Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – EMBRACE OR REJECT – Now that it’s socially acceptable for Canadians to hate Americans, I am curious to see if the CFL will be on the list of Americanisms that are okay to keep supporting or whether we kill the league because we hate Trump.  We live in very strange times where receiving an American packaged snack on an airplane can really raise the ire of Canadian people while it’s okay to fly on the aircraft that was built in the United States.  It’s also okay to boycott Crown Royal despite all the people employed in Canada but fine to shop until your heart’s content at Costco.  And, while watching Netflix is considered acceptable, an American vacation is an absolute no-no.  So as you can see, the CFL’s shift to American football will be a complete coin flip as to whether or not it goes over with the fan base.

3 – CFL vs NCAA – The topic of whether a Grey Cup champion would beat the NCAA champion has come up in circles with Canadian football fans as of late and I hate to be that guy, but I believe the Riders would not stand a chance against the Indiana Hoosiers of last year.  The Hoosiers are putting their QB directly into the NFL.  The top QB in the CFL is Davis Alexander and he was a decent NCAA QB on an unranked team but the gap between Alexander, even today, and Mendoza is wide and I come from a small camp that believes Alexander would survive on an NFL roster should he attempt it.  The Hoosiers had 8 players drafted this Spring, two of them first rounders.  All eight have made their respective NFL teams.  Again, I hate to be that negative nelly that I’m sure I’ll be called and we will never know for sure because a game between the two teams is not ever going to be a thing but the NCAA is the second best football league in the world.

4 – NO MORE IN-GAME INTS – Long time sports media personality Bob Ryan, who has been in the industry for nearly 50 years, says it’s time to end in-game interviews and I couldn’t agree more.  They are completely and totally useless.  Part of the issue is the media personality is, often, star struck and unable to form or craft a legitimate question that requires the athlete or coach to provide an in-depth thought.  In the rare case of a quality question, the athlete or coach is apt to lie anyway.  One of the best compliments I received during my media career was my style of interviewing and I give full credit to Bob Lowes and Kelly McCrimmon for that as neither of them had time for stupid, pointless questions.  

5 – BUIUM CONTRACT – The Vancouver Canucks are shelling out $9-million a season for the next eight years to Zeev Buium, the young defenseman who was the centrepiece of the Quinn Hughes trade.  Buium has a high ceiling but he hardly blew the doors off in picking up just 12-points in 45-games and was a minus-24 following the trade.  He was more productive with Minnesota before the blockbuster and that has to be, slightly, concerning even though he was definitely surrounded with worse talent on the Canucks.  Here’s my issue with the contract: the Canucks are never going to get a bargain with Buium.  Teams that have success have to have players on the roster who outplay their salary.  Buium is now a longshot to ever do that and should he not reach his potential, he will be a detriment.  The Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes’ leading scorer in the playoffs was Jackson Blake, salary of less than $1-million.  Logan Stankoven and Brandon Bussi also made less than $1-million and played key roles and you can’t win a Cup without having a few players who are playing at star level at less than star salaries.  Paying Buium that much for that long without him ever doing anything of note is a major gamble.

6 – MAYICH – St. Louis Blues draft pick and Hamilton product Matthew Mayich needs a miracle to survive after he went into a medical emergency following a training incident with his university team at Arizona State.  The Mayich Family has, intelligently, hired a lawyer who has determined Mayich passed out following a grueling, military style workout.  It’s unfathomable to me that in 2026 we still have coaches that think running players to the point of fainting is somehow an aspect of necessary preparation.  The hockey coach, Greg Powers, has passed the buck to fitness guru Tim Ziesel, an ex-Green Beret.  Ziesel acknowledges he led a 50-minute workout but called it mid-level intensity.  My guess is mid-level intensity for a Green Beret doesn’t mean the same thing as mid-level intensity for the rest of us but let’s see who covers whose ass on this one.

