STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – ROD’S RANT – I was watching Rod’s Rant the other day and he talked about wanting to see NFL Canada as opposed to an XFL/CFL merger. I would agree with him and I’m all-in on that provided we get some legitimate future talent to watch. On Twitter, I mentioned if NFL Canada means Jordan Love plays up here until Aaron Rodgers vacates the throne, I’m all in. I know I’m watching someone that has a very good chance of being an NFL starter someday. With quarterbacks, this may work. Other positions, however, could prove to be problematic. Let’s stick with the Green Bay example. Would they want to send AJ Dillon to the farm team for ‘reps’ or would they view it as a risk of putting unnecessary miles on the tires of a player who is at a position that has a limited lifespan as it is?  

2 – PLAYERS GIVING UP – CJ Gable retired this week. The former Hamilton/Edmonton running back is 33 so he’s approaching that point where he may want to consider his next life anyway but the last year he played (2019), he rushed for over 1000 yards. This is just one example of many where careers have been destroyed and it’s long past the time to make a call on this league with regards to what the plan is so that people can get on with their lives. Make the government cancel you if you must, but at least show the players what the plan is provided the virus environment is as such that playing is favorable. And, it shouldn’t be hard to demand that the government put some firm parameters on it at this point. If you said X number of vaccinations coupled with X number of national hospitalizations for an X amount of time showing a solid direction of where we are headed then I think that puts everyone on notice to watch closely and then their optimism can be increased or lessened based on that. But, we are flying by the seat of our pants with everything in society and also constantly moving goalposts so don’t expect something as simple as this to be announced anytime soon.

3 – CFL IN AMERICA – A couple of months ago I floated the idea of CFL teams finding homes in the United States to play for 2021 just to protect their player assets and keep their business going to some degree. Even if you ended up with less than ideal attendance numbers, you can at least put a product on the field in these temporary homes (I’d target small markets where there isn’t much else to compete against for sports entertainment) and maybe even garner a bit of sponsorship money. By no means am I calling this a money making venture, but it could minimize some potential losses. Most of you called me a wingnut for suggesting such a thing (I’d even put a couple of teams in the beautiful state of North Dakota) but now I’m seeing this idea surface a little bit through some fringe CFL followers on social media. I think we are out of time to do it now, though. 

4 – DRAFT ELIGIBLE QBs – The NFL Draft will be held on April 29th and there is plenty of speculation on a number of eligible quarterbacks and where they are going to land. I don’t recall a draft this top heavy at quarterback. If I go back over the last ten or so years I think the most that have gone in the first round is four.  This year there are five that could go in the top ten (Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, and Mac Jones). It seems like a foregone conclusion Lawrence goes number one to Jacksonville. What happens after that is anyone’s guess. Wilson has wowed the scouts with his pro day and the Jets are said to be enamoured and pick second. Fields, for some reason, has lost a bit of shine but my guess is that he’s the guy San Francisco has targeted after trading up to number three and they have a pretty good idea that the Jets aren’t taking him. That means Lance probably goes to Carolina at eight although there is a school of thought Atlanta may be ready to move on from Matt Ryan and they pick fourth. Denver picks ninth and if they pass on Lance (if still available) and Jones then you are looking at Minnesota and New England with the 14th and 15th picks respectively that could be eyeing a signal caller and my guess is we see five QBs picked no later than New England at 15.

5 – FULL ATTENDANCE – The Texas Rangers are opening their stadium to 40,000 fans next week when they play their home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays. I’ve been wrong before but I believe they will struggle to sell all 40,000 tickets because I’m not sure enough people are ready to return and watch a game sitting beside a stranger. This is why we don’t need to have lockdowns anymore. We’ve been at this long enough and we all have enough information to make decisions that best keep ourselves safe. Just because you are allowed to do something doesn’t mean you have to do it. Keep your kids home from school if you want.  Don’t enroll them in hockey. Don’t attend a sporting event. Do curbside pick-up for your shopping. Order delivery if you want a restaurant meal. We’ve adapted and provided options for those who wish to stay sheltered in place and they can do that safely without exposure to reckless people such as myself. The Rangers were allowed to have full capacity for their last two exhibition games and only drew 10,000 but maybe with it being the regular season another 30,000 will show up. Even if they do show up, we are a year into this and have no concrete evidence of any outdoor event being something that created medical system carnage. Whether that be a protest, a motorcycle festival in South Dakota, partiers on the beach, or sports championship parades. It just hasn’t happened. But, again there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the ability to choose. You want to go, go. You want to stay home, by all means.

