MONDAY SHOW RECAP: COMMISSIONER AMBROSIE STOPS BY!

Monday was Episode #69 of The Rod Pedersen Show. Here are the highlights:

• Rod, Dupes and CTV Regina’s J.C. Garden opened the show with The Warmup in which they recapped Saturday’s CFL tripleheader, Week 1 in the NFL, and Rod’s first Show & Shine with Big Bird on Saturday!
• They discussed at length the Banjo Bowl. Rod said the Bombers’ 35-10 beating of the Riders could be a statement game for both teams. For Winnipeg, they proved they can still be the league’s top team despite missing four of their top stars. For Saskatchewan, it could have shown them that things won’t always go their way. Their 6-game winning streak was snapped and even QB Cody Fajardo said “We didn’t show up”. Everyone agreed that this Saturday’s home date with Montreal represents the chance for a bounce-back game, but the Alouettes won’t be pushovers.
• RP Show NFL/CFL Insider Tori Gurley joined the show from Toronto, where he appeared on behalf of NFL Alumni for the 100th season kickoff by NFL Canada in Toronto. He feels the cap-room displayed by the Patriots for Antonio Brown proves “the genius of Bill Belichick”. Regarding A.B., Tori said he trained with Brown years ago but said he’s not the same guy now. It was a great, wide-ranging NFL and CFL chat.
• CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie made his RP Show debut and covered a vast array of topics in the 20-minute chat. Here are some of them:
• *The Commish said he was at Banjo Bowl and feels that afternoon shows all the great things that the CFL is.
• *He also said he’s not concerned about the NFL marketing itself in Toronto, and said he’s focused instead on building a bigger, stronger CFL.
• *Regarding the sale of the Montreal Alouettes, Ambrosie said he’ll be announcing some good news soon. In fact, he’s meeting with the CFL’s Board of Governors on Tuesday to present a lot of “good news”.
• *Despite shoddy tackling in the first 13 weeks of the season, Ambrosie said they are not considering reinstituting padded practices in the CFL.
• *Randy said the league is in far better shape than it was 12 months ago, and that he’s tremendously excited about the CFL 2.0 venture. He said the CFL is no longer 2nd out of two pro football leagues, but rather 2nd out of 50 pro football leagues worldwide.
• *Ambrosie agreed with Wally Buono’s take on the RP Show that football isn’t facing a problem, but it’s facing a “PR problem” regarding its safety. The Commish said the game has never been safer and it offers opportunities for kids of all shapes and sizes to Try Football.
• The talk of an NFL team in Toronto has reared its head again and the panel debated what that would mean to the CFL. Rod feels the league would be better off operating outside of Toronto if that was the case, and to just “give the 6ix to the NFL” much like the Raptors and Blue Jays in TO.
• RP Show Director of Scouting Craig Smith joined the bunker in Hour 2 to discuss Saturday’s CFL tripleheader. He wasn’t surprised by the Bombers’ win in the Banjo Bowl and said he’s a believer in Winnipeg’s Chris Streveler. He also felt Cody Fajardo had a tough time handling the noise at IG Field.
• In honour of show #69, the guys recognized sports figures who’ve worn number-69 and that includes Jared Allen, Brock Lesnar, Nick Hutchins, Brett Jones, Brayden Schramm and Glenn January.
• Monday’s show is available for viewing now on our Facebook page or you can listen to the podcast by clicking on the PODCAST tab at the top of this page.
• See you at 10 am MT on Tuesday on Facebook Live!