7 – HOCKEY ANALYSTS – Hockey broadcast rumours suggest Sportsnet Insider (Speculator more like it) Elliotte Friedman is holding out from signing a new agreement with Rogers because he wants to appear on the Amazon Wednesday night telecasts as well. Both Rogers and Amazon are notoriously cheap when it comes to paying people so it would make sense that Friedman is looking outside the box on how to better maximize his financial return.  Jonah Sigel is a very good sports business writer and his recent column on the matter featured a number of truth bombs, such as pointing out the role of these ‘Insiders’ (‘Speculators’) is diminishing as none of them knew who the Leafs were hiring as a GM until the search was over and none of them knew Brady Tkachuk was about to be traded.  I’d also add none of them know (or are willing) to blow the lid off controversial stories (such as the London sex assault case or the Kyle Beach abuse story).  Sigel, rightly, points out that fans are going to watch irregardless of who is on the desk for intermission talent and Rogers (and Amazon) know this and therefore aren’t going to break the bank for talking heads.

8 – CFL DIGITAL RIGHTS – Sigel also wrote an article, earlier this year, on the CFL deal with TSN and DAZN and he makes some interesting points I hadn’t considered.  Not that the CFL is popular world-wide, but DAZN does have reach to 200 countries other than Canada and the United States.  The global reach matters because digital platforms can better determine what viewers watch, for how long, and what else they consume.  Streaming is as much (or more) about intelligence than it is distribution.  The YouTube aspect has not really been talked about but will feature preseason games, enhanced combine coverage, an all-access unscripted series, as well as other content and creator collaborations.  Personally, I’m still skeptical of the reported $500-million price tag that TSN and DAZN are paying the league but it is wise for the CFL to go this route and Sigel also makes a valid point on the DAZN Saturday broadcast by saying habit outweighs hype and if people can count on a 7pm Saturday night CFL game, that is better than the current set up of games at random times and random days and it may draw a consistent audience for that one time slot.

9 – UFC332 – The UFC let its fans down in a big way yesterday by finally revealing the main event for UFC332 in Utah to be a women’s flyweight title bout between Natalia Silva and Wang Cong as Valentina Shevchenko has vacated/stripped of the championship due to injury.  It’s no fault of Silva or Cong but their fight would have been better suited as a co-main event and there is already speculation this will be the lowest viewed numbered event for the UFC ever.  It’s not like the UFC was without options.  Khamzat Chimaev has been clamoring for a fight and, my guess, is they could have enticed him to take on Paulo Costa in an interim Light Heavyweight title match (Carlos Ullberg is injured) or possibly even done a Jiri Prochazka-Navajo Stirling interim championship fight.  There also could have been a possible heavyweight title fight between Josh Hokit and Cyril Gane but it sounds like the UFC is holding out hope for a Tom Aspinall return (appearing more and more unlikely) to headline UFC in mid-November.

10 – UFC LIGHTWEIGHTS – The UFC has signed Robelis Despaigne to the heavyweight division and he will fight at UFC331 in two weeks.  Despaigne was on the Netflix MMA Rousey-Carano card and was impressive.  The UFC also signed Salahdine Parnesse from that same card and he made his debut yesterday in front of a hometown crowd in Paris by making short work of Dan Hooker with a first round knockout in a Lightweight Division fight.  Lightweight is, suddenly, stacked with Justin Gaethje at the top and then the likes of Ilia Topuria, Max Holloway, Charles Olivera, Paddy Pimblett, Arman Tsarukyan, Mauricio Ruffy, and Quillan Salkilld next in line.  It’s also expected Usman Nurmagomedov will join the fray sooner rather than later.  Parnesse makes that weight class 10 fighters deep and while Salkilld has been asking for a top five fight, I would like to see Parnesse/Salkilld.  There’s also speculation Diego Lopes is set to move up and will face Olivera for the BMF title before the end of the year and a Pimblett/Topuria fight is also very much in play.  Gaethje, supposedly in early 2027, will fight the winner of Tsarukyan and Ruffy, which is a co-main event for UFC331 in two weeks time.

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