SOMETHING TO MITCH ABOUT

1 – TRE-MENDOUS: As kickoff approached last Friday night at Mosaic Stadium, I started to think it might not be a night for the home team and that beating the Edmonton Elks would be a difficult hill to climb.   When Jake Dolegala threw a long pass to Samuel Emilus that bounced off his hands into that of an Edmonton defender for a gift interception, I thought this wouldn’t be Saskatchewan’s night.  I was bang on with that.

The Riders didn’t lose this game as much as Edmonton won it.  Edmonton was down going into the 4^th quarter, but that young squad did not deter their mission as they took it to the Riders in the final 15 minutes as they couldn’t close which is something good teams have to do. 

 The defence simply could not contain Tre Ford who made a lot of Lamar Jackson-like plays in leading the Elks to victory.  While I think everyone knew what Ford brought to the table before, he is starting to show it on a weekly basis.  The Elks aren’t going anywhere next year, but they are ready to make some noise with Ford under centre in the not-to-distant future. One person asked me Saturday jokingly if Ford could be the most outstanding player this year.  My response was not this year, but he could very well win one before his CFL days are over.   The kid can play making many wonder why he wasn’t earlier in the season as the Elks have been a different football team since he became the starting QB.

As for the Riders, this is still a team that to me will finish 3^rd in the West.  The only question is do they have to travel to Vancouver or Winnipeg for the Western semi.  Tonight, they are in Ottawa to face a REDBLACKS team that simply gassed one in BC.  Matt Dunigan and Milt Stegall both called Ottawa the worst team in the CFL and one can’t really argue that.  That’s too bad because Bob Dyce is a class act and someone I thought could lead that team to good things after he was named head coach. When things are going right, no one looks at the head coach but as soon as they start turning south, the flames of change get turned up and turned up high. Isn’t that right Craig Dickenson?   The green-and-white should come out of this game with a win, but road efforts have been less than desirable this year and that defence will be without a couple of key players like Anthony Lanier and Nelson Lokombo with Derrick Moncrief starting at safety so who knows. Yes, you read that right as Derrick Moncrief will be the starting safety.  If Ottawa comes away with the two points, it will be an ugly week in the 306.

2 – SERIOUSLY?  Didn’t the CFL and the CFLPA say something about monitoring air quality to make sure conditions were safe for players and fans? What a pile of crap! The air quality in Regina Friday night was much higher than the 7 which is the level needed to delay or perhaps postpone a game but everything went ahead. To make matters worse, Environment Canada issued an air quality advisory around 9:30 or about midway through the 3^rd quarter.  The CFL and its member teams can say they care about your safety and the safety of its fans, but they don’t.  At some point, you might think the players might have said something as well but if it did, we don’t know about it and I’m guessing we would.

3 – WHO YA GOT?:  Calgary Sun sports reporter ( and overall good schmuck) Danny Austin had a great question this week.  Austin asked his “X” followers who the best quarterback in the CFL has been over the last 15 years.  To my knowledge, no one has answered Tino Sunseri.  There are so many options here.  You’ve got Bo Levi Mitchell, Zach Collaros, Anthony Calvillo, Ricky Ray, Henry Burris and Darian Durant right off the top of my head.  Arguments could be had for all.  At the end of the day, I went with Calvillo.  Who would you take?

4 – DROP THE PUCK:  The WHL season begins tonight.  With the Winnipeg Ice heading to Wenatchee, it is already known that the Eastern Conference will have a new champ.  It would be hard for me not to suggest that when it comes time for the Ed Chynoweth Cup final that the Moose Jaw Warriors aren’t involved although some in Saskatoon and Red Deer might disagree.  If Brayden Yager, Jagger Firkus, Atley Calvert and Denton Mateychuk all return from NHL camps then this team will be very, very good.  Speaking of the Warriors, this is their 40^th anniversary in Moose Jaw.  This tells me I am old. Very, very old!

I would also suggest that if you are looking at one player to watch in the East it might be 16 year old Gavin McKenna of the Medicine Hat Tigers. He had 18 points in 16 games as a 15-year-old last year and actually starts the season at the age of 15 as his 16^th birthday doesn’t come until just before Christmas. He also had 31 points in just seven games playing for Team Yukon at the Canada Winter Games. He’s not Bedard-like, but he will be special.  If you didn’t know, his cousin is Bedard.

