STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – DOLEGALA DEBUT – I will grant you that Jake Dolegala played under extenuating circumstances, but aside from having a cannon for an arm, I didn’t see any reason for Cody Fajardo to worry about his job security. Other Rider fans, on the other hand, will tell you what they saw was the second coming of Doug Flutie and it’s comical to listen to them. There are times I wish the Riders would just fire the offensive coordinator and head coach and just turn the reins over to the fans. That would be can’t miss television. The same Rider fans who are raving to me today about Dolegala’s unharnessed arm strength are the same ones who despised Michael Bishop for the very same reason.

2 – FAJARDO INJURY – My guess is Fajardo will not play this Friday against the BC Lions and then there is a bye week after that and he can come back, hopefully, in better health for their August 13 game at Edmonton. Another guess is that Mason Fine will start this week. Fine will have the benefit of Duke Williams in the lineup so that should give him a weapon Dolegala didn’t have. Hopefully, they can get the running game with Jamal Morrow and Frankie Hickson going a bit better. Hickson, in particular, hasn’t been getting enough touches to be effective.

3 – RIDERS AGM – The Roughriders held last year’s Annual General Meeting in late June but have yet to give their state of the union address for 2022. With each passing home game, I can’t help but think of the potential for financial dire straits. Depending on who you talk to, the attendance for this past Sunday’s game against Toronto was either 20,000 or 27,000. It’s just an opinion but I believe a heartfelt apology to those who were alienated last year combined with a sincere effort to get them back as fans would result in an instant uptick of 5,000 fans per game. I could be wrong on that but is there any harm in trying to find out?

4 – RATTLERS – The Saskatchewan Rattlers were in the middle of a thriller in Scarborough while the Roughriders were battling the Argos on Sunday. The Rattlers fought back from a 17-point deficit to defeat the SSS by 6 on the strength of a Tony Carr triple double (19 pts, 11 rebounds, 10 assists). Bruce Massey, who was added last week to fill the very big shoes left by Scottie Lindsay’s departure, has made an impact in both games he’s played in so far. Massey got the game winning points on Thursday against Guelph. Massey played for the Rattlers in their inaugural season in 2019 and, by all accounts, he was the team’s top player. He’s only played in two games this year but I can see he’s not the top player in 2022, which is to say a few things. 1-Massey is older and wouldn’t be as good as he was in 2019 anyway, 2-He maybe needs a bit more time to get comfortable, and 3-the CEBL is a much better league three years later and it’s not as easy to dominate as it was in 2019. The Rattlers have two games remaining and if they win both of them, they actually have a shot at hosting a play-in game.

5 – JUNIOR ALLEGATIONS – These allegations involving Hockey Canada and a number of World Junior Teams from years past are disturbing on so many levels. There are also so many different angles with which one can side with and I won’t try and do that other than to say there is plenty of blame that can go around here from the suits at Hockey Canada to the players involved and to the number of women who throw themselves at these young men. Here’s what is alleged to have happened in 2003 in Halifax: a homemade video was made whereby a player was standing outside a hotel room and pretended to be interviewed and ended it by saying the viewers were about to see a ‘lamb-roast’ (you can Google that, I’m not explaining it if you don’t know what it is). Once inside, the woman on camera was non-responsive and sex acts were carried out. If these details are accurate, that’s rape. Period. No explanation can be given to justify it.  

6 – TOOTOO EXCERPT – Much has been made of an excerpt from Jordin Tootoo’s book where he talks about being on that 2003 team in Halifax where he said, “…we had every goddamned girl hitting on us. What are you going to do? Let’s start slaying these broads.  And it wasn’t just one-on-one action. A few of the guys would get a couple of girls after practice and head into one of the rooms. Enough said.”  While that shows a complete disregard for women, it doesn’t mean what we witnessed was sexual assault. Men and women alike do enjoy consensual activities such as this and I pass no judgment on that. So be careful with labeling what Tootoo has identified as anything other than a disrespectful comment about women.

7 – PLAYERS VICTIMIZED – Here’s a fairly common tale that happens to professional male athletes but is seldom reported in the media because the athlete is often too embarrassed to bring it to light: the player goes to a bar and starts flirting with women. Eventually, one or two decide to go back to his room and once they get there, the player passes out from being drugged and is robbed of his possessions and money. Some would say it serves the player right and he had it coming. Such a statement would be very hypocritical when assessing what seems to go on with these junior teams and the women they are accused of assaulting.

8 – HOCKEY CANADA – I have a hard time taking the suits at Hockey Canada seriously when it comes to both the 2018 and the 2003 alleged incidents. First of all, players are under a constant microscope with their coaches and managers. If there was extra lewd behavior going on, you can bet superiors were well aware of it.  Maybe they didn’t know at that exact moment, but they knew. I’ve dealt with dozens upon dozens of junior coaches in my lifetime and all of them, even the unqualified ones, knew just about every single move their players were making away from the rink. For Hockey Canada to say in 2022 that they heard a story stemming from 2003 and this is the first they were made aware of it, doesn’t pass the sniff test. Hockey Canada also says they have no idea who the 8 players are that were under investigation from the 2018 incident. Again, I call BS on that.

9 – PUBLIC STATEMENTS – The other thing that is bizarre about both of these incidents are the plethora of statements coming out from the players and their agents. It’s horrible advice. If I was representing a player, my suggestion would be a hard no comment. This is like being accused and you are told, ‘…you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you..’, so even if my player wasn’t involved I don’t want any public statements tied to him. If he’s not guilty and wasn’t involved, he’s not guilty and he owes the public nothing. Again, just knowing what I know about hockey I find it highly unlikely that even these players who say they knew nothing, they knew something. So their statements could come back to bite them even though they are just trying to say ‘Hey, it wasn’t me’.  

10 – FINAL POINT – What would make for an interesting plot twist with the 2018 group is if even one of those eight wanted to get out in front of the allegations and go to court against the accuser but didn’t because he was told by Hockey Canada that the matter would get swept under the rug. If you have been following this at all and are aware of the roster, I don’t think it’s too difficult to figure out who the eight players are. At least half of them have NHL careers and even if they are legally cleared, it wouldn’t shock me to see all 8 given lifetime bans. That’s the world we live in. The public wants a pound of flesh and are appalled by their morals even if an investigation determines no wrongdoing.  Look at MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer. He’s been, essentially, cleared from doing anything wrong but he is a weird guy with a strange sexual fetish. So for that, he gets 2 years and it’s hard to see him ever playing again. He will, in all likelihood, be blackballed.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)