The Monday Morning Goalie for SUDS
Photo: Seattle Seahawks
Truth & Rumours For SUDS Car Wash
1 – SUPER BOWL 60: My initial takeaway? It’s a nightmare for the NFL. Seattle’s dominant 29-13 victory over New England in Santa Clara, CA was one of the worst *games* we’ve seen in championship history, but the Seahawks need make no apology for that. But it was over with 8:00 to go and from an entertainment perspective, that sucks. I’ll be interested to see what the ratings are for this one! My guess is these peaked at halftime, and went down from there. I asked my pundits what they thought the turning point factors would be and their answers ranged from officiating, to “big plays”, to quarterback play. I felt it would come down to the turnover battle, and who wanted it more. The Seahawks won the turnover ratio 3-0, and clearly wanted it more. Oh, and speaking of halftime …
2 – BAD BUNNY: If you asked me if I enjoyed the halftime show, I’d have to vote “yes”. Entertainment is the name of the game after all; or at least it was the last I checked. But I can see where the pro-Americans are up in arms over a non-USA act singing an entire routine in Spanish. I’d heard rumblings of the Turning Point USA alternate halftime show headlined by Kid Rock ahead of time, but didn’t really understand what was going on till it unfolded. Hey – it’s not dissimilar to my long held contention that the Grey Cup halftime act should always be Canadian, so I get the mindset. Mind you, for that I was soundly trounced as always and lost that war handily. (The 2025 Grey Cup act was Machine Gun Kelly, a Cleveland product). Imagine if we ran an alternate pro-Canadian halftime act during Super Bowl! It seems to odd that we’d even have to. Anyway, the headliner would be Paul Brandt with performances by Nickelback and Tom Cochrane. I recall a former CFL marketer telling me at the time, “We wanna appear BIG TIME!” I just shook my head and walked away.
3 – AFTERMATH: Fortunately my prediction was right. If you received my weekend newsletter, I forecast a 26-20 Seattle victory. In the end, the Seahawks covered and they are worthy champions. It feels like they’ll be good for awhile, and it also feels like the Patriots will be back. It’s a valuable learning experience for Head Coach Mike Vrabel and QB Drake Maye. The coverage from the networks was better than it’s ever been, we had no scandals nor incidents – that we know of – and the game soldout. You can’t ask for much more, other than a closer game, which is never a guarantee.
4 – RADIO ROW/TOLD YA: CFL & NFL icon Doug Flutie got tongues wagging this week at Radio Row at Super Bowl when he joined the Bob Marjanovich podcast (Voice of the BC Lions). His thoughts on the CFL rule changes? “Yeah, they’re trying to Americanize it a little bit, and I don’t like it,” Flutie told The Moj. “This is where I think it’s going. It’s hard to fit the field in a lot of stadiums, and they’re trying to make that happen for expansion purposes.” I probably don’t need to remind you that is E-X-A-C-T-L-Y what I said in October when the rule & field changes came down, and was soundly flamed for it. Will Flutie face the firing squad of the CFL backroom’ers like I did? Unlikely. It’s just more en vogue to blame me. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about what’s really going on, just ask! Thanks for the back-up, Doug.
5 – J.R.: Let the record show that I’m in favour of the CFL rule & field changes. Essentially, evolve or die. Seahawks & CFL alum Jon Ryan joined the RP Show this week just prior to departing for Super Bowl to rep the Seahawks as one of the recently-named 50 greatest Seahawks of all-time. The Regina, SK product told us that initially he was against the CFL changes because he simply doesn’t like change (who does, really?) but upon careful review, he finds them innovative and modern. MAYBE JON SHOULD BE THE FACE OF THE CHANGES!? Oh, and JR really should be on a show somewhere regularly. CFL great Arland Bruce was watching Jon’s interview and asked if he remembers A.B. returning a punt on him for a TD in 2004 at Winnipeg Stadium? Ryan smirked and replied to Arland, “You’ll have to be more specific” since a lot of guys ran back TDs on their unit that year!
6 – CFL: 2026 is going to be an interesting year for the CFL. Maybe even a critical one, in the court of public opinion. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think they’re in financial peril, and we’ve been assured by many that’s not the case. But the CFL’s walking a tightrope with these rule changes and the issue needs to be handled delicately with the dangling risk of alienating their current, yet aging and dwindling fans. As a few insiders have said over the past few months, “They had to do something”. But was this it? … CFL free agency officially opens on Tuesday but it’s akin to a picked over flea market. All the top names were snatched up in the “legal tampering” period. I was hoping to include a Top Remaining Free Agent countdown in this newsletter but the Free Agent Tracker on the CFL website hasn’t been updated (it still shows Jake Maier/Ottawa and Joe Robustelli/Edmonton as being Roughriders). According to the list, there are still several QBs available including McLeod Bethel-Thompson, Matthew Shiltz & Shea Patterson. Oh – and did Patterson cost Montreal the Grey Cup? Remember that? This and how and why the league needs year-round chatter.