6 – NIGHT & DAY – To further illustrate how different it is in the US as compared to Canada right now, I was listening to the Kansas City Royals radio broadcast on opening day and the two announcers were discussing what else was taking place around the league and one of them pointed out, “Most of our listeners probably aren’t aware but the Toronto Blue Jays still can’t host games in Canada because of the pandemic.” I went through the day games on opening day and all of them had fans except for Cincinnati, but that’s coming soon. Colorado led the way with 20,000.

7 – TRADE PAYS OFF – I was one of the many people who catcalled the Toronto Blue Jays for being cheap on August 31, 2018 when they sent Josh Donaldson to Cleveland. Well, here we are in April 2021 and Donaldson lasted all of one inning with the Minnesota Twins before going down with a bad hammy and he’s been hurt ever since they traded him really. The player the Jays got for Donaldson was a pitcher named Julian Merryweather. His opening day consisted of mowing down the 4, 5, and 6 hitters on the Yankees to earn his first Major League save. I probably should be sitting at a table ready to consume a bit of crow.

8 – JETS MINUS STARS – For me, the biggest obstacle for the Winnipeg Jets advancing in the playoffs is the fact their top players are often outscored when they go up against the other teams’ top players. Mark Scheifele is a -5 and Blake Wheeler a -13 as of Friday morning. If you look around the other three contenders of the Gord Downie Division you see that Mitch Marner is +18 and Auston Matthews +14 on Toronto.  Connor McDavid is +14 and Leon Draisaitl +21 with Edmonton. Tomas Tatar and Tyler Toffoli are both +11 for the Habs. I know you analytic types don’t like +/- but too bad.

9 – BCHL – Here’s another little wrinkle for the BCHL to consider when it comes to breaking away from the CJHL: referees. Who would want to risk being blackballed by Hockey Canada to referee BCHL games? My guess is nobody that is any good at officiating. Second wrinkle – Devon Levi made the Canadian National Junior Team based on his performance at the World Junior A Hockey Challenge. He was a very late round draft pick of the Florida Panthers and because of the opportunities provided to him within the CJHL, he found his way on to the NHL radar. There are enough good hockey players out there that if someone like Tyson Jost or Alex Newhook wants to play in an outlaw league like the BCHL, sure they’ll still get drafted into the NHL because they are simply too talented to overlook, however they are going to miss out on a lot of other perks that come from being under the Hockey Canada umbrella and for every Jost and Newhook out there you will find a dozen other players who are going to fall through the cracks. This makes me wonder if the BCHL doesn’t find a way to separate themselves from the CJHL but not from Hockey Canada. Still lots to sort out.

10 – SCHOLARSHIPS – I’m not taking anything away from the BCHL and the level of play, but I will say this when it comes to that league getting an abundance of NCAA scholarships – most of the players who get their scholarships have them before they ever play a game in that league. Some of them get them in the MJHL and SJHL and then go to the BCHL for one year before heading off to college and the BCHL promotes these players as scholarship numbers that belong to their league. It’s misleading. There are other top players who have their scholarships verbally committed as they are coming out of Midget AAA (now U18) and they play in the BCHL not to be discovered but to challenge themselves because of the calibre of play. My message to a player looking to be discovered and earn a scholarship would be to stay away from the BCHL until you get your scholarship. At that point, then you can decide if going to that league is best for your development but paying back your SJHL organization that worked hard for you by saying ‘see ya I’m off to BC for a year before I go to college’ isn’t the best way of saying thank-you and the level of play here is still quite good and doesn’t hamper anyone regardless of what a financially motivated player agent may tell you.

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