STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – RIDERS WIN AGAIN – They took over 130 yards in penalties and really tried hard to play to the level of the lowly Edmonton E’s but they still managed to win by 10 over their former coach (26-16).  I thought Cody Fajardo looked pretty good despite, once again, an overabundance of play calls that only required him to throw the ball from one end of my couch to the other (so it seems).  The few times he was asked to go longer, I thought he was excellent.  Jamal Morrow had a breakout game at running back and it makes me wonder if they don’t start to go a bit more run heavy.  For the most part, just about every CFL team has abandoned the running game and the Riders are allergic to deep passes.  You don’t see many 20 carry games anymore but my guess is that if the Riders came at you with a Morrow/Hickson attack and then surprised the defense by stretching the field 1-2 times a quarter, it would be quite successful.

2 – RATTLERS SEASON – The Saskatchewan Rattlers, easily, handled the Edmonton Stingers this week, which was a nice rebound game after they stumbled in front of a big crowd against Scarborough.  The Rattlers are 4-and-4, which is quite a turnaround for a team that was 2-and-18 over the previous two seasons.  If you look at the league leaders, there are Rattlers littered all over every category.  New recruits Tony Carr and Scottie Lindsey are both in the top five amongst CEBL scorers.  Carr is second in assists, Jordy Tshimanga is fourth in rebounds and third in blocks.  Malik Benlevi and Carr rank 2nd and 3rd respectively in three point shooting percentage while Lindsey leads all CEBLers in three pointers overall and Devonte Bandoo is fifth.  The standings are tight, though. Even at 4-and-4, the Rattlers are 7th in the 10 team league.

3 – NLL SEASON – Tough to imagine the Saskatchewan Rush still playing but if they had made the playoffs and advanced to the league final, they’d have been going for the last two months matching the Rattlers and Roughriders for sports space locally.  Colorado defeated Buffalo 2-games-to-1 with a 10-8 win on Saturday night to win the title.  Eli McLaughlin and Zed Williams led the way with 20-goals each in 7-games.  Regular season superstar Ryan Lee was limited to just 1 playoff game due to injury so this makes the accomplishment all the more impressive.  Even McLaughlin missed 2 games, so his 20 were scored over 5 games.  Goalie Dillon Ward played every minute of the seven games and former Rush netminder Tyler Carlson was his back up for all seven.

4 – TROTZ DECISION COMING – Barry Trotz is said to be making his decision on his next coaching post by Canada Day.  Judging by moves made by other teams already, you have to assume it’s down to Detroit and Winnipeg for him unless he takes a front office job in Nashville.  The Jets need him in a big way.  Meanwhile, Philadelphia hired John Tortorella and that isn’t going to go well.  Tortorella is tough on players and the Flyers are full of coach killers and primadonnas who aren’t going to take kindly to someone telling them what to do.  Get your popcorn ready.

5 – THOMAS BARRED – Swimming’s world governing body (FINA) has voted to restrict transgender athletes in elite women’s competitions and will create a working group to establish an ‘open’ category as part of a new policy.  This issue came to an urgent head after transgender swimmer Lia Thomas obliterated female NCAA records. It will be interesting to see how the general public accepts the ‘open’ category.  There has been belly aching in some corners about female athletes not being paid or given the same platform by media as much as male ones who perform the same sport.  Will those entered in ‘open’ receive even less attention than females, how will that go over if they do, and what can be done to force fans to accept it?  Is it possible that in this digital age, your sports consumption will have to be logged and you will be required to view a certain quota of events that are looking for a larger audience before you can consume the more popular sports?  Crazy, but look at the times we live in.