7 – LAUTHER: I think it was tough news for Brett Lauther to learn he was released by the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Monday. However when GM Jeremy O’Day was asked at winter meetings in January if Lauther was still the Riders’ kicker, and O’Day’s response was “He is today”, that was the cue to call U-Haul. Who knows if the 35-year old will play in the CFL again? Either way, the Truro, NS product is third all-time in career points in Saskatchewan behind Ridgway and McCallum, is the most statistically accurate kicker in Rider history, and departs with a ring. That’s Plaza-worthy to me, no doubt. As far as it all being over goes, Brett represented the team with class and now joins the club of “Former Saskatchewan Roughrider ________.” Welcome! It’s a large, fun group.
8 – OLYMPIC HOCKEY: NGL, it sucked to have no Hockey Night In Canada to enjoy Saturday night and found myself tuning into the NBA’s Warriors/Lakers, and Shaq on ABC (it wasn’t bad), plus a little Olympics coverage. Call it the calm before the storm! That little appetizer of a Four Nations Faceoff tournament in the NHL a year ago really set up this Italy Games tremendously, with all the drama of Canada/USA on the ice. Does anybody really think any other country will win gold in the Olympics? I don’t. And for the record, I’m cheering for Canada and always will. … Meanwhile Russian superstar Nikita Kucherov was correct this week when he said it’s not a true tournament for world supremacy if Russia’s not there. He’s not wrong, and hopefully that situation changes soon. The Russkies would be my pick to win it, but a lot of the hockey people disagree. Unfortunately right now, we won’t know!
9 – BATTLE OF FLORIDA: It’s like 1990s WHL. I feel a little guilty and ashamed that my heart flutters so wildly everytime the Florida Panthers & Tampa Bay Lightning get together but the Sunshine State rivals have accumulated 800+ penalty minutes in their season series this year and it’s goonery to the hilt. Did you watch the ESPN+/Sportsnet telecast of Thursday’s donnybrook? “There’s teams that dislike each other,” offered analyst Ray Ferraro. “And then there’s teams who despise each other. These two teams despise each other.” Paul Maurice got kicked out, Matthew Tkachuk backstabbed Kucherov, you-name-it! I was somewhat expecting a goalie fight between Vasilevskiy and Bobrovsky however Bob told me the day before that the pair has a “good relationship”. That, however, doesn’t mean they won’t fight one day. … My biggest challenge is staying in the middle on the Cats N Bolts Podcast because the fanbases have gotten out of control, to the point where we routinely see fights in the stands. (circa 1996, Moose Jaw Civic Centre). When you get something back you thought you’d never see again, that’s pure elation. (Recovery works that way, BTW). … Oh, and how are the REST of the Panthers spending the Olympic break? Bob was signing autographs at the Mall At Wellington, FL on Saturday. I love him.
10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: Quit trying to make sense of something that will never make sense. Let it go! … With the retirement announcement of 77-year old Buck Martinez, I’ve seen people ask if the icon is one of the Top 3 Canadian broadcasters of all-time. Here’s the trouble – he’s not Canadian. … Talk is cheap when the story is good. … Fail to plan, plan to fail. … I don’t care for the relaxed dress code in the NHL. … There’s two sides to every story. Sometimes three. … Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of wintry weather last Monday, a forecast sure to disappoint many after what’s already been a long, cold season across large parts of the United States. The news was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos from the tens of thousands who braved temperatures in the single-digits Fahrenheit, minus double-digit Celsius, to await the annual prognostication in Gobblers Knob, Pennsylvania. The extreme cold kept the crowd bundled up. Usually guests can come up on stage and take pictures of Phil after his prediction, but this year the announcer said it was too cold for that and his handlers were afraid to keep him out too long. Instead, the audience was asked to come to the stage, turn around and “do a selfie.” … AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?
Y’er welcome,
RP
Times are changing. All this SuperBowl accomplished was 32 Owners got together. The agreement was; “Give the Goyums vut dey vant”. On that note they gave unity, pride, and identity – as long as people bought a ticket and advertisers got to sell spots. This league/game past the ownership raking in billions is for gambling addicts and addicts in general to have one big hoo raw as winter settles in. Pride comes before the fall. Basing identity on perverted sexuality is not a smart thing. Unity….they don’t understand human nature. Every man for himself. CFL – as part of the… Read more »
badbuns – terrible sbbowl halftime show, terrible, 💯%.
Just a correction. Bad Bunny is technically American. He’s just from Puerto Rico. Citizens of Puerto Rico have been able to have a United States passport since 1917.
Even though I didn’t understand a word he said until he listed the countries in the Western Hemisphere…I liked the vibe.
Shout out to Corey Mace, “defense wins championships!”
Shootout to MGK _Machine Gun Kelly. MGK Winnipeg Grey Cup 2025 halftime performance highly superior to what happened at the Super Bowl San Francisco, Cal.