SCRUFFY’S THIS & THAT

1 – FREE AGENCY: For the most part, the big names in CFL free agency have found new homes. You know what the Riders did so there is no use re-hashing it. I think what we saw over the last week was what it’s like before Christmas; you know what you want and if you were like me when younger, you sneak around trying to find out what would be under the tree. Opening the presents was like getting the official announcement from the Riders. You already knew it was coming. Did that take anything away from free agency for you? It didn’t for me. I just waited for the team to confirm AJ Ouellette and others. One has to wonder how many “45” jerseys will be purchased from the Rider store leading up to the season. One has to wonder how many they have already sold! We all know that winning free agency doesn’t translate to actuals wins, but I think it is safe to say that this team looks a lot better going into training camp than they did at the end of the season. A lot better!

2 – SAYONARA SIMONI! Simoni Lawrence has called it a career. After a decade of perhaps being the dirtiest player in the CFL, the Ti-Cats linebacker is retiring. The funny thing is there are people in Saskatchewan who would have embraced Lawrence in green. These are the same people that were all for the Bo Levi Mitchell-to-Saskatchewan movement last year which proves it’s the jersey and not the player that you cheer for in most instances. I remember how Dwight Anderson was despised when he played for both Calgary and Montreal, but the tune changed when he signed here and became a part of the 2013 championship team.

3 – NOW WHAT! That time of the year has hit. From the time the final gun sounded in Las Vegas until CFL pre-season camps begin, there is no football to watch unless the NFL Network is showing some games from this past season and those just don’t carry the weight for me. Don’t talk to me about the UFL either, I won’t be watching that for a variety of reasons.

4 – SUPER BOWL FALLOUT: The Kansas City Chiefs are Superbowl champions again and we saw Taylor Swift chug a beer while cheering on her man, but we didn’t see the US commercials thanks to the archaic CRTC. Who’s kidding who, we didn’t see T. Swift chug down that beer on the CBS telecast which makes you wonder why seeing the NFL was more than happy to put it on their social feeds.

The Chiefs overtime win over San Francisco will not go down as one of the best games ever, but in the first half it was starting to rival the Patriots-Rams game years ago as perhaps the worst as there wasn’t a lot of action for much of the first half. That changed in the second half though with Patrick Mahomes doing his usual Patrick Mahomes things and leading his team to victory after being down.

The argument has started about whether Mahomes is on track to replace Tom Brady.  Let’s calm that talk down just a little, but let’s also remember that Mahomes in his three Super Bowl wins have delivered in the clutch with drives that ended in game-winning touchdowns and he didn’t need a field goal kicker or a defensive back to give him the title unlike Brady.

If you want to know what put Kansas City over the top as far as I’m concerned it was coaching. Andy Reid dummied Kyle Shanahan. This game likely doesn’t go to overtime if Isiah Pacheco doesn’t fumble deep in Niners territory in the first half and when it did go to overtime, Reid and the Chiefs knew the rule while Shanahan and the Niners did not. I couldn’t believe it when I heard San Fran players talking about how they didn’t know the overtime rules. HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT? ! Video catches the Chiefs laughing when they found out San Francisco wanted the ball to start overtime. How could you not?

Shanahan has now blown three Super Bowls in which his team has had a double-digit lead. That is something that can’t be ignored by the San Francisco braintrust as can the braincramp that he had Sunday when it comes to overtime. Then again maybe it is since defensive co-ordinator Steve Wilks was told his services were no longer needed. Scapegoat? NAHHHH!!

5 – CANADIAN SUPER BOWL NUMBERS: The epic battle between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers was the most-watched Super Bowl on record with an average of 10 million viewers, according to TSN. That also made it one of the top five most-watched English broadcasts in Canada’s history. The average viewership for the big game grew 16% over last year, per TSN and when you count “unique viewers” the number is 19 million or about 50 percent of Canada’s population.

The game, T.Swift, Usher and pals …. there were many reasons to enjoy the game but that number is jaw-dropping. Compare that to the Grey Cup were just under three million tuned in. CFL diehards will say there would be more eyes on the CFL championship if it were on CTV too. They might be right, but it wouldn’t be an average of 10 million.

