STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS
1 – EDMONTON ESKIMOS – The Edmonton Eskimos are, officially, no more as they’ve announced a name change going forward. We don’t know the new name, but as I evaluate what the name could be, the city name of Edmonton isn’t without problems either. Various areas of the city used to have several Indigenous names, one of which was Amiskwaciwaskahikan (translated means Beaver Hills House); however all of those names were replaced by White settlers. Is it a stretch to suggest a renaming back-to-the-roots of the city in order to right some past wrongs? Matt Dance is an urban geographer and open data advocate. He says, “I think if we were able to get at the First Nations names for the specific places in Edmonton – and I mean the culturally appropriate geographic names of places – then, number one, we would have a very different relationship with the First Nations people who currently live here. We’d have a very different relationship with the past. And we would have, I think, a much richer understanding of what this place is.” Dance is only one person, but this is how the word Eskimos became a hot button issue. It started with one person until it manifested into a society-wide movement that the word was just no longer proper to use. The name Edmonton may end up on a similar chopping block, but just not tomorrow. Within a few years it’s possible both the city and the football team’s name will both be different. Some of you will say, “This is getting ridiculous.” Some of us would say we got ridiculous long ago and this is now a runaway train and there is no measure in place to ever stop it. If you are someone who is offended by the word Eskimos but not by the word Edmonton, I’d like to know why. Both marginalize cultural groups.
2 – CFL STATUS – If what’s going on now as far as the disastrous attempt to return to play was happening in any other professional league, the masses would be screaming and the criticism would be immense. Yet, I feel aside from the very diehards, the reaction about the CFL’s failure to get itself off the ground on a return to play has been largely apathetic. Some of this is the fault of the CFL head office, and the rest of it is the fault of the Federal government, which seems to specialize in paralyzing any form of actual economic or labour productivity in this country. What this has shown me over the last few months is that the CFL does need a massive overhaul top to bottom and it shouldn’t come back until it’s ready to re-invent itself. It shouldn’t be hard. Football is a very popular sport and people love to watch it while young people still love to play it despite fear mongering by the media that it’s too dangerous (ever see a media report on the dangers of being punched and kicked in the head repeatedly while knocked out in the midst of an MMA fight?). There is a way to return and in a manner that re-engages all stakeholders but the current set up is embarrassing, which is too bad because there are some real superstars worth the price of admission right now.
3 – SPORTS NETWORKS – I think there is a very real chance one of the two major national sports networks (TSN, Sportsnet) not surviving long term. When Sportsnet was created, they did so with regional channels and I thought the intent was to put regional content on those regional channels. Of course, that’s not what has happened and now we have about 10 channels between the two networks and nauseating content that is repeated on several of them. What isn’t repeated is often farmed in from an American channel or a re-run. It’s stale. It’s old. It’s not worth watching and I don’t understand why a sponsor would pay 10 cents for it. Global, which axed a bunch of jobs this week, has announced the creation of 50 positions in smaller markets. That’s where the money can be made but I have no hope for the shallow thinkers who are in charge. Get a Roughriders show on Sportsnet West and see how hard that is to find advertisers. I bet not very. The property everybody is missing the boat on is university sports in Canada. Heck, the governing body of university sports doesn’t even know what it has for a product. But if it was promoted by organizers and media I think you’d see more public interest. I see opportunities everywhere for these regional sports channels and no desire whatsoever from suits in corporate offices to get innovative to generate revenue. If you can’t afford to run a sports channel, then don’t. Get rid of it and do what you can afford instead of gouging your advertisers.
4 – NHL MEDIA – I have to admit I chuckled upon seeing some tweets from various members of the Canadian sports media industry upon learning that American media people were being brought in to fulfill some of the production jobs that could have been performed just as well or better by Canadians. There was also disappointment and belly-aching about the local reporters for each team being allowed access to various degrees during the re-start as opposed to just assigning people from the Alberta and Ontario areas to specific teams for the duration of the playoffs. Almost all of the sports reporting done during this pandemic has been about doom and gloom and how it’s irresponsible to try and play and just how dangerous this virus is to the numerous pro athletes (none of which have been hospitalized) and yet we have media members now mad they can’t work during this dangerous time? They should be thankful if they personally believed even half of the horrific stories they told over the last four months.
