THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE
1. ALOUETTES NEW OWNERS: Never mind a homerun, this is a grand slam for the league office on a number of fronts. Number one, they took their time and waited to get it right, rather than caving to know-it-all wannabe’s, who have no money, like Eric Lapointe. Number two, the new owners, Sid Spiegel and Gary Stern, have loads of dough and are saying all the right things about investing into the club. Number three, Stern grew up a CFL fan and is doing this for love of the game and not for money. And lastly, the league has enough other headaches to worry about and can now focus on getting the BC Lions sold. Take a bow, Randy Ambrosie. You said you were going to wait to get it right and you did.
2. RIDER FREE AGENT PRIORITY: Ed Gainey, yes. Manny Arceneaux, not so much. The Rider defence has no glue more important than number 11 patrolling their secondary. Arceneaux was important, as evidenced by the lack of production during his absence from the lineup late in the season when Jordan Williams-Lambert replaced him. But Manny is replaceable, particularly given the other weapons new offensive co-ordinator Jason Maas has at his disposal to design his new offence around Regina’s newest resident-rockstar, Cody Fajardo. Ed Gainey is one of the last remnants of a Chris Jones-build defence the Riders want to milk for as long as they can.
3. CLEVELAND BROWNS INTERVIEWING DINWIDDIE: Sounds ridiculous at first but they’ve had 11 head coaches in the 21 years they’ve been back in the NFL. Would Dinwiddie be any worse than any of them? I doubt it. Not the dumbest idea we’ve heard from the Browns. Not by a longshot.
4. CHRIS JONES IN LIMBO: A year off might be a good thing for him but I can’t help but wonder if he would be in play for the Alouettes General Manager job. Jones started his CFL career in Montreal and would be seen by many as another grand slam move for the Alouettes. Having him hover over Head Coach Khari Jones might not be the best thing either. Something Chris Jones and the new Alouette owners will have to consider.
5. FIXING THE NHL/WHL: Took in my first Pats game of the season on New Year’s Day. The atmosphere, the game day experience and athletes were all terrific. The game itself, not so much. A 1-1 tie through 60 minutes solved in 13 seconds once both teams dropped down to 3-on-3 in overtime when Robbie Holmes scored the winner. It seems to me the hockey world is content on solving it’s problems by waiting for overtime and eliminating 40% of its skaters on the ice. That’s not quite good enough for me. The 5-on-5 creates strategy and teamwork that no 3-on-3 will ever match. The NHL would get far better mileage out of moving ahead with bigger nets and/or illegal defense penalties for having more than 3 players in the defensive zone collapsing around the net. They’ve made good strides on reducing the goaltending gear but there’s still much work to be done before the game will be great again.
6. PATS ARENA: The Brandt Centre is still a great setup. The inside of the arena itself could use some updating but overall, it’s still a fine venue. If changes do happen, they should be done in the current arena. Most cities dream of having a complex like ours.
7. PATRIOTS PUNISHED FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING: For all the ridicule and scorn of the New England Patriots over the years, let’s not forget they did release Antonio Brown early this season for his questionable off-field behavior. If any team could have used Antonio Brown, it was the Patriots. They did the right thing and it might have even cost them a Super Bowl. I’m just sayin.
8. DID YOU KNOW?: Joe Burrow, the LSU quarterback who will likely be taken first overall in the NFL draft and will likely have ex-CFL 3rd string quarterback Zac Taylor as his head coach in Cincinnati, is the son of Jimmy Burrow who was a defensive back on the 1977 Grey Cup Champion Montreal Alouettes. And now you know, the rest of the story.
9. JEFF REINEBOLD: Chose staying in Hamilton for another year over bolting to the XFL to work with June Jones. The CFL is lucky to have one of the all-time great characters staying in the league. I recall being 12 years old, meeting one of my best friends at a Rider game, only to show up and see him out tossing the football around on the field during pregame warmups with a young Edmonton Eskimo assistant coach. That coach had randomly wandered over to our seats and invited him out to play catch and then gave him a towel and water bottle as a souvenir. It made our day. That coach was Jeff Reinebold.
10. FILM OF THE WEEK: Binge-watching episodes of The Rod Pedersen Show. As I found out over the holidays, a lot of them really aren’t all that dated.
(Follow Brendan McGuire on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)
Randy got it right???? grand slam!???? Let’s first see how things shake out over there before putting the water before the horse. That new ownership might just be the second reincarnation of the geeibermans, holy cow!
PS, the only know it all wannabe with no money is the hill billy hayseed in the above picture cap.
Good topic points 1) – The Alouettes have the right ownership with money and ties/roots within Quebec. That is a starter – now they need a Francophone President with a CFL pedigree to build up the business side. Somewhere in Quebec is Larry Smith 2.0 and perhaps that is Eric LaPointe. 2) Regarding Roughriders’ Free Agents – It goes QB, Canadians, Kicking game in my book. – QB is shored up, and unless they are Canadian or game changing pass rushers – everyone is expendable. 3) Cleveland Browns – I actually have always liked that franchise, but the Bernie Kosar/Marty… Read more »
Gotta go along with your assessment. Well thought out. (1) I’m on side with the Als situation. They have money & that’s key. (2) Your priorities are right on. Fajardo should succeed & Maas helps but he won’t surprise anyone this year. Is he the next Mike Reilly or Bo? Is he the next Jennings or Printers? Printers was all world for a season & a bit, very athletic, but flamed out quickly. We all know the Jennings story. I think Fajardo is somewhere in between. Sure he was MOP, & deservedly so, but Harris & Mitchell were hurt. Harris… Read more »
A few years ago at Taylor Field, the Tiger Cats were in town for a game against the home team. Reinebold was warming up the DB’s. By the tunnel was a kid with a Tiger Cats Jersey was watching things unfold. Jeff goes up to the kid and invites him to the field. He actually got the kid to help out with the DBs and was actually slightly hard on the kid (not yelling but loud) when he wasn’t doing things exactly right. I thought this was a fantastic lesson. If you do something, anything, do it right. There is… Read more »
I went to a dinner here in Winnipeg a few years ago where Reinebold generously donated his time to be the guest speaker. As far as I’m concerned he approaches Pinball Clemons levels of enthusiasm and ability to motivate. I haven’t put football pads on in 25 years but I swear to God I would have run full speed into a brick wall if he had told me to, he got me that whipped up. Amazing guy.
This clown goes to his first hockey game in January and yet feels qualified to speak on the state of the game? Hilarious, so typical of people who try and justify not watching hockey. Just say you don’t watch it, don’t try to act like you know anything. You always put hockey down and then comment you don’t even watch it. Stick to your little football league.