STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – RUSH BIG WIN – Mark Matthews, Robert Church, and Jake Boudreau all scored three goals as the Rush earned a much needed 16-11 win over the West Division leading San Diego Seals on Friday night. What stood out for me was the play at Transition. It was the best I’ve seen the Rush in Transition in, perhaps, two seasons. The emergence of rookie first rounder Boudreau and the addition of Jerrett Smith in the offseason is what has made this possible. Head coach Jimmy Quinlan is showing confidence in these two, as well as Bobby Kidd III and the results last night were very favorable.  

2 – MORE RUSH — Boudreau’s third of the game came in the final seconds and with the outcome already decided, so the Seals took some exception to it. Boudreau plays with an edge and it’s not the first time he’s gotten under the skin of an opponent. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite players. Overall, Saskatchewan is now 5-3, the Seals are 6-2, and the Calgary Roughnecks won again last night so they are 7-3.  Saskatchewan returns home next Saturday to play struggling Vancouver in what has the makings of a trap game.

3 – RATTLERS – I got a call from a ticket agent with the Saskatchewan Rattlers this week. I’m very encouraged with their efforts to increase ticket sales and as someone who has purchased three packs in each of the last two years, I can say I’m definitely in for a third year in a row. The Rattlers are bringing back the same coaching staff as last season, which is a big plus in my books. Now, they just have to secure the services of some of the electric five starters they deployed. Anyone who has been to a CEBL game will surely tell you that it may be the absolute best bang for your sports entertainment buck that you can get.

4 – FAJARDO – Former Saskatchewan Roughrider quarterback Cody Fajardo has signed with Montreal and while Fajardo was not treated well by the organization here, the reality is also that Fajardo didn’t do much to help himself and he made a number of other errors in judgment that brought to light his lack of mental toughness. Some of Fajardo’s comments this week about not being in contact with coach Craig Dickenson further convinces me he hasn’t learned much from the negative experience here. Personally, I’m a fan of Fajardo’s and really hope he shuts down the naysayers with an excellent season. I also hope he can, somehow, develop thicker skin. I think it would go a long way to helping his on-field performance as well.

5 – ALS IN TROUBLE – It looks like the CFL is going to take over the day to day operation of the Alouettes for the time being. I’m at a loss as to how the league can afford to do it, but one thing I’ve learned over the last two years is that fan attendance cannot be directly associated with the financial health of professional sports teams and the leagues associated with them. The Riders, for example, are seemingly financially very, very healthy despite some of their lowest attendance figures in recent memory. The CFL is capable of absorbing the Als despite a lost season (2020). But, forget the CFL. Major League Baseball players are once again seeing their salaries sky rocket despite playing in front of empty stadiums and reduced in-person attendance right across the board. It just goes to show, these teams don’t need you to be there. It’s a bonus if you go, but it’s not imperative.

6 – RIDERS QBs – The Riders’ signing of Trevor Harris got plenty of press. What didn’t get as much press was the signing of USFL first overall draft pick Shea Patterson. Patterson will be in the mix to win the back-up QB job and it’s a position well worth monitoring as Harris isn’t known to be much of a scrambler and he could be under attack frequently if the offensive line isn’t much improved. So far, I can’t say I have any issues with the player moves Jeremy O’Day is orchestrating. This was a 6-12 team with horrible discipline. Bringing most of them back is just trying to jam a square peg into a round hole. 

7 – SUPER BOWL OUTCOME – Last Sunday’s Super Bowl game was one for the ages until a soft call from one of the officials spoiled the entire thing. Already a skeptic on the ‘fairness’ and ‘integrity’ of professional sports games in general, the way the Chiefs won has done nothing to make me think otherwise. The Kansas City Chiefs benefitted the most from the Buffalo-Cincinnati canceled game and then they won with questionable officiating against the Bengals in the AFC title match and then they take the Super Bowl with a gift call as well. And, oh yeah, the NFL’s most marketable player (Patrick Mahomes) quarterbacks the Chiefs.

8 – CFL vs NFL – While it’s a nice debate to suggest the Grey Cup winner and the Super Bowl winner would result in a very competitive game, the reality is that the worst NFL team would beat the best CFL team 9 times out of 10. Some of you will point to a few NFL players who didn’t exactly set the CFL on fire during their time here and I get that. Some of you will point to the success of Warren Moon, Doug Flutie, and Jeff Garcia in the NFL and that’s a valid point; but I would submit those three quarterbacks rank as three of the all-time best to ever wear a CFL jersey and while they were all very good NFL quarterbacks, none of those three are even close to being NFL all-time greats. Remember, Ricky Ray and Henry Burris couldn’t cut it at all and both of those guys are CFL Hall of Famers. I don’t know why Canadian football fans just can’t come to terms with the fact we are the luckiest football fans on the planet. We can enjoy a really good league (CFL) that not many outside of our country can appreciate and we can also enjoy the NFL just like everyone else.  We truly have the best of both football worlds and nobody else can make that claim.

9 – CHEAP BROADCASTS – The Toronto Blue Jays will have their road game radio broadcast play-by-play this season done in their announcer’s basement while watching on a monitor. Apparently, this is also how the Calgary Flames are doing it? This is a cheapskate way of broadcasting games and the play by play leads don’t seem to be all that happy practicing their craft in this manner but I have no sympathy for them. None of them spoke up in opposition at any point during the pandemic and most of them criticized the sports leagues they work with whenever there was an effort to move forward and play. So, now that the pandemic is over and media companies can save a buck by not paying an announcing team to fly, eat, and stay in a hotel for 41 games; who can blame them?

10 – REMOTE BROADCASTS – When I was still calling games a few years ago, there was a discussion about what it would be like for me to do so from a control room where I have access to a few different video monitors rather than go to the venue itself. I was very much opposed to doing this. While I can appreciate what technology is able to accomplish, I’m someone who cannot summon fake energy or enthusiasm that is only achieved from experiencing the atmosphere that is in the arena itself. This is, especially, true at playoff time. I admire anyone who can do it, but I would have been an epic failure at trying to do play by play remotely.  

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