10 Long Weekend Things

Taking shots …

#1 – LINE 1: In 40+ years of following Roughriders football, last night was a first. Following Saskatchewan’s inexplicable 42-31 home CFL loss to the lowly Edmonton Elks – their third loss in four games – a caller to the CKRM postgame show questioned if head coach Corey Mace’s ample community involvement was distracting from his duties as coach. WHAT? Stop the world, I want to get off. The social media comments have been equally moronic, if not moreso. But it’s entertaining as hell!

#2 – ELKIMOES: History will paint Chris Jones as the villain for all of the Edmonton CFL team’s recent failures. Shoot, their media is doing it already. But it is hard to dispute Canadian QB Tre Ford’s showing in the win over Sask: 252 yards, 2 TD, I INT, 129.4 Efficiency Rating. Just remember this: I don’t believe it was Jones keeping Ford on the bench till Week 9. Offensive coordinator/head coach-elect Jarious Jackson started veteran McLeod Bethel-Thompson for TWO games after Jones was fired which tells me J.J.’s been the one pulling the strings on offense for the Green & Gold. Torch Jones all you want, and they will in the City of Champions for years to come, but never forget he’s the one who drafted Tre Ford in the first place. In truth, I don’t care. I’m just here for the comments.

**The hot rumour I heard Sunday morning is that it was Elks head honcho Rick Lelacheur who made the call to start Tre Ford in Week 9!

#3 – RIDERS: Are they a good team who’s played poorly of late? Or are they a bad team camouflaged by early wins? The answer is: neither. The Riders are actually a team tied for first-place in the CFL West at 5-3, which has been unable to manufacture wins with a back-up pivot while QB1 Trevor Harris is out with injury. It’s as simple as that and we told you that prior to the season; this team will go as far as Trevor Harris takes them. You know who to blame for the lack of a quality back-up QB, but it was the defense which let them down Saturday night.

#4 – COMMAND CENTRE: CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie had best be kicking some ass in the officiating department after a spate of blown calls in CFL HQ lately. Consider these Tweets from Hall of Fame/Reporter of the Year scribe Herb Zurkowsky of the Montreal Gazette during the Alouettes 33-16 victory at Hamilton on Friday: “Only in the CFL would they miss that fumble”, “Just when I’ve seen it all in this garage league”, “(Referee) Andre Proulx needs to be admonished”, “I hope Randy Ambrose’s phone is burning up”. Is this commentary becoming of a CFL Hall of Fame reporter? Or is it a case of the truth hurts? You decide.

#5 – SHOWDOWN IN THE FOOTHILLS: A case could be made that Sunday’s Week 9 finale between Toronto (4-3) and Calgary (3-4) at McMahon Stadium is the Game of the Week. This rematch of the 1971 Grey Cup features an Argonauts team which is cobbling together wins while QB1 Chad Kelly is suspended, and a Stampeders unit which got destroyed 33-6 in Ottawa in Week 8. Calgary is favoured by 3.5-points and I’ve picked them to win although this is not the Stamps franchise we’ve been accustomed to. Their coaching staff and talent has been raided and as a veteran football man said to me this week, “Dave Dickenson is a coach. John Hufnagel was a leader.” How bout that!

#6 – OTHER CFL MUSINGS: The CFL is centre stage in this country at the moment – although the Olympics have taken over daytime ratings – and the League has put its best foot forward from an entertainment standpoint. … Winnipeg continued the trend of home teams winning with an emphatic 25-0 blowout of BC at Princess Auto Stadium to kickoff Week 9. Entering Sunday, home teams are 23-12 which is the highest-ever win total this late in the season. … With a lack of contact in training camps and vets sitting out the preseason, you knew it was going to take at least a third of the season for teams to gel. Good news for teams like the Bombers and Elks, bad news for the Riders and Lions. … Don’t look now but at 3-6, Winnipeg’s season is half over and we’re only at August long weekend. … I like the season being moved up. Once the NFL regular season kicks off and NHL training camps hit the ice, it’ll be hard for the CFL to get coverage.

