STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RIDERS WHIPPED -The Saskatchewan Roughriders were schooled by their former offensive-coordinator Jason Maas in losing 41-12 to a Montreal Alouettes team that was missing its starting quarterback and top running back. I don’t care how tired you are (which seems to be the excuse of the day), but you can come a lot closer than 41-12 against a team that has a quarterback that completes a mere 8 passes the entire game. You can complain about the short week if you want, but if you are a true professional, you can still prepare to put up more of a fight than what we witnessed on Friday.  All I can say is that I’m glad I didn’t spend money on airfare and game tickets for that.

2 – ANOTHER QB GOES DOWN – For the second time this season, the Riders lost their starting QB to injury as Mason Fine went down with an apparent hamstring issue and it’s expected to cause him to miss multiple weeks. While the improvement was slow and steady, I thought Fine was on his way to competency.  Fans and media who have been clamoring for Jake Dolegala to start over Fine are about to get their wish.  Dolegala didn’t look special coming into the game on Friday, but he has a lot of supporters who claim a lack of practice reps are to blame. I wonder how many practice reps Winnipeg gives Dru Brown, who threw for 300 yards and 4-TDs against Edmonton (okay, it’s Edmonton…I just defeated my own argument). Sunday afternoon, the Riders traded for Antonio Pipkin, which gives them some experience behind Dolegala and Shea Patterson; but if Pipkin sees the field, it’s probably not a good thing.

3 – PLAYERS ARE AS GOOD AS THEY SHOW – There are many calls for firings but I’m not sure how much blame the coaching staff should shoulder for all of this. Jason Maas, who many identified as the problem last year, appears to be a very good head coach if you take Montreal’s record as evidence. At some point, you just have to look at the players and come to terms with the fact they are not good enough for whatever reason that may be.  The fact of the matter is that the Riders have almost never been able to develop a quarterback and that’s on the scouting staff and management. It’s also the single most important aspect of building a football team. That’s not to absolve the coaching staff, but I don’t think there is a coach alive that can get much more out of this group. They are what their record says they are, which is 2-and-5 (Edmonton games don’t count, that’s not a real professional football team).

4 – QUARTERBACK STATS – In 2018, four CFL quarterbacks passed for over 5000 yards. In 2023, there’s a real chance nobody will. Some of that can be chalked up to the plethora of injuries at the position. But, there have also been more interceptions than touchdown passes so far this season (79 total TDs compared to 83 INTs) through the first nine weeks. Many fans and media made fun of the XFL and USFL several months ago. Today, those same people are awfully quiet when it comes to their snickering. Some are finally starting to acknowledge those leagues are contributing to the CFL talent drain. I think the CFL is in a tough spot.  They need more money to keep the league afloat, but the quality of play isn’t what it once was because the teams don’t have the necessary dollars to attract better players from south of the border. The cost of everything is going up, but the fans appear to be sending a message that there is a limit to what they’ll spend on this league, at least until the quality of play improves. While you can blame the economy for some of this, Taylor Swift didn’t have a problem selling out six concerts in Toronto and it sounds like just as many people as ever are going to summer fairs in Regina and Saskatoon.

5 – STARS WIN CEBL TITLE – The Scarborough Shooting Stars won the 2023 CEBL championship on Sunday, defeating the Calgary Surge 82-70 behind Isaiha Mike’s 22-points, 9-rebounds, 7-assists. The win avenged last year’s bitter title game in which the Stars lost by two points against the Hamilton Honey Badgers. For Calgary, former Rattler Jordy Tshimanga put up 15-points and 15-rebounds, proving to be a capable replacement for Simi Shittu, who left the team last week for a higher level professional opportunity in France. I’m not sure how the CEBL will do it and I know they are a league focused on development so seeing a player like Shittu leave prior to championship weekend isn’t naturally seen as a bad thing because he’s advancing his career, but it does tip the scale and the Surge team that played this weekend wasn’t the same without Shittu.

6 – MORREALE/MORRISON GOOD WORK – On the topic of the CEBL, former Hamilton Ti-Cats wide receiver Mike Morreale is the league’s commissioner and I wonder if he has aspirations to move into the same title with the CFL.  He’s done an excellent job getting the CEBL off the ground and I think he’d be a very good choice should the CFL decide to make a change at the top. And, I don’t normally give out a lot of props to media people, but how about Saskatoon’s Heather Morrison?  She worked the sideline locally for the Rattlers for the last two or three seasons and emerged as the top choice for TSN in the league championship game.  I would put her up against anybody else in the industry in Canada and wouldn’t be surprised if she got more assignments outside of basketball, assuming she wants them (I don’t know her at all personally). Her knowledge of the game and league is quite evident in her interviews.    

7 – ORIOLES SUSPEND ANNOUNCER – The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, in conjunction with the Baltimore Orioles, suspended their play by play announcer (Kevin Brown) for a game intro on July 23rd in which Brown pointed out the Orioles lack of success against Tampa Bay. That’s right, he was suspended for reciting statistical facts. It prompted several play-by-play announcers to publicly voice their support for Brown and condemn Orioles ownership for the petty punishment. Nevertheless, someone filled in for Brown so it wasn’t like play-by-play announcers everywhere banded together and boycotted the Orioles. They simply threw out some platitudes.  This past weekend, Brown was reinstated but only after he issued a public comment praising his employer to the point you could scoop the grovel off the computer screen reading it.  Brown, essentially, had no choice. He’s a young broadcaster with, hopefully, many years ahead of him in the industry. If he pitted in and held firm to his convictions, there is a very real chance he’d be black balled and never work again. While it’s nice to have Dave O’Brien and Wayne Randazzo come to your defense, the fact of the matter is that O’Brien and Randazzo don’t cut the cheques. And, none of the corporations that own these broadcast rights MLB-wide even whispered a bad word about what the Orioles did to Brown. You can bet none of them would have hired Brown in the event he was given his walking papers.

8 – ANGELS SCREEN INTERVIEWS – Randazzo does games for the Anaheim Angels, who screen all media requests (to the extent they want the questions submitted ahead of time) and won’t grant permission for their players or coaching staff to be interviewed if they deem the subject matter to be too negative.  This is actually quite commonplace now although the Angels are a bit more extreme with it because there really is nothing positive to talk about with that dumpster fire. When media outlets and sports teams work together, the message is very controlled and you can say what you want, but that’s not journalism.  It’s glorified PR and not worth the time of day to actually tune into beyond game play. While they’d never get the ‘rights’, there is a market out there for someone or some company to report in a ‘fair’ manner, even if that means the reporter has to buy his own ticket to get into games and figure out ways to talk to athletes and team officials by circumventing the PR department. It doesn’t mean you have to be the Negative Nancy all the time either, although that is typically the stuff that is covered up. Journalism has quickly become a profession that is pretty much extinct even though there are many out there who claim to be ‘journalists’. They are not. They are opinion writers, much like what I do on this blog but they all write what their bosses will approve of, not necessarily what they truly think.

9 – WILLIAMS CLEARED, REPUTATION DAMAGED – Western Hockey League commissioner Ron Robison has announced an investigation into Everett Silvertips head coach Dennis Williams has closed with no evidence of wrongdoing. A similar investigation by the US Center For Safesport also reached a similar conclusion. Late last week, TSN’s Rick Westhead revealed numerous details with regards to the allegations which are damning enough to destroy a man’s reputation for sure. Fortunately, the news that cleared Williams was done so in a timely manner.  What should happen now is the person or people involved that put a target on Williams’ back need to be outed, publicly, and their reputations should be sewered. Or, in the event new rules need to be drawn up in light of the allegations, the WHL and US Center For Safesport should both speak up on that and clear the air. Last year, at about this time, the Buffalo Bills released rookie punter Matt Araiza over an allegation that was so false, the young man wasn’t even present at the incident in question. These witch-hunts must stop.

10 – NORMAL SUDDEN DEATHS – Caleb White, a 17-year-old high school basketball player, ranked number three in the state of Alabama amongst NCAA prospects, has passed away after collapsing during a workout at school.  As we know, these types of tragedies are common amongst young people; especially in the last couple of years. For now, we are free to believe what we like and some of you are allowed to suggest I’m crazy and that’s fine. The reality of this, however, is that way too many people have died suddenly without much of an explanation.  Before you start jumping all over me about conspiracy theories, the number of cases of myocarditis had nearly doubled from 1990 to 2017.  I spent a bit of time trying to find the numbers from 2017 to 2023 but, as you can imagine, that isn’t easy to attain now that everyone has an agenda for wanting such figures.  Nevertheless, we’ve got 27 years of data from 1990-2017 without much of a reason to hide or manipulate.  Shouldn’t we do some investigating?  Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Panagis Polykretis produced a recent paper that shows 1598 athletes that have suffered cardiac arrest since the beginning of 2021, 1101 of which resulted in a deadly outcome.  Over the prior 38-year period, 1101 athletes died from sudden cardiac arrest (which was approximately 29 per year).  Maybe they are lying.  I’m just telling you what I’ve read and offer no opinion although some of you will try and decipher one because I opposed baseless government orders.

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