THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE
1. WHAT RIDER SEASON TICKET SALES WILL TELL US ABOUT COVID: It’ll be fascinating to see what kind of traction the Saskatchewan Roughrider marketing department can get leading up to the 2022 season. If hosting the Grey Cup is enough to convince more than 20 thousand people to buy season tickets, even against the threat of COVID derailing our lives for a bit longer, then that’ll be a good sign that we’re back on our way. If not, the CFL crisis mode will carry on for a while yet. Will be a good indicator for the local entertainment industry as a whole.
2. EARLY CFL SCHEDULE A SMART MOVE: Moving the regular season schedule clear out of November has always been a good idea. In fact, competing with the Stanley Cup finals at the start of the year doesn’t worry me in the least, either. Canadian teams never get that far, anyway. Now that the CFL is down to just two out of nine franchises who have access to indoor stadiums for playoff games (BC and Montreal), the league could do itself a favor to limit its outdoor exposure in November. That said, outdoor football is still far superior to indoor ball and home records will bear that out.
3. SASKATCHEWAN JETS: The Winnipeg Jets can play wherever they want. Just like none of us have to go if we don’t want to, which I won’t.
4. DID YOU KNOW: The Toronto Raptors once played an exhibition game at Sask Place (now called SaskTel Centre) in Saskatoon? In their inaugural season of 1995-96, the Raps were whipped by the Al Henderson and Atlanta Hawks in front of eight thousand on October 19th, 1995. One of the perks of having TWO NBA franchises in Canada at the time (the Vancouver Grizzlies were around too) was how the Toronto team actually worked at recruiting fans out here. The Blue Jays used to do it too when the Expos were around. Another reason to bring back both the Vancouver Grizzlies and the Montreal Expos.
5. DID YOU KNOW PART TWO: Then-Saskatchewan Roughrider GM Al Ford once offered Mike Riley (the new head coach of USFL’s New Jersey Generals) the head coaching job for your Saskatchewan Roughriders?Ford even flew down to Anaheim, California to recruit the young Riley who had coached Winnipeg to two Grey Cups in 1988 and 1990 as a replacement for Don Matthews. Riley, who was the offensive coordinator at USC at the time, thought long and hard about it and even got Ford’s hopes up by wearing a green shirt to their meeting only to disappoint the Rider GM with the decision that he (Riley) would not accept the position as he wanted to become a college head coach one day. Riley achieved that goal with Oregon State and Nebraska. He even made it to head coach of the San Diego Chargers where his quarterbacks included Ryan Leaf, Jim Harbaugh, Doug Flutie, Drew Brees and Dave Dickenson. I’ve always wondered if Riley would find his way back to the CFL. At age 68, that’s appearing less and less likely.
6. THIS WEEK I’M JEALOUS OF: Betty White. It’s been said that the longer we live, the less friends we have at our funeral when we die. Not sure if anyone is having funerals these days but if anyone left friends behind at an old age, it was Betty White. If half of us treated others the way she did, we wouldn’t be having these petty arguments over vaccines, Trump, etc.
7. VACCINATION COMMENTARY: Governments are now starting to talk about mandatory vaccine policies. Good luck with that one. I can’t see how they’d enforce that but I will say I do find not only the anti-vaxxers offensive but some of their advocates, too. The disruption to our lives continues, largely, from that bit of nonsense we have to live with. Hard to sympathize with any of them.
8. WHY AMERICANS ARE BACK TO NORMAL AND WE’RE NOT: Their mortality rate from COVID is said to be three times what ours is. More people here get proper access to health care than down there. It also stresses our system more than it does theirs because we actually give everyone access to who needs it. So no, it’s not nonsense why we take it more seriously than they do. I’m not in favor of any more shutdowns or restrictions but I’m not holding up the Americans as any great example, either.
9. ANTONIO BROWN: I don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth.
10. DOUG AND DARREN: We’ve seen ESPN experiment with their Monday Night Football broadcasts a la Peyton and Eli Manning. So why doesn’t TSN do the same with Doug and Darren Flutie hosting an alternate Friday Night Football feed? I’d tune in for sure and suspect a few of you would, also. Rod Smith is great and so is Gord Miller. But after that, TSN’s bench strength is thin. Spicing it up a bit would do no wrong.
Great column as always. 8) When you say the USA is back to normal and we’re not let me put it this way. If the USA walked into and sat down in an AA meeting talking about it’s day in the life – political polarization, backchannel black-op interference, underground CIA wars, government controlled illegal drug trade, virtue signaling, the entire operation was created based on the trans Atlantic slave trade…..Paris Hilton, a porn industry that makes more money than mainstream entertainment……if the USA actually looked at itself the only “normal” it’d admit is a setting on the washing machine. If… Read more »
Quit spreading lies about the Canadian Healthcare system, Brendan. Canadian hospital have the fewest hospital beds per capita in the Western World. This came out in an article published by the Globe & Mail newspaper. I can provide the statistics that you – conveniently – leave out. Canada — 2.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people United States — 3.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people France — 5.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people Germany — 7.9 hospital beds per 1,000 However, these figures are as of 2019. In the United States, PRIVATE hospital spending and new construction has risen substantially since… Read more »
Hey. Here is some advice. Let them live in delusion. All these free enterprisers and land of the free and personal freedom fools will be in for a hard reality. I worked mgmt healthcare. The unions, staff, bloated management if they had a heart they would just rob the public using a gun. The bottom line is if you get sick you get service. This is regardless if these people are a waste of skin. Our system is set up because we value humanity and life here. My ex wife had cancer. If we had to pay for treatment over… Read more »
Canada spends more per capita than any other country in the Western World on healthcare (same article). Where does that spending go to? We have THE WORST number for hospital beds. I don’t know if you read my comment. The absolute worst. Not the best. The worst. We have THE WORST surgery wait times. You say people are not being turned away? Yes they are!! They can’t get surgery in Canada. What is positive about the Canadian system? Canadians love to brag, but what can you brag about? Everyone is served? No, that’s a lie. Try get surgery. You are… Read more »
Erroneous! Erroneous!. You do not have a single clue. Because you do not understand the concept of zero sum game. That is essentially robing peter to pay paul You want more beds in a public system? Privatize services. Nobody is having life saving surgery cancelled okay? The removal of mole on a butt cheek, a sore knee, any elective surgery is not life threatening. It’s an inconvienance. Now how do you fix? You cut to the bone the bloated management structures. These guys are on the par with Russian oligarchs gangsters but they rob in the legal sense. Then call… Read more »
I’m saying I hate the public system that is 40 years past its prime. I’m on your side. Union people are complaining because “there are not enough people to work at the hospitals”. You know where that problem is also occurring? Cuba. Communist paradise Cuba. Cuba, where the ONLY people in the entire country that are paid are the healthcare workers, while the rest of the country starves. On a per-capita basis, Cuba’s healthcare eat up more of the country’s finances in salary than any other country on the planet. Now, from Cuba take a boat south in the Caribbean… Read more »