STACKHOUSE’S 10 MONDAY THOUGHTS

1 – SUPER BOWL RECAP – There never ever should have been a debate prior to the game about Tom Brady being the greatest ever, but you can for sure put any arguments to bed now after Tampa Bay embarrassed Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 on Sunday night. There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said about Brady suffice to say it’s his world and everyone else is living in it.

2 – MAHOMES – It’s not a secret I have Mahomes in the Gretzky/Jordan/Tiger class of superstar must-watch great athletes but there is no denying Sunday was a big letdown. While it’s true he had the equivalent of a cardboard cutout for an offensive line, the greatest of the great still find a way and Mahomes was unable to do so. His turf toe injury will require offseason surgery but I didn’t see that being a factor on Sunday night.  He simply just didn’t get the job done and in a game where he could have used some help, he got none.  

3 – WINNING IS HARD – Mahomes has now been to two Super Bowls, winning one in his short career. Tony Romo mentioned Mahomes will be back and play in many more in the years ahead but I wouldn’t be so sure. Ben Roethlisberger won two titles by age 28 but has gone ten years since without getting a sniff. In close games, Mahomes isn’t likely to get much help from his coach as long as it’s Andy Reid. Reid’s puzzling use of timeouts late in the first half that helped Brady orchestrate a touchdown drive was classic Reid clock mismanagement. He’s made a career out of those types of gaffes but winning the Super Bowl last year, coupled with the fact he’s a nice guy has made many forget about it.

4 – FANS – There were upwards of 30,000 fans at the Super Bowl on Sunday night and you can say whatever you want about Florida and how they’ve handled the pandemic but the reality is this: sports can be played and it can be played with people in attendance. To have situations in Canada where we can’t even put the participants on the field/ice is unacceptable. Even recognizing and accepting we are just a more cautious country than the United States, there is no reason why sports of all kinds can’t move forward with fans in attendance to a certain percentage of capacity. Raymond James Stadium in Tampa holds 65,000 and I’m not saying you need to be as bold as what we saw on Sunday, but there is no reason why you can’t play minor sports in front of parents, SJHL games in front of 300-400 people, WHL games in front of 1000 at Brandt Centre in Regina or CFL games in front of 6000 at various stadiums across the country. Virus numbers in North and South Dakota are extremely low despite some of the loosest restrictions in the world and we should be looking to those jurisdictions to see how we can proceed with normality but on a scale that is more subdued or careful. Junior hockey games in those states are being played in front of full capacity fans and I’m not even suggesting we do that. I’m just suggesting we play. That we aren’t is criminal.

5 – ALABAMA CELEBRATION – Mainstream media sounded all sorts of alarm bells after Alabama won the NCAA football title game last month as thousands upon thousands of maskless fans who also neglected to social distance descended on the main strip of Tuscaloosa. Alabama’s Covid case numbers have been on a steady decline since January 9th. The Crimson Tide won the NCAA championship on January 11th. Again, I’m not advocating we open it all up to normal levels but I am suggesting that instead of keeping everything closed or shut down that we be allowed to live normal lives just at reduced capacities for now. We can’t keep living in the fear of worrying about doomsday scenarios in the event of allowing a small crowd to gather. It’s not healthy even for those who preach heavy on masks and lockdowns. I read what some of these people tweet and I, legitimately, worry about their mental well-being just as much as I do about those who need things open in order to live. 

6 – NATIONAL LACROSSE LEAGUE – I can’t help but think the league’s cancellation of the season was entirely avoidable however we have a federal government that simply places no value on sports and a general public that is, by and large, apathetic. I fear for the long term future of this league and it’s sad because it was just starting to gain some real momentum in Canada as a bonafide major league. I now have concern about a similar fate for the Canadian Elite Basketball League, which simply hasn’t been around long enough to be out of the public eye for two years in a row (yes, I know they played in a bubble last summer). I’ve probably written this before but two very real differences between Canada and the United States are how we look at sports. Politicians tried to cancel football down there and were met with a great resistance and both college and professional seasons ended up happening. In Canada, we just shrug our shoulders and say ‘aw shucks, too bad there is no football’.

7 – NHL BREAKOUT PLAYER – If the NHL handed out an award for Most Improved or Breakout Player Of The Year my early vote would be for Nick Suzuki of Montreal. He looks everything like a franchise player through the first month of the season. Other players who have taken big steps this year include Andrew Copp (Winnipeg), Joel Farabee (Philadelphia), Carter Verhaeghe (Florida), Jack Hughes (New Jersey), and Jordan Kyrou (St. Louis).

8 – LAINE/ROSLOVIC – It’s just one game, but Jack Roslovic set up two Patrik Laine goals on Sunday in what was their debut as linemates. Aside from needing improvement on faceoffs, Roslovic appears as though he’s capable of handling the centre position and it looks as though he’s assumed the number one job after six games as a Blue Jacket. The Jets certainly don’t look like they are missing Laine at all, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t misjudge their assets. Roslovic is playing for free in Columbus since Winnipeg also threw in $1.75-million and Roslovic’s contract for this year is $1.9-million and all the Jets got back was a third rounder. I also wonder why we never got a good look at Roslovic as a second line centre with Winnipeg when the Jets had a glaring need at the position.  

9 – SPORTS MEDIA LAYOFFS – There is a serious lack of self-awareness from national sports media personalities who tweet condolences to the 210 people who lost their jobs as a result of a Bell Media purge last week. In particular, there are three people who are most familiar to the general sports public (Dan O’Toole, Brent Wallace, and Natasha Stanishewski) that don’t have jobs today and some of that can be attributed to the fact that the Covid pandemic has decimated revenues and there hasn’t been an abundance of sports to cover. When some of the pro leagues tried to start back up, many in sports media screamed for them to be shut down and were critical of trying to find a way to move forward, which essentially is advocating for layoffs within the sports media industry. So, anyone who grandstands for things to be cancelled should not be offering empty consoling words to those out of work today.  

10 – STAMPEDE WRESTLING – If you are an old school Stampede Wrestling fan, you need to follow @StomperGouldie on Twitter. He’s frequently posting old video clips that have brought back great childhood memories for me. Living in New Brunswick, I felt that I had the best of both worlds when it came to Canadian wrestling. Atlantic Grand Prix ran a summer circuit with a lot of the same athletes who would be on the Stampede roster that I’d see on television on Monday nights (Leo Burke, Cuban Assassin, Makhan Singh, Gerry Morrow, Kerry Brown, and Ron Starr to name a few). This past week, a series of clips were posted that took me back to shortly after when I first started watching Stampede on TSN featuring Owen Hart, Starr, Kerry Brown, and Duke Myers. It was great and watching the interviews, it’s obvious that many of these guys were well before their time. Makhan, Kerry, Steve DiSalvo, Larry Cameron, and Johnny Smith were awesome on the mic. There is also a book called The History Of The North American Heavyweight Championship that I may have to purchase. A clip I just watched from Makhan, who was exceptional: “I think I’m going to take the night off and let Abu wrestle Benoit since he’s taller than him anyway.” For those who may not know, Makhan was Man Mountain Mike in the Maritimes and a fan favorite. His Calgary character was much, much better despite being a villain.

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