can tell, I have probably had more than one slice, so I got no qualms,” he said. One of the local staple franchises in Regina, Western Pizza, stepped in to defend their creation. “Well, it’s playful banter. We know we have the best pizza in Regina; it’s Saskatchewan pizza. Alberta, Manitoba, they don’t have our style, it’s a hearty pizza, The best meats, lots of meats, lots of cheese, it’s almost like a deep dish,” said Western Pizza Manager Mike Maroudis. Others on the Riders roster like quarterback Trevor Harris, were a little less committed to an opinion when it comes to the unique pizza style. “If I said something, it would be bulletin board material for them. So, I’m not going to do that and then have to retract something I say. So, I’ll just let them sort of keep talking about pizza,” he said. Offensive lineman Logan Ferland mentioned being unaware of the post but still came to the defense of the local delicacy. “I’m hardly on social media, but we got some good pizza,” he said. While the pizza wars rage on online, the two teams will face off in the 61st Labour Day Classic on Sunday with big implications in a tightly contested West Division. The Riders currently sit one game ahead of Winnipeg for second place, with the teams set to square off in their only two matchups of the season, in back-to-back tilts.
