10 WEEKDAY THINGS

1 – 107TH GREY CUP: The Winnipeg/Hamilton match-up in the 2019 Grey Cup is getting the thumbs-up from football fans across the land. It’s new, it’s fresh, and it offers a bushel of storylines. Not the least of which is Bomber QB Zach Collaros facing the team who gave up on him first, plus his old nemesis Simoni Lawrence, who knocked him into oblivion in Week 1 (which seems like three lifetimes ago). If the Greek kid from Steubenville, Ohio can pull this off, it’ll be the greatest story in CFL history and this time I’m not exaggerating.

2 – PICK ‘EM: The betting line is razor-thin for this one. As of Thursday morning the Tiger-Cats are favoured by 1.5-points. (How do you score half a point?) The pundits on The Rod Pedersen Show have, so far, universally gone with the Bombers to win this week. Except for Rider legend Roger Aldag who said Wednesday, “I don’t care”. As for me, I care, but can’t predict the victor at this time. Suffice it to say I’m cheering for the Bombers. People ask how that can be the case and I say it’s called “sportsmanship”.

3 – AWARDS: QB Cody Fajardo and coach Craig Dickenson are at Grey Cup representing the West Division at Thursday’s CFL Player Awards (shoutout also to teammate Cam Judge). Remember the voting on this was done prior to the playoffs. Whether these two win or not is unpredictable but the fact they’re even in this position in their first season in their roles is jaw-dropping. They’re both already winners. As for non-sanctioned awards, Saskatchewan’s Jeremy O’Day was named CFL GM of the Year in voting by RP Show viewers this week.

4 – RATINGS: When the chips are down, Canadians love the CFL. That was proven by the 1.6-million viewers who tuned in coast-to-coast for Sunday’s West Final between the Roughriders and Blue Bombers. Commissioner Randy Ambrosie has done a fine job saving the league. Now it’s time to go to the next level.

5 – GOOD MORNING RIDERS: Hopefully the tears have dried and the Riders have realized what a remarkable season they had under Craig Dickenson & Co. Their 13 wins were the most since 1970 and hosting the West Final is more rare than a 7-legged grasshopper. (They have 6. I checked). Dickenson mentioned they can build around Cody Fajardo which seems the opposite of the Chris Jones strategy which was to thrive in spite of your QB. That’s the way it looked anyway.

6 – BABS: The unthinkable happened when the Toronto Maple Leafs fired coach Mike Babcock on Wednesday. It’s unthinkable because the future Hall of Famer was supposed to be key to the turnaround. I guarantee firing the coach wasn’t part of “The Shanaplan”. Now, it’s turned out to be just another derailment in the long line of trainwrecks that is the most dysfunctional franchise in the NHL. They just disguise it better because they’re on Bay Street. Like a high-end hussy. In the end, Mike Babcock will be better off without them. If the Saskatoon product can’t get the Leafs to win, no one can.

7 – BROTHER DARRYL: They’re still talking in the Paradise Hill-Lloydminster area about the spat Darryl Sutter and I got into at a sports dinner Saturday night regarding the firing of Don Cherry and the role of sports media. To me it was all in fun, and hopefully it was for Darryl too. One of Darryl’s best quotes of the night was, “The best way to get a Russian’s attention is to smack him across the head”. Brian Sutter was there too and talked about almost moving with the Blues to Saskatoon in 1983. “Bill Hunter sold out the whole rink in Saskatoon and they didn’t even have a rink,” Sutter scoffed. “How the hell’d he do that?”

8 – PAYING HOMAGE: Rachel Homan was ranked the 4th-best womens curler of all-time by TSN and she was a featured speaker Saturday night too, where we raised funds for the Paradise Hill Community Centre. I’m happy to report Rachel’s NOTHING like what he see on TV. Her steely demeanour melted on stage and it turns out she’s funny, cool and perhaps a bit shy. She also lives in St. Paul, AB where she’s married to a junior hockey coach. I’ll be cheering for Team Homan this year.

9 – GO PATS GO: There’s a lot of grumbling going on regarding the Regina Pats being the worst team in the WHL, by a good margin. Most nights it seems like they don’t have a chance to win, for a variety of reasons. The last two nights at least, the goaltending has been extremely suspect. But as a season ticket holder, I look at it like they went “All In” for the 2018 Memorial Cup and it didn’t pay off the way it did for the Riders in 2013. Lightning wasn’t going to hit this city twice. I still enjoy going to the games, seeing my friends, and am content to wait for the turnaround. What choice do we have?

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: Be thankful for the problems you DON’T have. … You could’ve made a bet with SportsBettingDime.com on what Don Cherry was going to do after being fired by Hockey Night In Canada. The odds were this: Work For Another Network 3/1, Retire 5/1, Go Into Politics 8/1, Start a YouTube Channel/Podcast 15/1, Coach an NHL Team 200/1. … Kudos to my old coach Carter Sears for being named a Western Amateur Scout with the St. Louis Blues! … The Saskatchewan Rush home-opener is Dec. 14 against the New England Black Wolves. … The forecast for Sunday’s Grey Cup in Calgary is fluctuating like a yoyo but the latest calls for +3 degrees Celsius. … Hockey Regina is the first Saskatchewan minor hockey association to partner with the NHL and NHLPA on the Hockey Fights Cancer initiative. Both the Regina Rebels and Pat Canadians will host Lavender Games this Saturday at the Cooperators Arena with the jerseys being auctioned off for cancer research and support.

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen