10 MIDWEEK THINGS FOR REALTY ONE

1 – BOMBS AWAY: The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have had better months. First their starting QB went down with injury, then the engine of the CFL’s highest-scoring offence – RB Andrew Harris – is found guilty of a steroid violation and will sit the next 2 games with suspension. Their fans are crying afoul and ludicrously claiming a CFL conspiracy. However all is not lost. It’s now up to the league’s top offensive coordinator – Paul Lapolice – to devise a plan to win without these guys. That’s what’s fun about coaching! And coordinator Richie Hall’s defense could steal a win or two as well. It’s not like Nichols and Harris are gone with season-ending injuries.

2 – JUICING: The whole Performance Enhancing Drug thing has always been a mystery to me. However each and every former CFL player who’s graced the RP Show set this week has been around steroids forever and are rolling their eyes at Harris’s claim of innocence. And having Harris’s friends and supporters say “He’d never do such a thing” reminds me of all the Dateline episodes where the family of the murderer tells police, “We’ve known him for years! He doesn’t have it in him!” You never really know someone.

3 – INTEGRITY: All of this is a truly unfortunate situation but one thing that’s been lost is how difficult this must’ve been for the Canadian Football League. Do you think they actually wanted to suspend their top rusher and one of their biggest stars? (MLB didn’t want to suspend Mark McGwire in the 90’s when he was jacking all those homeruns). They wouldn’t have nailed Harris if there was nothing to it. Again, a mystery. And very confusing.

4 – COMING UP ROSES: On the flip side, could things be going any better for the Saskatchewan Roughriders? 5 wins in a row and now the Bombers come in like a wounded duckling for the Labour Day Classic. There was a rash of changes with the Green & White in all the top positions heading into 2019: GM, Head Coach and QB. If you want to know what changed, that’s it. But QB Cody Fajardo should get the bulk of the credit because he’s doing it on the field. All this team was missing the past few years was a top-flight pivot who led the way on the field and galvanized the locker room behind-the-scenes. As an agent said to me at Touchdown Atlantic, “They’ve gotta get him locked up”.

5 – TD ATLANTIC: It lived up to expectations. Over the years I was envious of the teams who participated in this novelty game in the Maritimes, knowing full well the Roughriders would never play in it. Now, I have the freedom to do things like this and I love it! The clash between the Alouettes and Argonauts was great enough and there was a tremendous buzz in Moncton Stadium. HOWEVER here’s my one main takeaway: the CFL has no footprint (brand) in that region. The Maritime football community is strong, but it’s very small. The general population is lukewarm to the idea of bringing a team and building a stadium. The answer: inroads need to be created, CFL hype needs to be generated, and Maritimers need to be convinced this is the best thing for them. Which it is.

6 – ATLANTIC SCHOONERS: I came away from the weekend really wondering why they can’t erect 10,000 temp seats at Moncton Stadium (a beautiful facility, by the way) and start playing almost immediately out of a 21,000-seat park. The only drawback, I heard, was that the population of New Brunswick is only 750,000 and they’d struggle to draw consistently. There has to be another, better reason but I don’t know what it is. Still, they can’t give up. 10 teams, 5 games per week, and national representation are exactly the radical change the CFL needs.

7 – THE NEW BREED: The Riders are the CFL’s hottest team but the Alouettes may be the most-exciting. Watching warmups in Moncton on Sunday, I was struck by the image of Khari Jones gunning passes in the Alouettes drills. The rookie head coach had his headphones in, bopping to the beat, and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. His casual vibe reminded me a bit of Riders rookie coach Craig Dickenson. It has forever been true: the team takes on the attitude of its coach. The purple-faced, vein-popping, over-stressed head coach may well have gone the way of the dodo. Good.

8 – DIDN’T AGE WELL: I broke down and subscribed to The Athletic solely because of Kirk Penton’s weekly CFL column. (You’re welcome Kirk). While I don’t care for the concept of his weekly The Insiders segment where he anonymously quotes CFL coaches and personnel types, it’s not going away so I might as well get on board. And this one from last week stuck with me – “We coaches respect Matt Nichols more than you media guys do. When the Bombers lose the next 3 without him, you’ll see why coaches are smarter than newspaper guys and talking heads”.  Uh, the Bombers are 1-0 since that quote was printed. That Insecurity 101 and machismo is not something I miss. At least we put our names on what we say.

9 – RANDOM THOUGHTS 1: I agree that Lewis Ward’s 69 consecutive field goal streak is tainted because he missed two in last year’s playoff game, but technically, it still stands. THAT should have an asterisk beside it. … Ticats LB Simoni Lawrence really got away with one when he said at halftime on TSN in Week 10 regarding his silence in the Live Mic game, “Everybody knows you don’t talk to the police!” Thuggish. … I mentioned to Jason Clermont on the RP Show that he should address current players about a plan for life after football and he replied, “These guys won’t listen to me. They think football will last forever.” Unfortunately, he’s right.

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS 2: Why is everyone slamming Max Domi? He’s right; Canadiens fans are way better than Leafs fans. In fact, they’re better than all other NHL fans. Why is everyone so afraid of the truth? … Regina product Rich Preston has been reshuffled by the Anaheim Ducks. He’s gone from Assistant Coach to Pro Scout, based out of the Calgary area. Nicely done Rico. … The story of Regina Pats training camp should be the fact former Pat Rhett Gordon’s son Cole is trying to make the squad. The Colorado product spent last season with the Rocky Mountain Roughriders. When calling Cole’s Dad’s exploits with the Pats in the 90’s on the radio, I nicknamed him “The Golden Rhett”. Good times. … I don’t understand baseball culture. Josh Donaldson got a hero’s welcome even though they ran him out of town. Now he’s back with another team, having hit 32 homeruns already, and was trying to beat the Jays Tuesday night. But, let’s give him a standing ovation and video tribute? I just don’t get the logic. …  Run, don’t walk, to the movie Good Boys at Cineplex Southland Cinemas! I haven’t laughed that hard at a movie in years. Two thumbs up from the MMG. … Be sure to join us for the All Star Celebrity Football Weekend as CFL and USports Alum lace ’em up for a charity Flag Football game at Leibel Field on Saturday night! Included on teams Green & White are Jason Clermont, Mike McCullough, Jordan Sisco, Mike Abou-Mechrek, Jim Hopson, Ray Jacobs, Scott McHenry, Neal Hughes, Noah Picton and many, many more! Game time is 6:00 pm and all proceeds go to Regina Minor Football and the Regina Riot womens tackle football club.

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen