DAYTONA HOMES MONDAY MORNING GOALIE

15 MONDAY MORNING QUICK HITS

1 – J.R. GETTING IT DONE:  The talk in the Queen City for the next two weeks will be the match-up in Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona on Sunday, February 1; the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots.  Regina’s Jon Ryan played a key role in the NFC Championship game, tossing a touchdown pass for the Seahawks in their 28-22 OT win over Green Bay in Seattle.

Trailing 16-0 in the third quarter, Ryan was set to hold on a field goal attempt but instead rolled left and tossed a touchdown pass to Garry Gilliam to get the Seahawks on the board.  In the process, Jon became the first punter in NFL playoff history to throw a touchdown pass and the first Canadian to toss a touchdown in the NFL playoffs since Mark Rypien in 1992.  And Mark, of course, is the cousin of former Regina Pats captain Rick Rypien.  Everything around here seems to be connected in some way.

The other astonishing thing is the oddsmakers had the Seahawks listed as 6.5-point favourites for the game, and they wound up winning by six.  It’s amazing how those guys predict that stuff.

It’s also amazing Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson overcame four interceptions and five turnovers overall to win the game.  At times it was reminiscent of Kerry Joseph heaving five picks in the 2014 CFL Western Semifinal, however Saskatchewan couldn’t recover in an 18-10 loss to the Eskimos.

Jon Ryan will discuss the team’s second straight journey to the Super Bowl on Tuesday’s SportsCage on 620 CKRM.

2 – THE BRADY BUNCH:  Over in the AFC Championship game, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots won a laugher, 45-7 over the Indianapolis Colts in Foxborough.  This what not a surprise.  We predicted it on the SportsCage Friday once I saw how calm and cool Tom Brady was all week during his news conferences.  He said on the national radio pregame show Sunday that he couldn’t wait for the game to kickoff because it was going to be “a lot of fun”.  Brady mentioned, “We’ve worked so hard all off-season and the last six months to get here and this will be the pay off”.   He was deadly perceptive.

3 – RIDER CAMP UPDATE:  The Roughriders held two more free agent tryout camps on the weekend in California: Saturday in Los Angeles and Sunday in San Jose.  Head Coach Corey Chamblin reported there were 50 players at the L.A. camp and 30 at the workout in the Bay Area.  Rider Assistant G.M. Jeremy O’Day was in attendance at both camps.  Chamblin said so far they’ve identified three or four players who’ve earned invites to the club’s minicamp in Bradenton, Florida in April.  Corey also reported there has been “huge” confirmation of attendees for the club’s upcoming camps in Dallas, Houston and Birmingham.

4 – STAMPS TO THE ALOUETTES:  Nobody seemed to see Friday’s trade between the Eskimos and Alouettes coming.  The CFL clubs swapped import receivers with Fred Stamps going to Montreal in exchange for Kenny Stafford.  The report I received is that Stamps is leaving Edmonton due to illness and fatigue.  They were sick and tired of each other!

I still would’ve liked to have seen Stamps traded to the Calgary Stampeders.  In that scenario, would he be playing for the name on the front of his jersey, or the name on the back?  Sort of like when In The Huddle football analyst Marshall Hamilton suited up for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

5 – ON THE MARC:  It appears Marc Trestman won’t be out of work for long.  Days after being let go as Head Coach of the Chicago Bears in late-December, Marc was linked to the Jacksonville Jaguars as their next Offensive Coordinator.  However he’s slated to be in Oakland this week to interview for the same position with the Raiders.  In either scenario, Trestman would be working with second year quarterbacks but it would likely be a reprieve from dealing with Jay Cutler in Chicago.

6 – ADDY GOLD:  U of R Rams receiver Addison Richards figures to be a first round pick in this spring’s CFL Canadian College Draft and he didn’t hurt his case in Saturday’s East-West Shrine Game in Florida.  In what was described as a “dull game”, Richards was second on his team with two receptions for 19 yards.  University of South Florida kicker Marvin Kloss was named the game’s MVP by booting four field goals.  Yes, a kicker was MVP.

7 – WHO OWN DA CHIEFS?:  Congratulations to former Rams long-snapper and Saskatoon product Jorgen Hus who signed a free agent deal with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs this month. Hus was cut coming out of training camp this year by the St. Louis Rams but now once again there are four Rams grads in the NFL.  The Edmonton Eskimos continue to own Hus’s CFL rights, but it appears he won’t be coming north for awhile.