5 – BABCOCK FALLOUT:  One couldn’t have been surprised that A) Mike Babcock stepped down as coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets and B) his resignation statement offered no apology for his behaviour.  Everyone is now out with their knives going after the Jackets for hiring Babcock in the first place with senior management now apologizing.  OK, they rolled the dice hoping for the best and it went south. You can argue that the Jackets should never have looked in Babcock’s direction but they did and now they wear it.  However, why hasn’t anyone went a little further and gone after Brendan Shanahan?  He played for Babcock in Detroit and he worked with Babcock in Toronto.  Did Shanahan not see any red flags during his time with Babcock until the Mitch Marner situation developed? We know Babcock’s tenure in Detroit was a little controversial if you believe what Johan Franzen has said.   It seems to me as if Shanahan is getting off here without any tough questions being asked.

6 – SAY WHAT?   Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi is not built like us.  On Tuesday night after his start against the New York Yankees, he told Kathryn McGrath of “The Athletic” that his neck cramped up because he had only 11 hours of sleep which is down from usual 13 or 14 a night.  WHAT???  I’m lucky if I get that over a two-night span.  Kikuchi says he ideally goes to bed at 11 and gets up at 1 PM meaning to him the only AM he knows is radio.  I doubt these claims a little bit, but if you are getting that much sleep as I said, he is not built like us.

7 – NFL WEEK 3: Big week for some 0-2 teams.  Safe to say the Bengals, Patriots and Chargers need a “W” as do the Vikings and Bears. I thought this was the year for Chicago to make some noise and for Justin Fields to make an impact.  Big swing and a miss on that so far.  Here are a couple of nuggets for Sunday

• ·         Houston rookie quarterback C.J.Stroud  ranks fourth in the NFL with 626 passing yards entering Week 3. His 384 passing yards last week marked the second-most passing yards in a single game by any quarterback this season.  With 213 passing yards at Jacksonville  Stroud will move into the top-five for most passing yards ever by a player in his first three career games. If you are wondering, Cam Newton holds the top mark with 1,012 yards for Carolina in 2011 followed by Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, Andrew Luck and Baker Mayfield holding down the top 5
• ·         Since entering the NFL in 2017, Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes has totaled 24,772 passing yards and 196 touchdown passes in 82 career games. With 228 passing yards against Chicago, Mahomes will become the fastest player in NFL history to reach 25,000 career passing yards, surpassing Matthew Stafford , who reached the mark in 90 games.

8 – MONTANA’S BRIER:  Did anyone know that Tim Hortons had stopped its sponsorship of the Canadian Mens Curling Championship?  I had zero idea why Curling Canada was making a major announcement at Montana’s on Rochdale Boulevard last week and when I saw what the announcement was I went huh?  Good on the restaurant chain for getting involved in Canada’s unofficial national sport but it will take some time not to refer to it as the Tim Hortons Brier.  I think I speak for many in the local media when I say the Tim Hortons donuts and coffee that was always available will be missed, but we will welcome the ribs and wings that should be ready to consume.  There still will be coffee won’t there?

As many said on X, formerly known as Twitter this week, the sponsorship of the Brier over the years has been cigarettes (MacDonald Tobacco), beer (Labatt’s), cellphones (Nokia), coffee and donuts (Tim Horton’s) and now ribs and wings.  It sounds like a weekend shopping list if you don’t include the cellphone and if you’re in need of upgrading your contract well then.

9 – BACK TO THE GRIND:  It’s nice getting back into the Access Communications studio for another year of Locker Talk that started last week.  With all the cutbacks in media these days, the local athlete and local teams have lost a lot.  Access gives these athletes, coaches, teams etc, etc a chance to showcase themselves.  Pete Paczko and I have a lot of fun doing this show and introducing these people to the community to give them their 15 minutes of fame.  As many of you know, Regina is a great sports town and showcasing the people that make it that way is something I love to do.

10 – UNPOPULAR OPINION:  It’s time for NBC to get new blood for Sunday Night Football. I’ve had enough of Carrie Underwood and its been that way for a couple of years. #sorrynotsorry

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