The NFL is big business. Advertisers are more willing to put money down on NFL telecasts because of the numbers generated and you can see that. I didn’t see one Navage commercial on an NFL game shown on TSN or CTV this year. Until the CFL can do a better job in marketing its league across Canada, this trend will continue and grow. The NFL knows what it is doing and the CFL can’t compete. I still think Canadians would tune in if the CFL played the Grey Cup on a Saturday night. It is something I think the league really needs to investigate if it wants more eyes on the game. It may not change the numbers or give them a sizable bump, but it is something that CFL brass needs to investigate as a number of fans would love to see it.

6 – PICK A LANE JEN! Before someone takes this the wrong way, I really like the job Jennifer Botterill does on Hockey Night in Canada and the US broadcasts that she appears on,. There are a lof of female analysts doing their thing right now and I would place her at or near the top of the ladder.

That being said, Jennifer needs to decide what is right and what is wrong with the game of hockey. A few weeks ago she got into it with Jamal Mayers saying it was classless when Ryan Hartman purposefully delivered a high stick into the fact of Winnipeg’s Cole Perfetti as revenge for the Jets injuring Kirill Kaprizov in an earlier game,. The move was classless and was not needed in today’s game. Despite Mayers saying it is part of the game, it is not anymore.

Fast forward to Saturday night and Botterill was defending Morgan Rielly for what was an extreme cheap shot at the end of Toronto’s loss to Ottawa when he delivered a cross-check to the head well after Greig had scored an empty-net goal in which he skated down the ice before unleashing a slapper from 10 feet away.  Emotion got the best of Rielly and he took his frustrations out on Greig. It was something that reminded me of the Dale Hunter hit on Pierre Turgeon many, many years ago. Some of you kids may have to YouTube that moment.

Hockey Night in Canada takes its fair share of abuse as well they should because of the Toronto-bias and this proves that. Botterill can’t go after Hartman for what he did and then try and defend Rielly’s actions. You just can’t. I can guarantee you that if that game was on ABC, ESPN or TNT that Rielly would have been crucified for that play as he should be.

7 – FAREWELL TO THE QUEEN:  The Scotties Tournament of Hearts begins today in Calgary with the Skylar Ackerman rink representing Saskatchewan. The big names are back and one of those big names is the legendary Jennifer Jones. The Winnipeg skip let it be known this week that she is retiring at the end of this season meaning this is her last Scotties. Jennifer Jones and her rink are the best Canada has seen. If the legendary Sandra Schmirler could have continued on, I would not say that. The resume Jennifer has put forth is amazing. Many have criticized her for one reason or another, but I never ever had a problem with her when dealing with her at various events that I covered.  I would have loved to see her foursome take on Sandra’s rink. That would have been a great display of the sport.  Sadly, it never happened.

8 – BLUE JAYS: Pitchers and catchers are starting to report to spring training camps in Florida and Arizona.  In just over a month, the 2024 baseball season will be underway. Are Jays fans excited? If so, why?  The biggest acquisition in the off-season is the announcement that cupholders are going into seats. They didn’t get Shohei Ohtani (and they never were), they didn’t get Juan Soto, they didn’t get Joc Pederson. They did get an aging Justin Turner though. They couldn’t even get rid of Alex Manoah. His story will certainly be a big one moving forward after he was sent to the minors and then didn’t want to do anything for the last two months of the season,

I have heard the Jays wanted to trade Manoah and were willing to sell him on the cheap, but other teams realize this guy is likely done.  Only time will tell as to whether or not he is still an effective major-league pitcher but it would seem as if Toronto is stuck with him,

While there are moves that can still be made before the season begins, I wouldn’t be taking Toronto to make the playoffs. I don’t see them finishing any higher than 4^th in the very competitive American League East as they are not as good as Baltimore, the Yankees or Tampa.

Blame Ross Atkins! That is all! Don’t worry, I’m sure guys like Scott Mitchell and Steve Phillips will be telling you soon that Toronto is just as good as they’ve ever been and that this is the year.  This just in —- they’re not and it isn’t.

That’s all I got, Have a great weekend!