8 – MORE ON BREAUX:  Jorgen Hus is a client of the Gil Scott Sports Management Group but so too is Hamilton Ticats defensive back Delvin Breaux.  Last week GSSPG tweeted that Breaux has had workouts with Denver, Tampa Bay, Arizona, San Diego, San Francisco, Detroit, New England, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Houston and Minnesota.  He’ll sign with one of them, if he’s not too worn out.

9 – COHON’S REPLACEMENT:  The search for the next CFL Commissioner remains a closely-guarded secret.  TSN.ca reported over the weekend the shortlist includes Toronto sports executive Tom Anselmi and former Alouettes President Skip Prince.  Besides those two, the other candidates on the shortlist are not known and that’s because the search committee agreed not to make the applicants’ names public.  They’re still on target for a May hire, and the job will reportedly play between $750,000 and $1,000,000 per season.

10 – LEMON OUT OF LEMONADE:  The Calgary Sun reported over the weekend the Stampeders are poised to let defensive end Shawn Lemon out of his contract so that he can sign a free agent deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Lemon was a Roughrider for a short while, but never accomplished that much while he was here.  However in Calgary, he’s been a force.  And a champion.

11 – TO THE HOCKEY NEWS:  Congratulations to Weyburn’s Derrick Pouliot for being named to the AHL All-Star Game later this month.  While with Scranton Wilkes-Barre, Pouliot has notched 20 points in 23 AHL games.  He had a seven game stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but was sent down to work on his defensive play.

12 – SPEAKING OF WEYBURN:   The Red Wings will hold a town hall meeting on Thursday to figure out how to attack the club’s $200,000 debt.  Hopefully they raised some cash at Saturday’s annual fundraising dinner which featured the Riders’ Ricky Foley and Habs legend Yvon Cournoyer.  I’m told Foley was the best speaker of the bunch.

13 – SPEAKING OF DINNERS:  We had big fun in Carnduff, SK Friday evening as we kicked off Cameco’s Hockey Day In Saskatchewan with the SHA.  Guest speaker Tiger Williams had everyone rolling in the aisles with laughter while Hockey Canada President Tom Renney delivered a powerful message.  The town was hoping to raise $50,000 over the weekend for their local arena.  One big boost was a Tiger Williams Toronto Maple Leafs jersey going for $10,000.

14 – GO PATS GO:  The Queen City Kids finished their four game western road swing with a 5-2 loss in Calgary Sunday afternoon.  The defeat finished their trip record at 1-2-0-1.  The Pats return home Friday evening to host the Moose Jaw Warriors and the game is nearly soldout.  The new video scoreboard will be unveiled Friday evening and I’ll have the honour of calling the game on 620 CKRM.

Selling tickets for Friday’s game hasn’t been a problem but the rest of the home games have been.  It’s the same story across the league and it may even be a bigger problem in the SJHL.  The Access telecast of last week’s Weyburn-at-Estevan game portrayed a mostly empty arena at Spectra Place.  The culprit?  NHL games on TV every night which has hockey fans electing to stay home in front of their big screens rather than venturing out into the cold.  Is there a solution to this epidemic?  If someone knows, please tell us.  The NHL is sucking up all of hockey fans’ dollars from coast-to-coast so maybe it’s time the National Hockey League bumps up its transfer payments to the CHL and makes a significant contribution to the CJAHL.  Right now that seems to be the only way for these leagues to survive.  Expense are going up and revenue is going down.  That’s a combination which can’t be sustained.

Someone also suggested to me the Pats should employ the same grassroots marketing strategy the Roughriders used early in the Jim Hopson regime.  The team brass visited local coffee shops and businesses and handed out hats, t-shirts and tickets with personal invites to the games.  Face to face!  That’s still the best, most genuine, way to get it done.

15 – AT THE MOVIES:  We were able to catch two flicks this week, both at Rainbow Cinemas.  Guys, I’d caution you not to take your wife to Gone Girl.  The show does not portray husbands in a good light.  Meanwhile the movie Selma is winning all the awards but I’m stunned it landed in the cheap theatre so soon.  What gives?  This is a story everyone has to see, and I strongly encourage you to take your kids.  They need to know this part of history.

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THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY!  SEE YOU IN THE CAGE AT 4 PM
RP
@sportscage
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