Longtime Regina sportswriter scores new gig with the Saskatchewan Roughriders

After nearly four decades of writing about sports in the Regina Leader-Post, Rob Vanstone is taking his skills to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

On Tuesday, Vanstone started a new gig as the CFL team's senior writer and historian — a position he said he never could have imagined moving into.

"I've always told my wife, 'If it's 99 per cent in favour of leaving [the Leader-Post] and one per cent in favour of staying, the one per cent is going to win,'" he said on CBC's The Morning Edition Wednesday.

"But when I sat down with the Roughriders and they read the job description to me, I thought, 'I couldn't have written this job description better myself.'"

Vanstone will still be writing online features and columns, but he'll also be officially documenting the Riders' history in writing and video projects — an aspect of the gig that he calls "the cherry on top."

"It's like I get to have two bowls of ice cream instead of one," he said with a laugh.

Over the last 36 years, Vanstone has reported on junior, university and professional sports in Saskatchewan and beyond for the newspaper — that coverage earned him renown and piqued the team's interest in hiring him.  

"Rob Vanstone is a generational voice in the sports landscape of Saskatchewan, and his storytelling abilities paired with his knowledge of our football club and its history is unmatched," said Craig Reynolds, the Roughriders' president and CEO.

"We could not be more thrilled to have him join the Roughriders."

Vanstone said one of his first tasks in the historian role will be making a list of everyone who has ever played for the Riders.

On the storytelling side, he said he doesn't know where to begin.

"I've got basically carte blanche now. There's just so many stories that I'm just itching to tell going back to 1910," he said. 

"I've always considered the impact of my words. I know that words matter — they're my life — and that's not going to change."