FRIDAY COMMENTARY – MR. RODGERS NEIGHBOURHOOD
(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)
A coupla three thoughts headed into the first weekend of March …
Firstly, it was a good news/bad news kinda night at FLA Live Arena. The bad news is the Florida Panthers fell 2-1 at home to Nashville in what was essentially a must-win game in the playoff chase. It was Star Wars Night at the game, but Luke Skywalker wasn’t around to save the day.
The good news is, I talked to just about everyone I wanted to including three Panthers broadcasters whom just happen to all be from Canada: Randy Moller, Bill Lindsay and Jeff Chychryn.
It was Chychryn who confirmed to me that his son Jacob – the centre of trade frenzy in the NHL this week – was born in South Florida and played his minor hockey here. But when Jacob reached bantam, his Dad flew him to Detroit to play with stronger competition.
Clearly, the decision paid off.
Secondly, what a wild debate in the curling world where we learned Brad Gushue’s Team Canada rink would be ineligible for provincial playdowns due to having too many imports on their roster, yet they qualify for the Brier as defending champions. Curling Canada announced that’s a gray area in their rules which will need to be amended this off-season.
Rachel Homan and I had a long talk about this at a sports banquet in Sask a few years ago and she feels the time has come to open it up, and allow your team to come from anywhere across the country.
Because Rachel said it, I agree. But there’s gotta be a way for Curling Canada to take the handcuffs off. How about a formula like the CFL uses to designate non-import players?
Wouldn’t it be great to have Ben Hebert represent Saskatchewan even though he lives in Calgary? Maybe we’d finally win a Brier.
And lastly what would an RP Commentary be without some chat on football? Well as the calendar flips into March, and with NFL free agency approaching, super star Aaron Rodgers still hasn’t made up his mind where he’ll play this season.
More like “super diva”. Because of Rodgers dragging his feet, he’s holding four-to-five teams hostage, not the least of which are his Green Bay Packers.
Aaron said this week that if him taking his sweet time bothers anybody, then we should just tune him out.
Thanks Mr. Rodgers. I think I will.
That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, YouTube Live and WQEE Radio)
I suggest people listen to the podcast Club Random. Bill Maher at 66 has reinvented himself yet again. He and Aaron Rodgers on there. He is a fascinating individual. Agree/disagree his opinions and how he carries himself are based on his real belief system. This guy sat back and shut his mouth for 3 years when Brett Farve went back and forth and now he is doing the same. It’s like a wife. If you can do better then cut the cord and do so. Green Bay should put their hopes and dreams on the guy they drafted a couple… Read more »
I’ve lived in Saskatchewan for a long time. I remember the repression of NDP governments. Back when the standard grad gift was a suitcase and a bus ticket to Calgary. And you are promoting that? What a wingnut!!!!
Tom, Out of respect. I have an SP membership and have for a very long time. That is not at all the issue and thank God, Moe is doing things incremental. What he needs to do is steer it right back to the center. Right now you know who the biggest employer is in this Province?…..Government and subsidiaries. If you’re in Healthcare those Pigs and that’s what they are make no mistake are all at the trough. Any young people in those fields anything in there is all casual. The temerity that Unions would want to be at the table… Read more »
The curling import thing is a thorny issue. I agree teams should be able to make up their teams from anywhere, but that means you need to end the Brier and Scotties being teams based on provinces. You can’t have Ben Hebert and 3 guys from Winnipeg playing as team Sask. It doesn’t mean ending the tournaments but just changing how you get the teams for them. BUT changing them means ending the cinderella stories of a team getting hot and winning the provincial playdowns or tiny Team PEI beating the world champions. Curling Canada has tried to thread the… Read more »
How about “You have to have lived in the province for X amount of years”? Ben would qualify under that scenario.
The rule is if you were born there or are currently living there you’re not an import. I think it’s a fair system if you want to still base the Brier and scotties entrances on provinces. If you don’t then it can be a free for all with no imports. But it probably means the end of higher end competive curling inYukon, NWT, PEI and Nova Scotia. Curling in Canada isn’t perfect but they are trying to get better. The wild cards have made a way for the 2nd or 3rd best teams in some provinces to get a shot.… Read more »
How about you have two choices. 1. Curl for the province you currently live in or 2. Curl from the province you were born in.
you have that choice right now. If you were born in Regina, moved to winnipeg when your were 3 and then moved to Calgary last year you could curl for Alberta or Saskatchewan as an non import or for Manitoba as an import even though you lived there most of your life. It makes it super simple: were you born in the province? Do you live there now? If yes you are an non import
Curling 🇨🇦 jus got more ridiculous getting political. Changing things up on a last minute fly not conducive to the betterment of Shuffleboard 🇨🇦 moving forward. Curling …. curling is not a sport people! It’s a social event. Curling 🇨🇦 getting their undies tied up in a knot over imports need to relax. Drunken Imports on the barroom shuffleboards of 🇨🇦 a everyday occurrence.