Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Things

1 – FARCE OF A GAME, MAYBE SEASON – It’s just after nine o’clock Thursday night and I can’t believe what I just watched. Nobody is this stupid week after week after week, game after game after game. The CFL Command Centre is 100% controlling games. I don’t know why but they are. The game was over with Ottawa the winner but someone somewhere somehow saw pass interference on what was a hail mary challenge by the Riders on the final play of the game. Later in overtime, Redblacks QB Dustin Crum was sacked and fumbled, which would have all but ended the game in favor of the Riders, but the Command Centre determined there was roughing the passer on the play and the game continued until a field goal resulted in a 22-22 tie and a very unsatisfying result for both teams. Again, I don’t know the motive for all of this but it’s suspicious. This game was as blatant as you can get but there have been numerous other instances where the Command Centre has made rulings that leaves everybody scratching their head.

2 – COMMAND CENTRE – I can’t even say the CFL Command Centre is picking favorites because the first screw up in overtime favored the Roughriders and the second one favored the RedBlacks. Again, I don’t know the motive but it’s beyond the point of suggesting it’s people doing jobs they aren’t qualified for.  It’s so obvious I have to guess there is a rationale involved that goes beyond saying it’s just people who are bad at their jobs.  If the CFL is hoping for a product that will attract new fans or win back old ones who have walked away, this isn’t the way to do it. I don’t know what the attendance was for this game, the CFL is likely to lie anyway, but from what I could see on television the place was nearly empty. Show someone who is on the fence about going to future games the highlights from this one, and they’ll be more resolute in not going.

3 – COMMAND CENTRE OBJECTIVE – A fan sent a link to me this morning (Saturday) from the CFL website dated June 13, 2019 and I think it only makes sense for CFL administrative staff to review it. The article, written by Commissioner Randy Ambrosie, states that the Command Centre will focus only on calls or non-calls made on the field where a clear and obvious mistake has been made. Ambrosie also said, at the time, that the Command Centre is just a back up to correct egregious errors. Ambrosie defines ‘clear’ as situations such as ‘can you see the ball clearly, or the foot on the sideline, is the camera on a straight line or is it off to the side’. Obvious is defined as an indisputable reference point as a yard line, sideline or knee down. Now go back to Thursday. Actually, pick any game this season. These standards have been thrown in the trash.

4 – HARRIS RETURN IMMINENT – Trevor Harris is close to coming back and the Riders have done a good job treading water while he was out as they sit 5-3-and-1 after starting 3-and-0.  I still like them as the favorites to win it all as long as Harris can stay on the active roster and as long as the CFL Command Centre either butts out or decides they, too, want the Riders to win. Shea Patterson played about at the level I expected from him filling in, which is to say he was unspectacular but capable of winning a game or two. This is, precisely, how he played in the USFL too. If you want to use Patterson as a barometer, the CFL and the American spring leagues are pretty much on par with each other.

5 – BETTING – One aspect of sports that I’ve just never embraced has been betting. I play a lot of fantasy sports with my friends but that’s the extent of my ‘betting’ and fantasy sports really isn’t betting aside from paying an entry fee at the start of every year. The bad officiating calls in the CFL affect wagers people place during the games and I’ve heard from a number of fans on this matter. I have one friend who has been quite serious about sports gambling in the past and he enlightened me on a couple of situations where he had the screws put to him by a betting company. The friend admits that he knew the terms of service are set up in a manner where the betting company can cancel a winning ticket for any reason whatsoever at their own discretion but nevertheless, here’s his story:  “Last season, they (betting company) posted some bad lines in-game on the CFL and I won easily.  A few hours later, they email me and tell me they posted those lines by accident and therefore my bets don’t count. They took away my winnings and returned my funds. They did this multiple times and here’s the kicker – if you bet the other side and lost on the same bet, they’d grade your bet as a loss even though it was a bad line.”  

6 – PATRIK LAINE – The NHL has cleared Patrik Laine from the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and that frees up the Columbus Blue Jackets to trade the flaky forward, who has two years remaining on a contract that pays him north of $8-million a season. To this point, interest in Laine appears to be lukewarm unless the Jackets eat a bunch of money. One of the teams speculated as dipping their toe in is Winnipeg, which is where Laine spent the first four years of his career. I believe Laine is precisely the type of player the Jets need to take a chance on if they want to be a factor for contending.  Just about everyone is sour on him and nobody remembers that he’s one year removed from a 52-points in 55-games played season and he also scored 44-goals for the Jets in 2018. Even though it’s seven years later, Laine is still just 26-years-old.  I’ve watched him enough to know that if he’s happy and engaged, he’s still one of the league’s top players.  The Jets are never going to be able to sign or trade for a happy top 15 talent who’s void of baggage so they have to roll the dice on someone like Laine, who has hit the skids, and hope he’s determined to resurrect his career.  The best part is that re-acquiring him isn’t likely to cost much depending on how much salary the Blue Jackets end up eating.

7 – WHITE SOX DISAPPOINTING – The Chicago White Sox, who are trying to be bad, have fired their manager because they are a little bit worse than the bad they are trying to be. They snapped a 21-game losing streak earlier in the week and the roster is full of players who should be in the minors. Yet, this is the manager’s fault and former five tool stud player Grady Sizemore has been named interim manager.  Rebuilds in sports are becoming a more obvious fraud with each passing year yet nobody really seems to point it out.

8 – GOLD FOR KHELIF – Welterweight ‘female’ boxer Imane Khelif, from Algeria, has won gold at the Paris Olympics in women’s boxing despite various reports that suggest Khelif is a man. As usual, this issue has become political and everyone has picked a side. I don’t believe much of anything that I see online although after surfing through various stories and trying to draw my own conclusion, I would say Khelif may be a female based on a technicality but I would also suggest that technicality is so loose it could be used to push the agenda any direction the powers that be want.

9 – LYLES COMPETES WITH VIRUS – American Olympic sprinter Noah Lyles claimed a bronze medal in the 200m race this week despite testing positive for Covid. A few years ago, Lyles would have been sent to an isolation camp for 14 days and we would all pray that his life would be spared from certain death. But, thanks to the effectiveness of the vaccines as well as a short memory from our politicians and so-called health experts, Lyles is allowed to compete and spread the, potentially, deadly virus to anyone within range and still feels well enough to run as one of the fastest humans on the planet. We’ve come a long way since baseball star Freddie Freeman (not the sharpest knife in the drawer) registered a fever with Covid and asked God to ‘please don’t take me’. Let this be a lesson to get your booster everyone.

10 – KEVIN SULLIVAN – Professional wrestling legend Kevin Sullivan has passed away at the age of 74 due to complications from what is described as a ‘devastating accident’ while attending an autograph session in Florida in mid-May. It’s a weird way to describe what happened as Sullivan was post-diagnosed with sepsis and encephalitis (brain inflammation caused by a virus). Anyways, be that as it may, Sullivan had me fooled as a kid with his satanic gimmick. I was, genuinely, scared of the guy every time I saw him on tv as a youngster with my first recollection being as a tag team with The Purple Haze in the early 1980s.  Sullivan made headlines later in life as his ex-wife ended up marrying Chris Benoit and was a victim of Benoit’s when he slaughtered his family before killing himself in 2007.

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