STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – FAJARDO GOOD GRACES – It was a redemption game for Cody Fajardo, who turned in his best performance of the season in leading the Roughriders to a much-needed 23-16 victory over the hobbled BC Lions Friday night. Fajardo was much more crisp with his passes and was a threat with his legs. I’ve said it many times over in this column: Fajardo is most effective when he’s a threat to take off and as long as that’s part of his game he can be a very good quarterback in this league. 

2 – TENSE TIMES FOR FAJARDO – Maybe Fajardo needed to be threatened with his job to get this revival from him. If you go back to 2019, Fajardo was in a neck and neck battle with Isaac Harker to be the Riders starting QB before pulling ahead and never looking back. Once he appeared more cemented in his position, maybe there was an edge that came off or something happened mentally where Fajardo simply wasn’t at his best. What I saw Friday was a player who laid it all out for his football career. I think he knew the seat wasn’t just hot, it was scalding and had he turned in another clunker, that was maybe going to be his last start as a Rider. Some players are like that. If their spot is threatened, they play their best. I’ve seen players completely melt down when their job is on the line but others tend to rise and play their best when someone is nipping at their heels to replace them.  

3 – MARINO – I don’t understand this witch-hunt on Garrett Marino. Leave him the heck alone. I think it’s obvious there is a crusade to have him ousted from the CFL. I mean, a fine for a play he wasn’t even flagged on? How often does that happen? I also saw some idiot ‘journalist’ suggest this play that he was fined for was, perhaps, racially motivated because Lucky Whitehead is black. Just stop already. Stop. The guy injured Jeremiah Masoli on a hit, when played at full speed, it is impossible to discern his intent. You try playing at full speed and see if all of your tackles are legal. He was wrong to play to the crowd when he was ejected and I guess he was wrong to say whatever it was that he said to Masoli that was considered racist (we’ve never heard what it was and there is some dispute here even though Marino just accepted the medicine) but cut the guy some slack. He has said sorry. What more do you want? After all he’s been through, I can understand him being a bit sensitive over his place on the depth chart, if that story is at all true. Is he demoted legitimately or because the Riders are getting pressure to phase him out? The way the local Regina media has handled this is nothing short of disgusting, by the way.

4 – MARINO SUPPORT – Here’s the main reason why I’m going to side with Marino at this point in time. When he was interviewed by the Regina sports mob upon returning from his suspension, he was surrounded by quite a few teammates in a show of support. Teammates won’t do that if they don’t like you. Go look at the video. Some of those teammates are also black.

5 – ALS OWNER OUT – Montreal Alouettes minority owner Gary Stern, who’s been the face of the team this season, has announced he’s stepping away effective immediately. Nobody really knows the reason why but I am left to wonder if the team is bleeding money and Stern is jumping from a sinking ship.

6 – RIDERS FINANCIALS – Speaking of money, I’m not a financial expert but I do have questions about what has been revealed by the Roughriders. I see they posted a $3.9-million profit last season. This, despite playing only 7 home games instead of 9 (they did have 1 home playoff game). The 2020 season, which was canceled because of covid, resulted in an $8.4-million loss and that’s to be expected. Here’s where it gets puzzling for me: In 2019, the team posted a net loss of $200,000 (pretty much break even). In 2018, they made just over $1.4-million. Can someone explain how they can have more fans and more games in 2018 and 2019 than what they had in 2021 and yet 2021 resulted in larger profits? I would have speculated 2021 was going to be ugly as well as the stadium wasn’t full and there were fewer home games but rebounding that strongly from 2020 has to be nothing but the best of news. I’ve joked in the past about the Riders not wanting the unvaccinated fans to return. It turns out, they don’t need them.

7 – JIMMY G – The San Francisco 49ers have been unable to find a trading partner to send Jimmy Garoppolo so they’ve restructured his contract and are keeping him, for now, as the back-up to Trey Lance.  Lance is widely considered to have a high ceiling but is also raw and there may be growing pains with him while the rest of the roster looks Super Bowl contender worthy. One has to wonder if Jimmy G isn’t the starter again after about a month.

8 – FANTASY FOOTBALL – Some would say I’m too old to be playing fantasy football and being involved in keeper leagues, but I truly enjoy that aspect of sports. It’s what keeps me engaged. This year seems to be a real crap shoot after the first overall selection. Jonathan Taylor, the Indianapolis RB, is the consensus top pick but there is no clear number two. Most owners want bell cow running backs to anchor their team but you could make a strong case for receivers Cooper Kupp, Justin Jefferson, and JaMarr Chase being picks 2, 3, and 4. I was in a mock draft last week where the top picks were Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, and Austin Ekeler. Kupp went fourth, Derrick Henry fifth, and Chase sixth. Dalvin Cook was seventh, then Jefferson went eighth. Statistically, I can’t justify McCaffrey at two. Ekeler is great but the Chargers have talked about lessening his load. Meanwhile, I think Jefferson and Chase only stand to get even better than they were last year. Kupp is due a regression but he was the top player in fantasy outside of Taylor a year ago.

9 – MJHL NOTES – My hat is off to Kevin Saurette (MJHL Commissioner). I remember interviewing Saurette when he was a shy 15-year-old sniper with the Brandon Midget AAA Wheat Kings. To see him now running the MJHL and watching that league raise its profile and become more formidable with other Junior A loops across North America has been impressive. And, how about the Winkler Flyers? They’ve got big time NHL representation on their staff with Justin Falk as the head coach, Ryan White as the assistant coach, and Eric Fehr the director of player development. Andrew Clark is their skills coach and he made it as far as Bridgeport of the AHL during his playing days. Impressive.

10 – LEGAL MATTERS – I guess hockey isn’t the only sport where athletes maybe misbehave sexually. The Buffalo Bills have cut ties with their rookie punter after an allegation of non consensual group sex. He’s not guilty….yet.  But that doesn’t matter. His career is likely over before it even begins. Meanwhile, the situation with the 2018 World Junior Hockey Team is far from over and we don’t officially know the names of the players involved but my guess is we will be finding out in short order as I don’t expect any of them to be on the ice with their NHL teams when camps open in a couple of weeks. It’s very possible that some or all of them are going to pay a heavy price as far as their careers go regardless of the legal outcome as there will be plenty of screaming over the immorality of it all even if they are found to be on the right side of the law. 

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