THURSDAY COMMENTARY – PREDICTABLY UNPREDICTABLE

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98 & Rock 98.5 FM)

I think I’ve stumbled upon what has always made the CFL so popular.

Besides it being the best brand of football out there, you have to love the league’s unpredictability. Both on the field and off.

By contrast, it was predictable that there wasn’t one trade made on Wednesday’s CFL Trade Deadline Day but there rarely is ever anything significant done. Not dissimilar to the CFL Draft, the Trade Deadline is more of a clerical thing and not much more than another day on the calendar.

Rider GM Jeremy O’Day said his team hadn’t had any trade talks with Calgary for quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell and scoffed that if they did, they certainly wouldn’t be telling the media.

(Where do you suppose those trade rumours come from in the NHL and NFL? Uhh, never mind.)

Anyway, the Trade Deadline came and went and Bo Levi remains a Stampeder, for now. The highest-paid player on the team has been relegated to third string status and can’t get onto the field.

Truly an “Only in the CFL moment”.

It’s a foregone conclusion that Mitchell’s days in Calgary will be up when this season is over but that just makes for fun speculation in the winter months. It’s not really worthwhile to discuss now.

Nor really was this week’s Trade Deadline. Frankly, because the CFL is such a small league and because remarkably no one’s been eliminated from playoff contention yet, there really isn’t a market for buyers nor sellers.

If you asked ‘Then why even have a Trade Deadline then?’, I wouldn’t have an answer for you.

So anyway, back to the games.

Rarely in recent memory has a game meant as much for the Saskatchewan Roughriders as Friday’s game at Hamilton. We’ve been talking about it all week.

If the Riders win they’ll pretty much clinch the final playoff spot in the CFL. But a Ticats win would pretty much spell doom for the Green & White given the way this season has gone.

And who could’ve predicted that?

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary.

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily on Game+ TV across Canada and the USA, and on WQEE 99.1 FM. Call your cable provider to subscribe. You can also watch on YouTube Live or listen 24/7 at RodPedersen.com/ListenLive)