FRIDAY RODSERVATIONS

A RIDER DOZEN HOLIDAY OBSERVATIONS:

1 – A BEAR’S LIFE: Thursday’s signing of kick return specialist Chris Williams by the NFL’s Chicago Bears has everybody in football talking north of the border.  I’m not as familiar with NFL regulations but this one appears the same as the CFL; Chicago snatched Williams off New Orleans’ practice roster and reportedly gave him a $100,000 bonus.  That’s the highest signing bonus for a CFL’er I can recall since the Dallas Cowboys awarded Rider lineman Tango MacAuley with a six-figure cheque a decade ago.  Tango spent the rest of the off-season partying the loot away and was cut early in Cowboys training camp.

That was the last of the big bonuses I could recall however a CFL coach reminded me last night that Cam Wake got a healthy six figure bonus from the Miami Dolphins a few years back.  But it’s far more rare than it used to me.

But I digress.  It remains to be seen if Williams – the CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player in 2012 with Hamilton – will be activated for the Bears’ critical match-up with Green Bay this weekend.  That’s the way the rule works in Canadian football.  A win or a tie this weekend will clinch Chicago a playoff berth for just the second time in seven years.

2 – DRESSLER UPDATE:  Of course the Williams signing has us all wondering how it affects Rider star Weston Dressler’s pursuit of an NFL deal, particularly with Chicago.  Weston’s American-based agent shot me a series of text messages on Thursday updating contract talks and said, “Just waiting until February” and “We have 3 teams with confirmed interest … 2 are in the playoff hunt … 1 team doesn’t want anyone else to know they are interested”.

You can read that a number of different ways.  The fact they’re waiting until February ( when Dressler’s contract with the Riders expires ) hints that a deal is in place, not just a workout.  On the other hand you could read it that they’re entertaining all offers and that nothing’s been signed yet.

Regardless it appears that the agent is playing it right, and has Weston’s best interests at heart.  You’d think that would be obvious, but that’s not always the case in the agent game.  However this representative seems very genuine.

3 – PARANOIA IS ANNOYING: A Dallas Cowboys employee was threatened to be fired this week for leaking the news that quarterback Tony Romo might miss Sunday’s Philadelphia game with injury.  This paranoia thing with coaches is getting out of control.  Any coaching staff worth its salt should be able to make adjustments on the fly rather than have five days of prep time whether it’s Tony Romo, Kyle Orton or Fred Flintstone starting.  Pretty soon no one will say anything, which is exactly what the coaches want, but it makes things awfully boring.  Coaches love to watch the NFL Network around the clock but that channel would suck without things like the Romo news to discuss for days.

4 – COACHING CAROUSEL UPDATE: Gary Etcheverry confirmed this week he’s in contention for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ vacant defensive coordinator’s position.  Reports out of Winnipeg suggest former Rider coach Greg Marshall is on the shortlist as well.  Both are excellent candidates and would do a great job.

5 – KHARI JONES REPLACED IN-HOUSE: Nice work in the corners by the Leader Post’s Rob Vanstone this week to inform us George Cortez will assume the role of Rider quarterbacks coach this year along with his offensive coordinator duties.  Somewhere in here we told you Cortez would be back in Saskatchewan in 2014.  Rider head coach Chamblin confirmed to the L-P that George “loves Saskatchewan and Regina”.

6 – A CHRISTMAS OOPS:

Bought this Calgary Flames jersey for my nephew Brett James Pedersen at Walmart and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry once it was unwrapped.  It should read CAMMALLERI.  C’mon Walmart!

7 – LAST-PLACE UPDATE: Went to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party this week and some guy showed up in an Edmonton Oilers jersey.   Okay, okay I stole that joke off Twitter but it’s a good one!  The Oiler fan who discarded his jersey on the ice in disgust last Saturday night gave us perhaps the best story of the NHL season so far.  Suspensions aside.

8 – MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE: While compiling my annual year-end blog post for the MMG, I noticed that back in the spring time Pats coaches Malcolm Cameron and Josh Dixon were selected to coach Team West at the World Under-17 Tournament in Cape Breton.  The tournament is set to begin on Sunday but I’ve learned Cameron has resigned his posting due to his commitments as head coach of the Regina Pats.  The Pats get back to work after the Christmas break when they visit the Brandon Wheat Kings tonight on 620 CKRM.  Saturday the Pats host the Wheaties at 7 pm on 620 CKRM.

9 – PATS NOTE: Pats prospect Sam Steel scored twice for his Sherwood Park Kings in a 4-4 tie with the UFA Bisons on Thursday at the Mac’s Tournament in Calgary.  Meanwhile the Pat Canadians trounced Vancouver 6-1 in their opening game.  The summary is in the post below.

10 – WORLD JUNIORS: Did not awake in time to watch a single shift of Canada’s tournament-opening 7-2 win over Germany in Sweden on Boxing Day.  It sounds like I didn’t miss much but you’ve got to be quick to catch these games.  Almost without exception international hockey matches wrap up within two hours.  When the clock hits 0:00 after warmups and intermissions, they drop the puck and there’s only one TV timeout per period.  It’s not like the WHL where once the clock hits 0:00, they drop the puck once they get around to it.  That took some getting used to at the 2012 tournament in Alberta when we were calling the games on the Sportsnet Radio Network.

11 – THE BIG SMOKE AND SMOKED MEAT: The 2015 and 2017 World Junior Hockey Championships will be hosted in Toronto and Montreal with one city hosting the tournament round and the other hosting playoff and medal games.  They’ll switch roles based on the year.  It will be very interesting to see how these tournaments are attended in those cities.  It will be tough to match hockey-mad Alberta where ALL games were sold out in NHL arenas two years ago.  And please don’t mention Saskatchewan in 2010 where the medal round games didn’t sell out and we had to put Team Canada in green jerseys to drum up interest!

12 – WHY SPORTS ADVERTISING WORKS: Stood in Safeway and couldn’t decide between Kraft and Skippy peanut butter on Thursday.  Then thought about TSN’s Kraft Celebration Tour and all the money Kraft donated to towns across this great country over the past few years.  Kraft Crunchy it is! Skippy can go pound sand.

13 – WHAT I ASKED FOR AT CHRISTMAS AND DIDN’T GET:  Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.  If you have children, you know what I’m talking about.  Throw in several 1:00 a.m. “pocket dials” from friends enjoying holiday revelry and it all adds up to some big-time sleeping in!  But vacation has been wonderful.  When you can’t take vacation time during six months of football season nor the two month ratings periods, it means Christmas is where it’s at.  I’ll take it.  And after a 10-day long mental shutdown, I’m back with my eye on the ball.  That was an incredibly hectic, stressful, yet rewarding year and a physical/mental hiatus was badly needed.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
RP
@sportscage