SCRUFFY’S THIS ‘N THAT

The weekly set of thoughts running through my muddled mind, and as always they are in no particular order.

— The 103rd Grey Cup is quickly becoming a nightmare for both the CFL and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Fans are not buying tickets, the Bombers have reportedly lowered the attendance at Investors Group Field and at this point, there is no way the Bombers will get the reported 4-7 million dollar profit predicted. The game is usually sold out by this point and as of last count, around 26-thousand had been sold. An article from the Winnipeg Sun says the Riders record can be to partly blame for this (which I’m not buying) because Rider fans aren’t buying up seats the way they normally would. It has seemed to me over the years as if win or lose, Rider fans always go to the Grey Cup! If that is what the Bombers are trying to make some believe, they are doing a poor job.

— With all apologies to Kevin Glenn, I hope the Saskatchewan Roughriders continue on with Brett Smith as their starting quarterback. He deserves it and in the long run, the franchise will be better. The chances of the Riders making the playoffs at 0-8 are minimal. Smith has shown improvement each week he has played and as the LP’s Rob Vanstone correctly stated this week, the Wyoming product was the first Rider QB to throw 3 TD passes since Darian Durant in the 2013 Grey Cup. He needs to continue getting reps and getting experience. Sitting him on the bench will just hamper that development. A progression plan for Durant has to start and Smith is a pretty good start. This is not to suggest Durant won’t be quarterbacking the club come game 1 of the 2016 season because he will be if that Achilles is fine, but a guy is needed to take over one day because Durant won’t be around forever. Keith Price and Blake Sims can’t be ignored either as both may or may not have a future. We need to find out and putting Kevin back in is not the answer. This isn’t a condemnation of Glenn either so don’t make it out to be. If this team was 3-5 or 2-6, I would be calling for Glenn to start immediately because the team would be in a playoff fight. One could say the team should put Glenn back in when he is ready until the team is mathematically eliminated which is something I can’t argue, but this needs to be Smith’s team the rest of  the way.

— Congratulations to Weston Dressler and his 500 career catches that he established against the Stampeders. For the sake of Rider fans, lets hope he has another 150-200 catches if not more in him.

— Peyton Manning has thrown for 131 touchdowns over the past two seasons and he says he has no feelings in his fingertips. Considering the position he plays, that is simply amazing.

— The talk of the Green Bay Packers winning the Super Bowl this year took a huge hit with Jordy Nelson going down. Fantasy football players who have Nelson in keeper leagues can’t be happy these days, especially if their team also had Kelvin Benjamin on it.

— Playboy is suggesting Saskatchewan’s own Kaylyn Kyle might be the hottest athlete in the world. Who am I to argue with Playboy! Kaylyn plans on having some soccer camps in both Regina and Saskatoon this October. Just another example of a Saskatchewan athlete giving back.

— Speaking of Saskatchewan athletes giving back, Jon Ryan and his foundation came through with a 75-thousand dollar donation to equip Regina Minor Football with what is needed for the brand new “Mighty Mites” Division. I don’t have to tell anyone about how much Jon loves Regina and vice-versa. Perhaps another Jon Ryan or two are starting their quest thanks to this donation.

— Question asked in the wake of UFC Saskatoon that had an attendance of 72-hundred from a blog reader. The question was “Would the event had been better at the Brandt Centre”. The answer I think is NO! When organizers decided they were coming to our province, they wanted to go to the best venue and the best venue is SaskTel Centre. Was there any guarantee that type of crowd would have showed up at the Brandt Centre? That is a question UFC officials will have to ask the next time they come into Saskatchewan whenever that is. If what I hear is any indication, the next time the UFC comes to Saskatchewan, the venue will be a Graham DeLaet three wood from the Brandt Centre. If that is the truth, I hope the UFC isn’t expecting an attendance of 30-thousand plus because I don’t think that will happen as much as I would love it too.

— Once again while on a trip to Saskatoon, a trip to Fuddruckers had to be had and once again, I saw several people from Regina. Does the Saskatoon Fuddruckers know how much business they will lose when the Regina one opens its doors in the future and where will Reginans go for their dining experience in Saskatoon if they don’t go to Fudds because its in Regina.

— The Toronto Blue Jays are not the best team in baseball right now. That distinction goes to the New York Mets.

— The way the Blue Jays are playing, it will take a complete collapse for them not to make the playoffs and have Josh Donaldson named the American League MVP.  Donaldson’s hustle on a routine grounder to 3rd that ended up being an error because of that hustle ended up turning a loss into a win in Texas Tuesday night.  The guy does it all.  Jose Bautista could certainly learn a lesson or two from this guy, but instead he decides he is going to boycott Sportsnet and not talk to them because they won’t reimburse Devon Travis for a suit.  Cmon Jose! Your act is wearing thin amongst some. This isn’t the time to act like this and why are you seemingly on a solo mission because no one else has squawked about this. It was interesting to note Bautista did talk to SNET’s Barry Davis the day after this story came out. I have to wonder if he was made to do so by the Blue Jays brass. We will see how many more interviews he does this season.

— When you are winning a bad pitchers pool, you bemoan the fact the Blue Jays sent Aaron Loup (the worst of the worst this year) to Triple A and hope to god Toronto calls him back up in September.  He can turn a 12-3 game in the 8th to 12-6 just like that.

— The Regina Pats start training camp this weekend.  It means hockey is slowly coming back. Soon, fantasy football drafts will be replaced by hockey drafts as the NHL season is right around the corner.

— Why did it take the Ti-Cats so long to retire Angelo Mosca’s jersey!

— Why did TSN take time out of their programming schedule to give us the Coors Light Games after the CFL game? That bubble soccer and volley pong games were beyond fierce! It was bad enough one of Canada’s Sports Networks was showing a repeat of Amazing Race Canada on one of the channels the CFL game wasn’t, but the three letter made a bad decision by giving this publicity stunt any air time.

— That’s all I got. Have a great weekend everyone. GO RIDERS!!