Dupont’s 10 Things
1. Welcome to the middle of the week! It’s been a fun start to the week sitting in for RP hosting the show while he enjoys a summer vacation.
It’s always a different perspective for the show when I’m hosting versus co-hosting. There are a lot of moving parts you don’t see while watching but it’s been fun!
2. The weekend – Let’s recap the weekend quickly because so much has happened already the weekend is a distant speck in the year view mirror:
A trip to Detroit to see Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown Band, Megan Moroney, and Uncle Kracker was unbelievable. It jumps to the top of live concerts I’ve ever seen…10/10! It sparked a great discussion about favourite concerts on Monday’s RP Show if you want to check the podcast.
3. Nathan Rourke – Tuesday was a tornado of breaking news so we’ll start with football. Nathan Rourke is signing a 3-year deal with the Lions that will reset the QB market moving forward. Lions coach Rick Campbell was adamant that Vernon Adams Jr isn’t going anywhere and remains a big part of the team. I don’t know how they’ll work the two weapons but it’s a great problem to have. The Lions instantly became the betting favourites to win the Grey Cup in Vancouver and Campbell even said we should expect Rourke to make his 2024 debut on Sunday.
Buckle up!
4. The Elks – Edmonton is poised to introduce new ownership after a lengthy search. It will be the first time in 75 years that club will no longer be community owned. I’m excited for Larry Thompson. He comes from construction, is local, and a season ticket holder.
I said on Tuesday’s RP Show that it feels as though the club has finally turned the corner and is on the way up. Back-to-back wins and a new owner is a great start. Things are looking up!
5. Elks or Eskimos – This will be a topic of Wednesday’s RP Show. Questions are circling as to what will new ownership do with the team’s brand. Should they keep the name Elks or go back to Eskimos? As predicted, this has garnered a lot of discussion online.
I’ll save my thoughts for the show Wednesday but I will say this should not be high on Mr. Thompson’s to-do list.
6. QB’s – Sticking with football, and with Edmonton, Tre Ford is day-to-day dealing with the injury suffered in Sunday’s win. MBT did an admirable job in his absence but they need Ford to be ready to go for this team to keep winning games.
Meanwhile, Saskatchewan appears to be poised to have Trevor Harris back this week. This is a HUGE reason for Rider Nation to be optimistic. Their season will depend completely on Harris’ health IMO.
No Bo Levi for Hamilton and no Dru Brown for Ottawa this week. I think I might be most excited to see Jeremiah Masoli back engineering the offence for Ottawa this week. Talking about Masoli’s raw ability but also his injury history the last three season, it sparked the CFL on TSN’s Paul LaPolice to say that he “would have loved to see more of Masoli” while he was coaching in the nation’s capital.. we all would like to see more of him, and looks like we will.
7. QB’s Pt. 2 – South of the border NFL training camps are in full swing. Young QB’s are stealing the show as we move towards the second week of preseason games. Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams, Bo Nix, and JJ McCarthy all looks great in their preseason debuts. The unfortunate part is on Tuesday we learned that McCarthy is dealing with a knee injury that will sideline him weeks at minimum and possibly months. That’s really too bad. Minnesota will now likely start Sam Darnold week one and there’s a wild amount of excitement around it. Ok, then.
8. Offer Sheets – St Louis has woken up the hockey world from its August lakeside nap when they signed a pair of Edmonton Oilers to offer sheets on Tuesday.
Edmonton will have one week to match each offer sheet or take draft picks as compensation. We are talking about two young players, former first-round picks, that are key depth pieces of a hopeful Stanley Cup run this coming season. The issue? The Oilers are ALREADY over the cap as it is. Now, they can remain 10% over the cap until the season but they’ll need to work the roster to even get there while keeping Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. One thing we have learned is that Evander Kane is likely headed for surgery and then LTIR for a good chunk (if not all) of the regular season. Even still, the Oilers will need to make multiple moves in the next six days to make this work. What a job for new GM Stan Bowman!
9. Auston Matthews – Matthews will be unveiled as the 26th captain in Maple Leafs’ history at a Wednesday press conference. It comes with current captain, John Tavares, having one year left on his current deal. TSN’s Darren Dreger is reporting that Tavares is good with the decision and has been part of the process the entire way.
That’s good enough for me.
This was a the natural evolution and something that was going to happen eventually. Matthews is coming off a 69-goal season but the Leafs have still failed to make a deep run in the spring under Matthews and the not-so-young anymore core. We’ll see if the ‘C’ on AM34 can make a difference and propel the Leafs forward.
10. Randoms – We did a full Olympic recap on Monday’s RP show. My favourite moment? The men’s 4x100m Gold… Tom Cruise setting the tone for LA in ‘28? Love it!… Congratulations to Scott Russell on a wonderful 17 Olympics as he gets set for retirement. It just feels like the Olympics when you hear his voice… that said, Mark Lee also needs a shout-out for his tremendous work at the track in Paris. He was in fine form… This week will be a pair of firsts for me: 1) it will be my first time visiting Ottawa and 2) it will be my first time calling tennis play-by-play. I’m excited to be asked to be on the call for the Nation’s Capital Tennis Championships.
And what do you have this week?
