Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – NEXT OPPONENT – The Rush will get their biggest test of the season next Saturday, at home, to the Vancouver Warriors, who are coming off a 16-15 win over Rochester.  The Warriors led 15-10 after three but the Knighthawks managed to get to within one with less two minutes to play but that’s as close as they’d get.  The Warriors are tied with Colorado at 6-and-2 and sit a game and a half behind the league leading Rush.  Vancouver will come into the game a perfect 4-and-0 on hte road.

3 – RUSH INJURY – The Rush will, likely, have to play next week without top defender Holden Garlent.  Garlent suffered, what appeared to be, a significant knee/ankle injury last night and had to helped off the field.  To this point, Saskatchewan has avoided the injury bug with only Jay missing five games earlier in the year and Jake Naso missing one at the start of the season. It could be an opportunity for Levi Verch to return to the line-up.  Verch has been scratched since playing game one.

4 – RATTLERS NO MORE  – The Saskatchewan Rattlers got rebranded earlier this week and will be known, going forward, as the Saskatoon Mamba.  Aside from a snake being in the logo, there is no resemblance to the Rattlers look at all.  I’m not a fan of professional sports teams changing their name but this franchise has been sold to the same group that operates the Calgary Surge and that team is one of the better CEBL franchises so perhaps this is a positive change.  

5 – RATTLERS ERA DISASTROUS – To me, you should only change the name when there has been so much damage done by the previous regime that you feel you cannot succeed under any circumstances without a complete makeover.  I’m guessing that’s the feeling of the new owners here.  The Rattlers won the CEBL title in the league’s first year and they’ve been an embarrassment ever since (for the most part).  They didn’t promote themselves much at all and they have been, consistently, one of the worst teams in the league.  In 2024 they looked like they were going to turn things around but all their players bolted for greener pastures and they lost 13 of 14 to end the year.  

6 – SHOULD HAVE STAYED GREEN – If they win, I don’t care what they call themselves.  If they don’t win, this rebranding is going to backfire in a massive way.  First of all, Saskatchewan sports teams are green and not purple.  The Riders are green.  The Rush are green.  The Huskies are green.  The Cougars are green.  The Rattlers were green.  I’m also not a fan of the move from Saskatchewan to Saskatoon in the name.  Up until this week, the Rattlers, Rush, and Riders all have recognized the importance of including the entire province and using ‘Saskatchewan’ in the name was a nice way to do that.  What the Mamba are saying is that they don’t need to market outside Saskatoon.  I’d argue they are the one team of the three that could most benefit from using the name ‘Saskatchewan’.  Having said all that, I will reserve judgement until they hit the floor.  Oh yes and that’s a change too.  They’ll play a bunch of games at Merlis Belsher and still play some at Sasktel Centre.  Merlis Belsher has a capacity of 2800, which in theory, is too small but you have to start somewhere.  They better promote the heck out of the games because if your hometown fans don’t even know where to go to watch you, you are beat before you start.

7 – McKENNA CHARGES – Felony assault charges against Gavin McKenna have been dropped after information leaked that 18-year-old McKenna popped a mouthy 24-year-old while the two were in a social setting and the topic of McKenna’s mom came up and let’s just say some rather unkind things were said about her.  All of a sudden draft stock, which sinks like a stone when there are criminal charges filed, is back on the rise as defending the honor of your mother is near the top of the list of things you can do as far as being a good person is concerned.  It’s not easy in today’s day and age of constant surveillance and social media, but hopefully McKenna’s mom finds a way to stay very much in the background going forward.  Connor Bedard’s mom got the hint when she found herself as the main topic of a situation in November 2023 as we haven’t seen her since and that’s a good thing for her son.  

8 – SUPER BOWL – The Super Bowl half time show, apparently, will feature a singing rabbit who has bad behaviour.  I’ve seen it widely criticized and here’s what I’m going to say on it – watch or don’t, but don’t bitch about it and then watch.  A lot of my conservative friends do this when it comes to the news.  They complain about CBC, CNN, and all these other outlets that do nothing but spew left wing propaganda.  I’m sorry but if it bothers you so much, don’t watch.  Aside from the Saskatchewan election, I haven’t watched more than 10 total minutes of news coverage on any channel since September 2020.  My life is far better because of it.

9 – EPSTEIN SPORTS – I realize Canadians have more important things to worry about than the Epstein Files so we are widely shielded from some prominent Canadian names that have been revealed to be on the list.  But, make no mistake.  Chances are you have a hero or two that sexually assaulted young girls.  I understand a lot of you who are paying attention are willing to give everyone a pass except for Donald Trump but I’m not one of those people.  I want Trump, Bill Gates, and everyone (who did something) to face charges regardless of political affiliation.  I will even go so far as to say even if Trump didn’t do anything, the fact of the matter is that he’s quite guilty of trying to cover the entire thing up by mocking people who wanted the files released.  Sports figures are on the list.  The number of NFL owners named is close to half a dozen so spare me the next time there is outrage over a Daniel Snyder type.  The NHL is also talked about in the files, specifically, a character named G-Betty.  I’ll let you figure out who that may be.

10 – UFC WHITE HOUSE – The UFC is supposed to have a White House card in June.  My guess is Trump doesn’t make it that long and there will be no UFC White House event as this has been, mainly, a Trump promotion right from the get go.  We truly are on the edge of society going either way.  While there is some hope that untouchable celebrities and powerful people will get locked up for their evil deeds, there is just as much chance they will all get away with it and the rest of us will be slaves to their marching orders forever.  Think about it.  If you or I have even one single image of child pornography on our computer, we are headed to jail.  But, Tony Podesta can have sick images like that plastered all over his wall and it’s just considered to be ‘a little weird’.  All these people who claim to have just ‘gone for supper’ remind me of Olympic athletes who get busted for illegal performance enhancing drugs and then say they ‘only took Advil’ or ‘was on vacation and didn’t know the drug police wanted to get a hold of me’.  Full of it.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter @1975)