Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – EDMONTON & CALGARY – Edmonton blew out Toronto in front of an announced crowd of 22,000.  What was announced and what the eyeball sees are two different things as it appeared to be even less than that on hand but regardless, the boasts last week of CFL football being back in Edmonton following a 30,000+ attendance figure against the Riders two weeks ago would appear to be premature, at best.  The bigger concern should be Calgary where they drew an official, but highly doubtful accurate, crowd of 17,000.  I’m still at a loss on the mega tv deal but perhaps the CFL is, simply, a league where people would just rather watch it from the comfort of their living rooms rather than in person.  If that’s the case, it’s probably a damning indictment on the price of tickets.

3 – OTTAWA – If Edmonton and Calgary are concerns, Ottawa’s situation should be downright alarming.  Who are they going to beat this season?  They are a legit threat to win 0 games.  I watched their game against the Riders a week ago and Saskatchewan wasn’t sharp.  That was a winnable game.  I watched the Winnipeg game this week and they were never in that one and also committed plenty of self-inflicted mistakes.  Their attendance numbers aren’t great but it’s worse than that.  As the weather starts to get cold and as they get further and further away from looking like a competitive team, who in their right mind is going to fork over money to watch?  Ottawa is a bad sports town as it is, even if they were winning the interest would be lukewarm.

4 – DAZN – A social media post from this weekend indicates Toronto’s Mike Hogan is the front runner to become the play by play voice of DAZN’s CFL coverage next season with big names Doug Flutie and Chad Johnson making up part of the panel.  Chris Streveler, Bo Levi-Mitchell, and Zach Collaros have also been mentioned as possibilities, assuming the latter two pack it in.  I wonder about Natasha Staniszewski as a potential host.  She was a TSN casualty a few years ago but has landed on her feet doing work for the Stamps and Flames.  I follow Natasha’s and Kate Beirness’ Instagram accounts and while it’s, perhaps, nothing I notice that Natasha and Kate used to be joined at the hip even when away from the office but neither mentions the other anymore at all and Natasha will, frequently, go back to Toronto to hang out with some of her former co-workers and Kate is never included in the group.  To have Kate host TSN and Natasha host DAZN, it may end up being a bit of a rivalry.

5 – CJFL – The CJFL has some very good programs, but there are just as many or more very bad programs and it needs to be addressed.  Last week in the BCFC, Westshore defeated Kamloops 64-0, Langley won over Prince George 75-0, and Okanagan defeated Valley 78-11.  Kamloops is so bad, they lost to Prince George 65-6 the week prior.  As I’m typing this, the final for Kamloops and Vancouver Island has just come through and it was 77-0.  Honestly, they shouldn’t have a team.  In the PFC, Saskatoon and Regina are always at the top and while there are some blowouts, it’s not as bad as BC.  Ontario has good programs in Windsor and London with an emerging one in Sault Ste. Marie but the rest are, frankly, not competitive.

6 – CEBL – The Winnipeg Sea Bears won the CEBL championship on Saturday by virtue of a 98-84 win over the Brampton Honey Badgers in front of almost 13,000 fans at Canada Life Centre.  Is there a better sports city in Canada than Winnipeg?  The fans support the Bombers, the Jets, and the Sea Bears with strong attendance numbers.  Unfortunately, the CEBL crown was decided on a one-game winner take all instead of a best of three, as intended, because game one on Wednesday in Brampton was cancelled due to dangerous floor/court conditions.  This is what keeps the CEBL from being a more serious professional league but I get it.  The players want to ship out and begin their Fall/Winter seasons overseas.  Full marks to the Sea Bears who won three playoff games without the league’s best player, Teddy Allen, who was forced to the sidelines after getting beaten up and hospitalized by three security guards after an altercation at the Palomino night club.

7 – INAPPROPRIATE BILLET BEHAVIOUR – A billet mom in Peterborough is charged with sexual exploitation in relation to an allegation involving a Petes player.  Whatever the outcome, here’s what I can tell you from my experiences second hand in working around junior hockey players: the things they say about certain billet moms would indicate to me that it’s probably very close to a 0% chance this player was ‘exploited’.  Furthermore, I’m aware of players even younger than junior age who have been caught messaging one another about the things they’d do with their teammates’ biological mothers.  I’ll go even further on this.  I know of, at least, two junior players who ended up marrying their billet mother and I’m aware of several other situations where players had to be traded because of activity in the billet home involving the mother and player(s).  Is it a double standard?  It absolutely is but it’s one of those double standards, fair or not, that the man should be held to a higher one than the woman and I don’t think you can talk me out of it.

8 – UFC330 – Islam Makhachev set a UFC record with his 17th straight win on Saturday night by beating Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision in defending his welterweight title.  Perhaps for the first time in those 17 fights, Makhachev did look vulnerable as Garry was able to defend some of the takedowns and he was, visibly, fatigued by the end of the fight.  In fact if you only looked at the two fighters after the five rounds and never watched the fight, it was Garry who looked like the winner. Michael Morales was the backup fighter for this event and you have to think he would be next in line for Makhachev and he would be a serious threat to end the streak.

9 – MORE MMA – ‘Big Game’ Hunter Lee defends his UMMA middleweight championship at Unified69 in Edmonton on September 18th against Darian Weeks.  Weeks fought in the UFC in 2021-22 and went the distance with Ian Machado Garry before losing a unanimous decision.  Lee was born and raised in Flin Flon and went to U of S and was on their wrestling team before turning professional as an MMA fighter.  What I’m curious to see is if the 26-year-old Lee can win this fight and win it fast, would the UFC consider bringing him on for one of the preliminaries for their Edmonton card in early October. My own speculation is that if Lee wasn’t booked for the September fight, he’d have already gotten the call for UFC Fight Night. 

10 – LES BORSHEIM – Former Brandon Wheat King and Watrous native Les Borsheim passed away this week at the age of 47 from what is being reported on social media as a heart attack.  Borsheim was badly injured in a motorcycle accident in 2008 that resulted in him being confined to a wheelchair but that didn’t stop him from also being a major source of inspiration for countless other people and he found his calling as a color commentator for the Colorado Eagles, the pro team he was with from 2005-2008.  I will always remember Borsheim from my first game covering the Wheat Kings in 1996-97.  It was the home opener against Regina and Borsheim dropped the gloves in the first period with Joey Bouvier and, allegedly, broke Bouvier’s nose in a resounding statement that made Borsheim an instant fan favorite.  He never ever really racked up penalty minutes because calling him on to fight was, basically, a request to be beat senseless.  I will always remember him as an unassuming, super nice kid who looked like a blonde haired Incredible Hulk when he had his shirt off.   

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