STACKHOUSE’S 10 MORE WEEKEND THINGS

1 – CFL QB SALARY CAP – I can’t say I agree with Rod’s suggestion of a salary cap for Canadian Football League quarterbacks. (Co-host John Lynch says he hears it’s pegged at $300,000 per season.) First of all, we aren’t anywhere near having a league so I don’t really like to engage in hypothetical rules in a league that may also be hypothetical; but it’s of local importance so I will dive into it. Secondly, if you are going to have a cap it needs to be grandfathered. What’s been signed to this point should be honored. Second of all, I did a Google search on wages for an NFL practice roster player and I feel the CFL needs to ensure their superstar players who best market the league are making more than a practice roster guy so that high quality can be maintained. Veteran practice roster NFLers get $12,000 a week which equates to $250,000 over a five month period. That’s good coin to not subject your body to a beating on a weekly basis like you would in the CFL for about the same amount of cash that’s paid out over a full year.

2 – NFL HURTS CFL QUALITY – In recent years, NFL teams have increased the size of their practice rosters and it’s had a direct impact on quality of players in the CFL. The best way to combat this would be to pay CFLers a bit better to entice them to make this their professional career. If Chris Streveler is good enough to dress every week for an NFL team then there is no doubt in my mind that so too is Cody Fajardo, Mike Reilly, and Trevor Harris. To me, the CFL’s biggest problem is marketing, so they need to not chase their most marketable players away.  

3 – FURTHER MARKETING – Look at how Fajardo, especially, has embraced the CFL and more specifically Saskatchewan. Remember last Christmas (I think it was Christmas) how he planted ‘presents’ around Regina and then revealed clues on Twitter? Or what about that time he was eating a corndog at the Fair? The guy gets it and the entire league should be built around this man’s image. His salary this past year would have been north of $400,000 and my bet, had there been a season, is that he’d have won the MVP and the Riders would have been in the Grey Cup. Heck he almost took them there last year despite being badly banged up. Fajardo deserves every penny and the CFL should also have a personal services contract with him of some sort as well. If the league is serious about a re-launch in 2021, they should have Fajardo’s face and a couple of others on billboards all across the country with a heavy media blitz showcasing the skill, and more importantly the personality of players like Cody. Remember when MLB did ‘Chicks Dig The Long Ball’?  The CFL needs to do something similar using Fajardo, Reilly, and others. Market your stars. Pay your stars. The other option would be to pay them the way the entire league has been run forever, second rate.

4 – DARKHORSE QB CANDIDATE – The New England Patriots may be in the market for a quarterback next year as they are probably not going to have a high enough draft pick to get either Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields. There are some who feel Cam Newton may get an extended look and the Pats will attempt to better surround him with an upgrade in talent, especially at wide receiver. But, there is another name worth watching and that’s former Arizona first rounder Josh Rosen. Rosen is currently the third stringer in Tampa Bay. He hasn’t really been given much of a shot. The Cardinals made a coaching change and Kliff Kingsbury wanted his own guy so they drafted Kyler Murray. Rosen couldn’t beat out Ryan Fitzpatrick in Miami but Fitzmagic has proven to be a tough guy to beat out. I’m not saying he ends up in New England but there are fewer interesting reclamation projects out there than Rosen. 

5 – NFL OFFENSIVE ROOKIE RACE – It’s tighter than many think. With Joe Burrow’s season ending injury, I think the odds on favorite is QB Justin Herbert of the Chargers. For some reason, WR Chase Claypool of the Steelers isn’t getting a lot of love here but he has a team leading 611 yards receiving and 8 touchdowns. Other candidates include WR Justin Jefferson of the Vikings, who has 6 TD and 918 receiving yards. Undrafted RB James Robinson of Jacksonville has 890 yards rushing as well as 280 receiving and 8 total majors. Washington RB Antonio Gibson is flying under the radar as well but he has 11 TDs and close to 900 yards from scrimmage. Defensively, Carolina OLB Jeremy Chinn has won back to back Rookie Of The Month Awards and he also scored touchdowns on back to back plays last weekend.

6 – HIGH SCHOOL DQ – In Texas, a high school football player was disqualified from a game recently (yes, football is alive and well in non-Canadian communities) and the player responded by running back onto the field and throwing his weight into the referee, knocking him to the ground. Opinions on this range from ‘press criminal charges’ to ‘oh it is just a mistake made by a boy’. I fall in the middle. I’d suspend him from playing for the rest of his high school career.

7 – MONDAY NOONER – I’m not a listener, but it was suggested to me to give last week’s podcast show a go as Nipawin Hawks coach Doug Johnson was on. Doug has made waves over the last couple of weeks with his Covid stance and I applaud him. It’s about time someone took a public position and defended the discrimination our young people are subjected to on a daily basis through government orders that, frankly, don’t have much evidence behind them to justify the measures taken. You can do that, by the way, without being a virus hoaxer. It’s possible to acknowledge the severity of it and still advocate for our youth; which Doug does extremely well. Johnson feels the best case scenario is playing in early January with no fans but he’s simply guessing.

8 – POSSIBLE FALLOUTS – Without spoiling the entire interview, Johnson makes a number of very interesting comments with regards to the long term implications of this should hockey continue to be shelved. Obviously the financial ramifications of both the Junior ‘A’ ranks and the Western Hockey League are huge and an entire lost season could result in some teams dropping down (WHL to Junior ‘A’, Junior ‘A’ to Junior ‘B’, and so on). Johnson also points out the importance of the Bantam Draft, especially in the WHL where if you have a bad draft it can set your franchise back by two or three years and with no hockey being played it’s nearly impossible to evaluate and that means a bantam draft becomes a total crap shoot. This says nothing about the fact that actual teenagers with a potential professional career in the game are kneecapped through no fault of their own.

9 – MARK DONNELLY – Vancouver Canucks anthem singer Mark Donnelly is the subject of scorn and a cancel culture attempt as it was revealed Donnelly will perform at a BC anti-mask rally. Personally, I am not a fan of Donnelly’s singing but I agree with his right to fight to save his career. People like Donnelly need an audience with which to perform in order to survive and his livelihood has been taken from him through no fault of his own. If he doesn’t advocate for himself nobody else will either. While I’m not sure an anti-mask rally is the way to go, the reality is that these are the only types of gatherings taking place at the moment so what other choice does he have aside from just rolling over and losing everything? People who are not economically affected by these government restriction orders don’t understand that ‘breathing’ isn’t really ‘living’ nor is it ‘staying safe’. I’ve seen some comments from people questioning Donnelly because they feel he, himself, is someone that could be deemed at risk of a serious battle with the virus. To that I say, let him decide for himself how much risk he’s willing to assume.

10 – TO BE CLEAR – I recognize when I write I am doing so from a pro-sports, pro-life, pro-choice standpoint and those views tend to really trigger people who aren’t of a similar mindset. Having said that, I do not feel the virus is some sort of a hoax. I just think we could do a lot better with regards to finding a form of balance so that we can protect those who need to be and want to be protected while also allowing large portions of society to function if that’s what many want to do. For anyone who thinks the virus isn’t serious, I give you Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves. He lost his mom to the virus. She was 58. In addition, he’s had to take part in the funerals of six other family members this year as a result of coronavirus complications.  

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)