Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – RIDER KICKERS – Campbell Fair should make his Rider debut today as their placekicker with the struggling Brett Lauther off for personal reasons (his wife had a baby this week). If Fair ends up having a good day, it’s going to be difficult to justify putting Lauther back in the line-up. Fair played four years in the OUA with Ottawa and set a school record for longest field goal (55 yards) and was named a second team conference all-star in 2022 when he led the OUA in field goals made.

3 – THE OTHER LDC – Edmonton and Calgary play their LDC on Monday at 4pm in Calgary. On paper, this is a mismatch with the Stamps sitting at 7-and-3 and coming off a win against Saskatchewan. In fact, the Stamps have beaten the Riders twice and are the only team to beat Saskatchewan all season. Edmonton, however, have won three straight under Cody Fajardo although it could be argued they didn’t beat a team that would cause you to take notice. Still, this feels a bit like a trap game for Calgary.  

4 – HUSKIES & RAMS – I’m going to take in the Saskatchewan Huskies regular season home opener next Friday night when they entertain the UBC Thunderbirds. The Huskies had an abbreviated preseason game on August 20 against these same T-Birds, but the game was called at halftime with Saskatchewan ahead 18-2.  That was the day a tornado ripped through the area. Nobody could be bothered to record the attendance so I’m not sure what to expect for a crowd as this will be my first time attending a home Huskies game. Last week, Saskatchewan went to Edmonton and defeated Alberta 29-20 in their regular season opener. Ryker Frank carried 14 for 94 yards and also hauled in 4 receptions for 62 yards and two touchdowns. QB Anton Amundrud was 20-for-27 and 245 with three majors. Seth Hundeby had a 46-yard interception. Regina also won its first game of the season, 43-38 over Calgary with RB Marshall Erichsen running for four TDs and QB Noah Pelletier racking 358 yards through the air. Nicholas Sirleaf, who played junior football with Calgary, burned his former city for 160-receiving yards and a touchdown.  

5 – NFL SEASON BEGINS – The NFL season starts on Thursday with Dallas going up against Philadelphia as the Cowboys begin the post-Micah Parsons era. For the first time, there will be a Friday game featuring the Chiefs and Chargers as we get to see Travis Kelce in action for the first time since his heart warming and authentic looking engagement to Taylor Swift. Last year, Kelce looked completely uninterested in football so maybe knowing he is going to spend the rest of his life with a humble and modest star like Swift will allow him to focus more on what he’s paid to do. The Athletic has put out a list of the 25 most intriguing players and topping the list are Aaron Rodgers, Travis Hunter, and Patrick Mahomes. For me, I’ve got Trevor Lawrence and Caleb Williams at the top.  Lawrence could be running out of runway to be the quarterback in Jacksonville and really needs a statement season. Williams was given a new coach and a new offensive line for year two as QB of the Bears and he’s had an up and down training camp, which doesn’t bode well. The dark horse player to watch is Trey Lance, the former North Dakota State QB and former 49er first rounder. Lance was very impressive in the preseason with the Chargers, passing Taylor Heinecke as the backup, and Justin Herbert can be injury prone. For me, the biggest knock on Lance has been lack of playing time. He’s not nearly the bust some people believe.  By the way, Taylor Elgersma did not make Green Bay. His CFL rights are owned by Winnipeg and he did have a workout with the Giants this week so NFL options aren’t  yet exhausted.

6 – MLB MANAGER DECISIONS – You just have to laugh when it comes to handling pitchers in Major League Baseball. The Toronto Blue Jays removed Kevin Gausman from a 1-1 game after seven innings on Saturday only to lose 4-1 as supposed closer Jeff Hoffman blew yet another game. For some reason, managers are allergic to allowing starters to finish games, especially when they are dominating the way Gausman was on Saturday. Almost no thought goes into these decisions and nobody seems to object to watching their team lose needlessly. The complete opposite scenario took place in Boston on Saturday. Dustin May, who has an ERA over 7 when facing a batting order for the third time, was allowed to come out for the fifth inning and proceeded to put runners on every base.  The Red Sox didn’t even get a reliever warming up until the game was out of hand and the Pittsburgh Pirates ended up winning 10-3 with May allowing 6-earned runs in his last 1 ⅓ innings of work. Hard to believe but Cora let him go out for the 6th after giving up three in the fifth and being armed with all that information about how terrible he is the third time through.

7 – MANNING FALLS FLAT – Overhyped quarterback prospect Arch Manning had a disastrous showing in his first game of the season as his top ranked Texas Longhorns lost to the defending champion Ohio State Buckeyes 14-7 on Saturday. Manning posted pedestrian numbers of 17-for-30, 170 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception with most of those numbers being padded in the fourth quarter.  It was an ugly showing to say the least. Meanwhile, Coach Prime didn’t bother to use any of his timeouts in a final drive that saw his Colorado Buffalos lose 27-20 to Georgia Tech.

8 – SJHL FINANCIALS – The SJHL preseason gets going this week and, in my area, teams are starting to announce financial reports from last season. The folks volunteering to run the Melville Millionaires deserve a standing ovation after it was announced they recorded a profit of $141,000 from 2024-25. The Mils also did well in 2023-24, making $80,000. These numbers are all the more impressive to me when I also see their operating budget sits at $900,000.  I can easily recall SJHL budgets being closer to $600,000 ten years ago so this is just one example of how much more expensive life has gotten in a short period of time. In Yorkton, the Terriers made $149,000 in 2023-24, which allowed them to get their head above water in a season where they announced the franchise was in dire financial straits.  Earlier this month, at their AGM, it was stated the Terriers lost $93,000 this past year but the club also cautioned the public that the team is in good shape and not facing the challenges of 18 months ago.

9 – SR HOCKEY – Senior hockey is a big deal in many rural Saskatchewan communities. In my neck of the woods, there are five teams all within an hour’s drive of each other, which means there are, in excess, of 100 players willing to play hockey at a high level and juggle full-time jobs and family life. The Saskeast Hockey League will embark on its season with 11 teams and will begin play in early November. The real challenge is trying to decide how many games to play. The feedback from players is that they don’t want to play too much and they also want all the games to be meaningful. Meanwhile, teams have to try and schedule enough games that the league is credible and enough money can be collected to break even or make a little bit. Therefore, the SEHL has decided to go from 14 to 16 games for the regular season, which is still less than other senior leagues in the province, but an expanded playoff format will give an additional home game to 10 of the 11 teams.  

10 – STOLEN HAT – Humanity has been exposed for what it really is numerous times over the last five years and another example of that was caught on video for millions to witness this weekend when tennis star Kamil Majchrzak tried to give his hat to a young fan in the front row, only to have it intercepted/stolen by a grown man, who pocketed it for himself. Majchrzak put out a call on social media to identify the youngster so that he could give him another hat and people not only identified the boy, but also figured out who the thief was and it turns out he’s a CEO of a Polish paving company who now has to deal with thousands upon thousands of negative reviews on his Google page. Five years ago I would have been stunned at the lack of shame shown by this snob but not today.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)