#7 – WCBL: Baseball parks across Alberta & Saskatchewan continue to be bursting at the seams. The playoff match-ups in the East Division are set as it’ll be the Moose Jaw Miller Express vs Regina Red Sox while the Saskatoon Berries will face the Medicine Hat Mavericks in Round 1. All series are Best-of-3’s all the way through, and they open Wednesday in Regina and Med Hat. … The Red Sox won seven of eight meetings against the Millers in the regular season however in a short series, anything can happen. I’ll be attending Millers road games in the playoffs, and broadcasting the home games. It’s go time!

#8 – BASEBALL: Not sure if it’s a baseball thing or just the WCBL, but these players are first class. I was fortunate enough to call Weyburn second baseman Ryan Dauphinais becoming the Beavers all-time hits leader on Friday night, and Millers starting pitcher Westin Walz gave up the record-breaking single. Walz –  a 6’5″ righthander from Terrell, Texas and senior at the University of Incarnate Word – turned on the mound towards Dauphinais and applauded him. I was spellbound! And told Westin the next day how impressed I was of his sportsmanship. You don’t often see something like that in football and hockey. (Connor McDavid wouldn’t even come out to accept the Conn Smythe Trophy at the conclusion of this year’s Stanley Cup Final). … Meanwhile Saskatoon slugger Carter Beck of Carnduff, SK was voted Most Popular Player by Berries fans this week and Moose Jaw outfielder Nate Mensik of Pleasant Dale, Nebraska offered to me, “I’m not surprised. He’s exciting to watch!’ … These kids are amazing and I could talk about the WCBL all day. It’s so much fun in the league this summer and the best times are still to come.

#9 – GO CATS GO: Do yourself a favour and follow Phil Pritchard on Twitter. The Keeper of the Cup has been chronicling his travels with the Stanley Cup this summer with members of the NHL champion Florida Panthers. Just last week he was in Weyburn, SK with Panthers Senior Advisor Les Jackson and this week Phil was over in Finland where team captain Aleksander Barkov filled an arena to celebrate with the trophy. Meanwhile thousands showed up in Sweden for a rally thrown by Panthers forward Anton Lundell. … I’d mentioned in weeks past that Panthers fans still haven’t realized what it means to have finally won it all in season 30. Florida is now a legitimate hockey market and a true global brand. Our Cats N Bolts Podcast numbers are going OFF! I’m really excited to get home and back on the hockey trail but have some important business to wrap up in Canada this month including hosting Theoren Fleury’s Breaking Free Foundation Golf Classic in Calgary on August 15, Saskatoon’s Battle For Recovery on August 30 at TCU Place, and the Riders/Bombers Alumni Labour Day Golf Classic on August 31.

#10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: Good afternoon, and good farming. … Simone Biles and Summer McIntosh are everything you want athletes, and humans, to be. What great examples for youth! … Consider the source. … Congratulations! Pundits say the best/most entertaining comments on Facebook come from readers of this page. Give yourself a hand! … Change of heart — not all attention is good attention. … I always thought I could be a competitive Olympic speedwalker. … People don’t care what you know till they know that you care. … Congratulations to Duron Carter for being named Receivers Coach at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale, FL. That’s the school I help on the Mental Health side, and Duron’s father Cris is a member at Johnny O’s Gymnasium in Boca Raton, FL, my home gym. It’s all coming together. … People who should be in the Riders Plaza of Honour – Henry Burris & John Lynch. … The first-ever podcasters are credited to be Adam Curry & Dave Winer back in 2004. … A thumb-and-a-half up from the Monday Morning Goalie for the movie Twisters, now playing at Landmark Cinemas. It’s not a remake, nor a sequel, to the 1996 blockbuster Twister but it’s pretty darned good. In fact if you hadn’t seen the original, you’d give this flick two thumbs up. Go see it! … Residents with backyard coops in Iowa’s capital city paraded to City Hall with some of their chickens this week after local officials ruffled their feathers by proposing stricter limits on raising birds in residential neighborhoods. Ed and Mary Byrnes Fallon, the operators of an urban farm in Des Moines, hatched the protest after the City Council unveiled the proposal earlier this month to limit fowl play — and potential noise, smell and mess. The proposal would cut the number of birds allowed from 30 to 12 but also ban roosters. … AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK!?

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen