Scruffy’s This N That

1 – THE DEBATE BEGINS AGAIN: It happens every year in our country on the day after the Super Bowl. Those who trumpet the CFL say the Grey Cup was better than the Super Bowl thus the three down game is superior to the four-down game. It is a take that is somewhat tiresome. The numbers in Canada say this year’s Grey Cup saw just over four million people watch the Riders beat the Alouettes. It was the dream matchup for the CFL as its most popular team ratings-wise was taking on a team from Quebec meaning the French audience was there as well. In 2024, the number was 3.38 million and in ’23, it was a woeful 2.82 million.

Compare that to the Seahawks-Patriots matchup as 6.8 million Canadians watched which was 20 percent fewer than the Chiefs-Eagles matchup last year. The question now is how many of the four million that watched the Riders win in Winnipeg watched the Seahawks win in San Francisco? The answer is probably in the 85-90 percent mark as there are a great deal of football fans in this country that appreciate both games. Both are entertaining products and while both have great games, both have duds as well. If this year’s Grey Cup game had been between B.C and Hamilton and ended 25-17, there would have been people in the 306 saying it was a bad game. The fact the Riders were involved changed the mindset immediately and for good reason but sorry to break it to you kids, but that game will not go down with the all-time great Grey Cup games. The same could be said for the 2013 Riders blowout over Hamilton, but it was great for Rider Nation. 

You don’t have to like it, but the NFL gets more attention in this country from football fans than the CFL for a variety of reasons. The CFL knows that which is why they got away from Sunday games once the NFL season starts. They know what needs to be done, but they don’t want to do it. I still think the CFL should seriously look at a Saturday night Grey Cup and go up against Hockey Night in Canada because I am sure there are a lot of Canadians that look at the Sunday night NFL game and decide it is a matchup they might rather watch than the Grey Cup which takes away from the numbers. I think a majority of Canadians would put hockey on the shelf for one Saturday night early in the season to watch football, especially if the Grey Cup ended so that those that want their Saturday night hockey could still get the back half of the first game of the doubleheader. It was interesting to note that there was some chatter leading up to the Super Bowl about playing on a Saturday night. I don’t think either league will be changing the day of their title game anytime soon, but I would like to see it.

2 – RIDERS FREE AGENCY: There are still a handful of CFL players looking for new homes, but for the most part CFL teams have done their thing when it comes to free agency. What’s the thought process on how the Riders have made out? GM Jeremy O’Day knew he couldn’t keep everyone and he did get a lot of potential free agents like Trevor Harris, AJ Ouellette, Samuel Emilus, Keesean Johnson, Tevaughn Campbell and Mike Rose signed to new deals, there are a lot of guys, especially on that defence that are gone. Say what you will but AJ Allen, CJ Reavis and Malik Carney will be hard to replace. When you win, your guys become a little more attractive and I am guessing while O’Day wanted to keep some guys that left, you can only do so much when other teams are throwing more $$$ a player’s way. Carney is now the highest paid defensive lineman in the league if reports are true and Allen is now the highest paid Canadian linebacker. You can’t really fault O’Day for that, but I am sure some will try. Getting James Vaughters and Josh Woods will help, but does that keep them with a championship calibre D.

It’s never easy to repeat in the CFL and it won’t be easy for the Riders to keep the Grey Cup in the 306. If you look at the depth chart, you see this team is in pretty good shape. I don’t think they look as good right now as they did at this time last year but we have a lot of time to go until Week 1. 

3 – DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS: It won’t be changing in 2026, but I wonder if CFL head coaches have started to wonder about the kicking game in 2027 and how it will change their mindset when the goalposts are moved to the back of the 15-yard endzone?

As it stands now with the uprights on the goal-line, teams have no problem kicking a field goal from beyond the opposition’s 45-yard line. We have seen on both sides of the border that we are seeing more and more 50+ yard field goals and I expect that we will still see many 50+ yard attempts or will we.  If a team has the ball at the opposition’s 30 or 35 and its 3^rd and 4, will coaches risk the long field goal (52 or 57 yards) or will they go for it? I can see a lot of teams keeping the offence on the field which will be good especially when coaches know that a long field goal could fall short meaning a return if they so choose.  

It will be interesting to see how the various head coaches handle that scenario when it occurs. I think many of them will keep the offense out there instead of trying for a long field goal or a punt. We’ll see. 

4 – ANALYTICS SHMANALYTICS: The Seahawks ended their 50^th anniversary season with their 2^nd Super Bowl in what was one of the most dominant defensive efforts in Super Bowl history. As everyone dissects what happened in San Francisco last Sunday, no one wants to talk about the fact Mike McDonald ignored analytics and benefitted because of it. 

One can only wonder how Super Bowl 60 might have been different had McDonald told his offense to stay out on the field instead of opting for the points as Jason Myers kicked five field goals. McDonald obviously did not care about what analytics say much like Corey Mace didn’t care about analytics in the Western Final. McDonald said get the points and let my defense do the rest which is what happened. 

Someone referred to McDonald this week as the defensive version of Sean McVay. What a great comparison. The fact he has taken a team to and won the Super Bowl in just his second year on the job is a big-time accomplishment.  The oddsmakers are making Seattle the wayyyyyyyy too early favourite to win Super Bowl 61.  Let’s start having that discussion in late July. 

5 – AT THE MIDWAY MARK: The Milan/Cortina Winter Olympics are basically at the halfway pole. Canada goes into the weekend with seven medals – none of them gold but that should hopefully change going into the 2^nd week. Many of us in Saskatchewan had to be quite happy with Saskatoon’s Maia Schwinghammer placing 5^th in women’s moguls. Just some Olympic thoughts:

• Don’t piss off our men’s curling team. Marc Kennedy was having none of the cheating allegations thrown his way and he showed it to Sweden. Those of us who know Ben Hebert must be surprised he didn’t give his two cents to the Swedish player. With that happening on the Olympic stage, Kennedy insured more eyes will be on the sport. 
• Those questioning why Macklin Celebrini made the Olympic team ahead of Connor Bedard have drifted back into the weeds. The 18-year-old has been everything as advertised on the Olympic ice. We are seeing the past (Crosby), the present (McDavid, McKinnon) and the future (Celebrini) of Canadian hockey on the ice and it looks good. It looks real good. 
• When will another country be good enough to constantly challenge either Canada or the U-S in women’s hockey? It is once again clear that there are only two countries you can consider when it comes to who is the best in the sport. For the good of the game, that needs to change. 
• The drones being used for luge and downhill skiing are amazing.
• As is usually the case at the Olympics, the Canadian TV presentation is far superior to the American one. 

6 – SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: After winning his first tournament of the year, Scottie Scheffler showed he was human when he shot a three over par at the first round of the Phoenix Open last week. Knowing the books would favour Scheffler, I placed a couple of small investments on Scottie to win and Scottie to finish top 5. Oh so close to cashing in on both. You just can’t bet against this guy to not be in the top 10 of a tournament he plays in. The Tiger Woods comparisons continue and while we will never know what a healthy Tiger with a good life off the course would have resulted in, I maintain when all is said and done that Scheffler will have had a better career than Tiger.  I find the talent that Scheffler competes against is so much better than what Tiger had to go up against. There are so many good golfers on the PGA Tour right now and Scheffler just surpasses or comes close to surpassing them every week. 

By the way, he goes into the 3^rd round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am sitting nine strokes back of the leader. I’ll go out on a limb and say he will have a top ten finish if not a top five.

7 – ANTHONY SANTANDER: When the Blue Jays announced they had signed Anthony Santander to a 5-year contract that will pay him 18.5 per season, I laughed. Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins were hoping the former Baltimore Oriole, who was offered a cheap take it or leave it contract by the team, would be able to match or come close to the 44-homerun campaign he had in 2024. At the time, I said the Orioles offered him that take it or leave it deal because they knew he wouldn’t come close to duplicating his 2025. Perhaps they knew more than that. 

Santander in Toronto has been a disaster. He spent much of last season on the injury list and he came to camp this year with news coming that he needed labrum surgery and would be out 5-6 months. Ummmm, why didn’t you do this in November? Did the Jays know about this? As we all know, Toronto found a way to get past Santander’s health last year, but their attempts to find a right-fielder in free agency failed as both Cody Bellinger and Kyle Tucker signed elsewhere. That will likely mean Addison Barger will be asked to have another solid season which he probably can.  

Bottom line is that while there are some free agent signings that are extremely good, there are others that are bad. It would seem Toronto didn’t do its homework on this one which makes you wonder how much they changed things if any when getting free agents to come north of the border this year. Fans have every right to be a little choked with this contract knowing this guy may only play a handful of games while laughing to the bank. 

8 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• The NHL still has it right when it comes to trophy presentations. Give the trophy to the players first!!
• Why does the CFL wait until March to name its Coach of the Year? Oh wait, it’s the CFL. 
• Super Bowl 61 will be played on Valentine’s Day. Does this mean Jordan Love will be in the game?
• The KHL has a hardest shot competition for goalies!!! The NHL needs to steal this idea! Who wouldn’t love to see a goalie unleash one in his equipment.  I have zero clue who would win, but I would watch!  
• Olympic hockey is great……it’s much better without the annoying digital billboards we see in NHL games. 

That’s all I got.  Have a great week