6 – JONES OUSTED – Longtime Edmonton NHL and CFL reporter Terry Jones was unceremoniously chopped by Post Media this week.  Jones tweeted, “At 1pm today, after beginning my career at the Edmonton Journal in 1967 I received a phone call from Toronto informing me that my position had been eliminated by Post Media.  Thank you all so much for reading.  Hardly the way I hoped it would end.”  Jones was one of the few good guys left but it is just the latest evidence that media people seem to be tone deaf to accepting and that’s that no matter how loyal you may be or how much of your soul you sell, when the time comes that the media company doesn’t need you any more, you are a disposable employee number and none of your loyalty will matter one iota.  It’s something Ron MacLean may learn one day as he sold himself out and hopefully got rid of all the mirrors in his house over a very valuable friendship (Don Cherry) and over many thousands of viewers who had nothing but respect and admiration for him.

7 – RYU TOMMY JOHN – Baseball people will probably never learn nor will they ever even try to learn because this issue is much too deep to really get to the bottom of, but Hyun Jin Ryu is just the latest example of a pitcher who needs Tommy John Surgery and his workload has absolutely nothing to do with the reason why.  Here are Ryu’s innings the last four years:  82, 182, 67, and 169.  Hardly a horse.  Yet, you have teams like the Anaheim Angels willing to not even try to win games at the expense of ‘protecting’ a pitching staff by using pitchers who have no business pitching in the first place.  Imagine how many more wins the Angels would have if Shohei Ohtani and Patrick Sandoval had made three more starts each so far this season instead of watching minor leaguers get called up to get lit up like Christmas Trees.  It’s insane.  Don’t even try and come at me with ‘well if Ohtani made 3 more starts he’d probably be on the DL, so this is smart’.  Based on what evidence?

8 – CLEVELAND BROWNS – The Cleveland Browns have hired Catherine Raiche to be their Assistant General Manager and VP of Football Operations.  She is the NFL’s highest ranking female executive.  Good for her, but this is a really odd move for an NFL team that just made a trade for a quarterback who has been accused of sexual misconduct by upwards of 30 female massage therapists.  Deshaun Watson is also alleged to have received a massage from over 65 different female professionals in a one year period (which works out to more than 1 different female a week).  Being a creep isn’t illegal and maybe they won’t be able to pin anything on him through the justice system but there is very clearly something wrong with this man and while I pass no judgement on sexual behaviour that is consensual, there is something about this that doesn’t add up and I don’t know why any team would want to bring him in to be their centrepiece.  Remember.  This is a quarterback.  It’s not some other position that can fly under the radar.  The quarterback is your face.  The Browns picked Watson.  Did they pick Raiche hoping to deflect some of that?  

9 – HOCKEY CANADA ISSUE – I don’t think it’s getting much traction in Canada amongst mainstream media outlets, but The Athletic has been following a story about a financial settlement reached between Hockey Canada and a woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by junior hockey players following an event in London, Ontario back in 2018.  The woman accused eight players, including members of that year’s national junior team that won world junior gold, of sexual assault following a Hockey Canada Foundation gala.  She filed a $3.55-million lawsuit against Hockey Canada, the CHL, and the unnamed players.  The lawsuit was settled and the allegations were never proven in court, nor were the players identified.   Most of the players on that roster are now in the NHL, including superstar defenseman Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche.  Makar, for his part, has already gotten out in front of this and said he’s NOT one of the eight.  The way we do things today, though, you have to wonder that if the names do become public, will you see some NHL careers get ruined over this?  So, it’s easy to understand why there is a heavy attempt to keep these names under seal.  Go look for yourself.  Some of these players are stars.

10 – SEBASTIAN VITTELL – You certainly don’t have to be smart or very self aware to compete in professional sports.  German Formula One driver Sebastian Vittell is a dummy.  There is no other way to put it.  I simply can’t believe any one person would be this hypocritical on purpose and I don’t think he’s trying to be a jerk but maybe I am giving him too much credit.  Vittell who is sponsored by a major oil company owned by a foreign dictatorship used the Canadian Grand Prix as a platform to protest the Canadian oilsands, which is some of the cleanest and most ethical in the way of oil production on the planet.  Vittell makes a living, needlessly, wasting fuel driving around in circles on a track for human entertainment yet he is concerned about the environment.  Uh huh.

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