FOOTBALL FRIDAY RUNDOWN

We covered a lot of ground on Episode #312 of The RP Show, Canada’s Daytime Sports Talk Show! Here are the highlights:

• Rod and John Frenzy opened with The Warmup covering these Quick Six show topics: 1) Seventh Heaven in the NHL with two Game 7’s on tap Friday, 2) O.G. Anunoby with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for the Raptors over the Celtics, 3) RP feels Marc-Andre Fleury should start in goal for Vegas in Game 7 (“They’ve painted themselves into a corner and now have to go with their franchise face.”), 4) It’s Labour Day Classic weekend with no Classics, 5) Daved Benefield’s Op-Ed on Where The CFL Lost Its Way, and 6) NFL News & Notes: Henry Burris is sticking with the Chicago Bears, Cam Newton will start Week 1 for New England and the Seahawks bring back WR Josh Gordon. Frenzy also examined the mess in Houston with GM/Head Coach Bill O’Brien and the Texans season-opening game against Kansas City.
• Regarding Labour Day Classic weekend, Frenzy said he’s only missed one since 1950 and that was to attend his father-in-law’s funeral. RP’s favourite LDC was 1999 when Curtis Mayfield returned two punt touchdowns and the Riders beat Winnipeg for their last win of the season. (They finished 3-15 and that spelled the end of the Cal Murphy/Alan Ford regime).
• RP’s rant on excessive Covid controls by government is our most-viewed video segment yet with over 30,000 downloads and he explained a lot of people have misunderstood it. The host is defending the Sports & Entertainment industries which have been gashed and said if you truly feel “It’s just sports”, then you don’t understand how many lives and careers have been negatively impacted.
• BC Lions head coach Rick Campbell joined the show from the Lions facility and he and Lynch shared stories about Rick’s father, Hall of Famer Hugh Campbell. The younger Campbell said it’s still setting in that there’s no season, and said this particular weekend is a further gut-punch. He felt the Lions were primed for good things in 2020 and said they were a lot better team in 2019 than people thought. Rick also explained all the CFL opt-outs this week and said although it looks bad, it’s really no different than the traditional CFL opt-outs at season’s end back in the day. Rick also said that although there’s no CFL football, at least fans have NFL to watch and some NCAA. He also predicted there will be CFL football in 2021.
• In the Viewer Takeover segment, viewers disagreed with Campbell and said the CFL is in peril of losing fans to the NFL. It was a lengthy back-and-forth over what’s next for the CFL.
• Hour 2 was broadcast on Facebook Live only and we were joined by TSN’s James Duthie, the former host of the CFL on TSN panel. He doesn’t think the CFL will drop off the radar but admitted this will be a challenge. The Ottawa product said he fell in love with the Clemson Tigers after seeing a Clemson cheerleader on a broadcast when he was just 10-years old. That’s the impact televised games can have. Duthie also discussed the Stanley Cup Playoffs and agreed with Rod that the hockey has been at least as good as past playoff years. However he feels the NHL erred in compressing the schedule and agreed the Vegas/Vancouver Game 7 should’ve been moved to Saturday. Regarding a return to the CFL, Duthie said he’d strongly consider it and that he grew up wanting to be a play-by-play man in the CFL or NFL.
• Toronto Argonauts WR Juwan Brescacin joined the show from his Mississauga home and discussed how the Argos will be a contender whenever the CFL resumes. He said it was tough to leave Calgary after four seasons with the Stampeders but the allure to come home was too great to pass up. The Northern Illinois product is excited about the future under Pinball Clemons and John Murphy. During the pandemic, Brescacin has taken to gaming and hosts his own Twitch.tv channel.
• With Dupes taking the day off, Producer Clark popped into the bunker for the Overtime segment. He discussed how the show has grown over 312 episodes and explained his strategy in booking guests. Clark also promoted The Squad Cast which is an up-and-coming podcast hosted by himself and summer students Mad Max and Allan “The Asian Sensation”. It’ll offer complimentary content to the RP Show. Follow the Team RP Show social media channels for info and air times!
• You can vote now on our Twitter poll for the Rockstar of the Day for RoxDar Supply Chain Solutions. At press time, Producer Clark was leading. Thursday’s vote was won by Dan Rashovich.
• See you Labour Day Monday for a CFL SIM doubleheader between Saskatchewan and Winnipeg (1 pm MT) and Calgary and Edmonton (4 pm MT). Both games will be broadcast live on the RP Show Facebook Live channel.
• See you at 10 am MT on Tuesday on Game+ TV, Facebook Live and RodPedersen.com/ListenLive. The guest list includes our biggest guest yet!!