5 – NHL CENSORSHIP – Media heads exploded even more on Friday when the NHL released how it will handle direct access inside the hub cities. The league will not allow any media to take in any practices or morning skates once the 24 teams enter the hub on Sunday. The NHL will not allow any media, but their own, inside any of the hubs. Three writers from NHL.com and one social media member per team are ‘required’. According to the Toronto Star’s Kevin McGran, that means any news reports or pictures will be sanitized, which is to say NHL or team approved. McGran says, ‘not real news’. One media person per outlet can watch the game from the stands but that’s as close as they’ll get (still a lot closer than any of the fans). I spit out my drink when McGran said, “….wouldn’t you want a watchdog of some sort in there?” Personally, if the ‘watchdog’ is the fear mongering professional sports reporters that I’ve been subjected to for the last four months, no I’m quite perfectly fine without all of you as you’ve done enough damage to my mental well-being the last four months. But thanks anyway. McGran says the NHL needs the publicity. Yeah, they need publicity but not a bunch of Negative Nancys poo-pooing the restart and exaggerating the virus situation. NHL media did a really good job showing how they are not needed and now that the league is back, they aren’t needed and they belly-ache about it. No sympathy from me. You reap what you sow.
6 – LAST WORD ON SPORTS MEDIA – I find further hilarity from McGran complaining about the lack of access and saying the reports will be ‘sanitized’ as though that’s something he can’t support. Well, I’d sure like to know how McGran felt about Steve Simmons reporting Auston Matthews’ positive coronavirus test because Simmons was, universally, crucified for stepping out of bounds and running with a story that wasn’t so mainstream. The reality is that the media sanitizes a ton of information on their own simply by engaging in the nonsensical ‘upper body’ and ‘lower body’ injuries that are released by the teams. Any media person with an ounce of ability to investigate would be able to unearth the real injury and the real timeline for a return to action but they almost never ever do. So, again, no sympathy from me and the sanitized version from NHL.com won’t be any different than the sanitized version from the half dozen Toronto media outlets that are butt hurt over getting excluded.
7 – WHAT YOU CAN’T EASILY FIND – The number of positive virus tests inside the Major League Soccer bubble. Answer – 2. The last six straight testing periods have uncovered 0 positive cases. Yet, if you do a Google search there will be countless stories about how dangerous this is trying to play soccer in a ‘covid petri dish’ like Florida and how the league is simply out for some sort of money grab and you may even get the odd suggestion from a scribe the players were forced to do this and are playing despite an all-time high level of personal fear. Yet, NHL media people can’t understand why the league wouldn’t want them inside the bubble and allow them to write sensationalized stories.
8 – OK NO JAYS – The Federal government won some brownie points with the general public last weekend when they refused to give approval to the Toronto Blue Jays to play their MLB season at Skydome. The rationale being it’s too dangerous to public safety for professional athletes, all of whom have tested negative for the virus numerous times and all of whom would be segregated from the general public, to fly in and out of Toronto a few times a week. Basically, you’d be looking at a maximum of four flights per week on a chartered aircraft with the most minimal of public interaction. But, it’s deemed to be dangerous and people could, potentially, die. However, there are upwards of 30 flights a day coming to Toronto from various American cities with unknown numbers of Americans on board from unknown American home addresses with unknown intentions once they get to Canada and unknown virus statuses. Yet, this is deemed to be safe. Got it. Maybe a professional sports media person can pick up on this and point out the glaring hypocrisy.
9 – SOTO POSITIVE – Washington Nationals slugger Juan Soto, after testing negative several times, tested positive for the China-started coronavirus on Thursday prior to his team’s season opening game against the Yankees. He has no symptoms and even did a few ‘instant result’ Covid tests after testing positive and was determined to be negative for the virus yet he still isn’t allowed to play. I get that I’m one of the few that thinks this is ridiculous but that doesn’t mean it’s still not ridiculous. Soto (and other players) has a very short window to perform in professional sports and losing time (some will lose a year, some will lose their entire careers) for no reason whatsoever is extremely damaging and frustrating. Are these tests even accurate when you tell healthy people they are ‘sick’? Nobody has given me an explanation that I will accept as to why we insist on finding asymptomatic virus carriers and want to shut them down from life. I get the notion that Soto may be a frequent visitor to nursing homes and could infect and kill everyone living there but the reality is that we could go back to normal if we stopped counting cases and stopped worrying about people who aren’t actually sick and just focused on those who are and focus our protection efforts on the vulnerable as well as anyone else who may think they are vulnerable.
10 – MLB OPENING NIGHT – I have to admit, I was bitter watching the constant bickering back and forth between players and owners on their return to play agreement but now that baseball is back, I am extremely happy. I don’t like the Dodgers or the Giants but I watched all nine innings of an 8-1 game and I can’t explain what it did for my overall mood. But, it’s a good thing and it will only get better as the CEBL, NHL, and NBA get firing as well. I’m not a fan of the fake crowd noise and when I heard of the cardboard cut-outs in the stands I thought that may take the cake as far as stupidity is concerned but I’ve done a complete 180 on it. It’s a stroke of genius. The Dodgers charge $300 for putting an ugly mug on a coroplast sign (I have to admit most of these people are far from ugly though) to display at the ballpark that may or may not get on television for a few seconds of exposure that nobody (other than our vain selves who pay this fee) cares about. It’s also a way to generate a bit of revenue, even if it is insignificant. Every little bit counts.
(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)
