Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RIDERS WIN A CLOSE, NOT-SO-CLOSE GAME AGAIN – For the second straight game, the Saskatchewan Roughriders won a game that the boxscore says was close but if you paid attention to what was happening on the field, the result was never in doubt as they head into next week’s match at Montreal to face an Als team that is without their starting quarterback.  At 6-and-1, Saskatchewan is, once again, on top of the league.  Before the season began, I predicted a 13-and-5 year but I’m now wondering if they can, perhaps, go 15-and-3.  I really don’t think it’s close as far as a challenge is concerned and the only games they are going to lose are ones where they may be unprepared or happen to get bit even more by the injury bug.

2 – SNOOZE FEST – Don’t kid yourself.  This was far from an exciting game.  On top of it being void of intensity, the television package leaves a lot to be desired.  If it’s a bad game, the television package all but assures making it even worse.  The play by play isn’t up to par with where it should be for a professional football league.  The halftime panel is so bad I am embarrassed for them.  They should stick to being serious because the loosey goosey just isn’t a natural look for any of them at the desk.  It’s so bad, I had to flick the channel and by the time I came back to the game, I was basically ready to move on to something else so, yes, the halftime talking heads ended up being a detriment as far as my viewing is concerned.  I get that we live in Canada and we have check boxes to mark off but surely we can do better than this.  As far as the play by play goes, they could do a lot worse than Rod Pedersen.  They should talk to him and see if he wants to ‘come out of retirement’.  He’d instantly be the number one voice for football in Canada.

3 – HEALTH OF THE CFL – There is still weekly griping and debating about attendance and while some will tell you the CFL is on the brink of financial disaster, there are others who will tell you the league has never been healthier.  I believe the league would be better off dividing up into East and West conferences and having 12-teams with the top team in the East playing the top team in the West for the Grey Cup.  Reduce the schedule to 12-games and only play teams within your conference.  It would be an opportunity to drum up interest in markets that currently don’t have teams if you had six teams in each conference and you could reduce expenses while also providing more jobs.  In the West, you probably only need to add one team if you ran with six in each conference.  Some would see splintering off as a step back and perhaps it is but I’m concerned the league, in its present form, isn’t going to make it long term.  I believe there are people in charge who are there only because they want a soft landing rather than because he/she is passionate about the league.

4 – WILLSON COMMENTS – Luke Willson has certainly created a firestorm and has brought out some conversations with his daily comments on X.  It’s hard to argue with him being wrong on anything really.  I can tell he loves the sport and wants the CFL to be better and offering up criticism may be tough to swallow for some, but addressing the drawbacks is the only way to get better.  I did find it somewhat interesting to see Willson put out a video on Saturday night where he said he will be toning it down a bit just hours after Eddie Steele, in typical left wing fashion, provided a gotcha moment by tagging CFL on TSN in a post….just to make sure Willson’s superiors are in the loop with what he’s posting.  It’s that kind of stuff that I despise, but it’s also the new Canadian way.  Pretend to be offended at something and try to get your opponent fired or knee capped.  Willson will only be as good as TSN allows him to be.  

5 – STATE OF BROADCASTING – It’s actually funny to me when it comes to the world of broadcasting, whether it be sports or regular daily entertainment that a lot of the radio stations provide.  It’s never been harder for AM and FM to compete with all the podcasts and channels on Sirius as well as other subscription platforms.  But, the reality is that mainstream radio has one major advantage over these new wave competitors – local.  If these suits took the handcuffs off the announcers and turned them loose to say whatever they want from 6-9 morning, I guarantee you the rating would dwarf any podcast.  Chances are really good that if a morning host went off on the spending habits of Regina City Council concerning a new aquatic facility, there would be sell outs for advertising at every block and prices would be sky high.  Sure, some would phone in to complain but to heck with them.  Don’t listen then.  Instead, we are paralyzed in this country by being politically correct and it will be the demise of local radio.  

6 – REGINA POOL – On the topic of the aquatic facility in Regina.  It’s not my city, but I’m reading the cost is, basically, the same as it was to construct new Mosaic Stadium.  How’s that for inflation?  This better be an attraction that makes West Edmonton Mall look like a small town spray park.  I watched some clips from Council people on Just Bins (the only source for news in our province, by the way) and I wondered if these people would be as cavalier about spending money if it was their own personal finances that determined whether this goes ahead or not.  For the ‘keep it to sports’ crowd, pools produce swimmers and swimming is sports. So, there.

7 – MARTONE NCAA – Philadelphia Flyers 1st round draft pick Porter Martone is leaving the Brampton Steelheads for the NCAA and Michigan State.  There’s a couple of things here, the first of which is that nobody in their right mind would live in Brampton if given a choice.  The second of which is yet another marquee junior player is bailing for the American college ranks.  I wrote about this situation a couple of weeks ago and one reader suggested hockey do what football and basketball do in that if you are playing NCAA hockey and you declare for the draft, you can’t go back to the NCAA.  You are, officially, a pro player.  That seems like a quick and easy fix to me and would settle down some of this volatility.  

8 – LONDON CASE – The five players charged with sexual assault in the 2018 WJHC London case are all likely to resume their NHL careers after, not only, being found not guilty but also being exonerated to the extent the judge admonished the alleged victim for not being a credible witness and stopped short of saying she was outright lying.  I wasn’t in the courtroom and didn’t hear all the evidence, only getting what the mainstream media opted to report so I will give the judge the benefit of the doubt but I will also say this – predators know who they can target and who they can’t target and based on testimony from players who were not charged, I feel safe in saying there was a degree of manipulation that went into this even if it fell short of being a crime.  Furthermore, I never understood why they didn’t all just leave when she, apparently, called them all out for not doing anything with her.  It’s difficult for me to believe that they all showed up after Michael McLeod invited them over for a three way and then every last one of them decided to abstain until they caved into her name calling and then it was a total free for all with acts that they, quite clearly, were familiar with doing.  But, whatever.  The judge decided that Brett Howden’s ‘I can’t remember’ testimony was impaired by alcohol yet the alleged victim’s testimony was a lie and she wasn’t drunk. All I can say is that it’s a good thing the verdict was delivered by a female judge…imagine the outrage if a man admonished the ‘victim’ like this.

9 – RATTLERS LATEST – The Saskatchewan Rattlers got the game of his life from Jaden Bediako on Saturday as he scored 23 points and set a CEBL record with 20 rebounds as they defeated Ottawa 98-97 to improve to 5-and-14 with five games remaining in their season.  Player retention has been an issue for the Rattlers again this year, but it’s been a problem for just about every single team in the league.  The only way I can think to solve it would be to show the players that this is the best league for them to play in during the summer months and perhaps they need to up the salaries a little as well to make it a more difficult decision for a player to jump leagues.

10 – HULKSTER – The most famous wrestler in history, Hulk Hogan, passed away from a heart attack at the age of 71 this week.  In his heyday, Hogan was as much a household name as Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky.  Hogan was WWF world champion for just over 4-years, making him the second longest serving world champion of all-time and that’s an amazing feat no matter how you feel when it comes to professional wrestling.  As a youngster, I was a Hogan fan but he wasn’t my favorite.  When I started getting into wrestling as a young adult, I found Hogan to be one of the best villains/heels ever as he made up the nucleus of NWO with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.  No matter your opinion of him, he belongs on the Mount Rushmore of wrestling as the most famous of all-time just ahead of The Rock, Stone Cold, and Ric Flair.  Hogan-Macho Man rivalry/friendship was a must-follow and captivating, as was the entire NWO run.  There are very few legends but Hogan has to go down as one of them.