Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RIDERS FINALLY WIN – Someone forgot to tell new Saskatchewan running back Rock Armstead that the team was winless in seven games. Armstead was plucked off the free agent pile after Ottawa released him and he, promptly, turned in one of the best games ever in eclipsing 200 yards on the ground as the Riders defeated Calgary on Friday night.  Will this win spark a turnaround for Saskatchewan and get them back on the right path for, not only making the playoffs, but possibly hosting a playoff game? Time will tell but there’s no doubt this was a must-win game for Saskatchewan and they won it.

2 – HYPOCRITES – When the Riders released Garrett Marino a couple of years ago, the organization and fans took tremendous pride for assuming a moral stand over a competitive one. I find it hypocritical that after Armstead’s performance on Friday night the entire Saskatchewan football community has forgotten why Armstead was a free agent in the first place. In week eight, he took two objectionable conduct penalties in the first half of a game against, coincidentally, Calgary. He’s been fined twice for violating the league’s code of conduct. The Redblacks say there is ‘more’ but won’t go into details. Yet, I see posts almost every week from Rider fans who believe Chad Kelly doesn’t deserve a roster spot. You can’t have it both ways folks. Actually, you can. The world is full of hypocritical views. People are selfish and as long as they benefit, they don’t really care what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s kind, what’s not kind, etc. As a society, I see all kinds of people preaching tolerance and love, but those same people think the rest of us have forgotten the venom and hate they spewed for over three years on people who disagreed with government orders. In sports, if it benefits your side, hey let’s give this player another chance. If it doesn’t, let’s skewer the team signing him and having no social conscience. It’s all hollow to me. It’s every man for himself but nobody has the courage to admit it.

3 – CHIEFS BENEFIT – The NFL’s most marketable team, by far, is the Kansas City Chiefs and I saw an interesting stat on social media last weekend following their sketchy win over Cincinnati. It appears as though Patrick Mahomes is the leader, by quite a wide margin, in interceptions overturned by penalty at 18 since 2018.  The post made by a Buffalo radio host has got the attention of folks in the league office and subsequent statements have been made to try and ward off any perceptions of favoritism as it’s pointed out that Mahomes has also thrown more passes overall than anyone else since 2018 but if you watch a lot of NFL you know the Chiefs have benefitted from bad officiating more than once, including in one of their Super Bowl wins late in the fourth quarter. Unrelated note, do you think Taylor Swift recognizes the irony in her enthusiasm for cheering on Harrison Butker’s game winning field goal last weekend?  Again, as noted above, Butker’s field goal benefits her as she cheers for the Chiefs and I guess that supersedes the politically correct stance that opposed his university speech this summer.

4 – QUARTERBACK EVALUATION – Anyone who says they know how to evaluate a quarterback and project future success in the NFL is a liar.  Just go back through the drafts and you will find a large graveyard of high first round draft picks who were unable to play effectively.  You will also find quarterbacks who were taken much later in the draft who ended up being just fine.  While it’s true that shorter quarterbacks are going to have a harder time, the fact of the matter is that Bryce Young was a number one selection and there weren’t many who felt that was a wrong choice even if you believed CJ Stroud would be better, the consensus on Young was that he’d overcome his height disadvantage and have a long NFL career. What we’ve seen, instead, is Young is one of the worst quarterbacks to ever play in an NFL game.  

5 – DRAFT REVIEW – Let’s go back to the 2021 draft and the much ballyhooed quarterback class that saw Trevor Lawrence go first, Zach Wilson second, Trey Lance third, Justin Fields eleventh, and Mac Jones fifteenth. While Lawrence is still starting for the Jaguars and the team isn’t terrible, it’s safe to say Lawrence isn’t much better than average as an NFLer. Wilson is out of a starting job, Lance never had one, Fields is a fringe starter and Jones no longer has a starting job. In addition, all of the QBs except Lawrence have changed teams. Meanwhile, there are QBs like Brock Purdy and Dak Prescott who were considered after thoughts excelling near the top of the class. Either way, I think you give your prized investment a better chance of success if you make him serve as an understudy for a year or two (Jordan Love, Aaron Rodgers, and Mahomes are all good examples).  

6 – ROURKE FUTURE – The BC Lions caused a stir last week when they sent Nathan Rourke to the bench and now there is a perceived quarterback controversy surrounding this year’s Grey Cup hosts. An astute CFL follower pointed out to me that Henry Burris and Ricky Ray are two players that needed a full year before returning to their CFL form after giving the NFL a try. While that’s, potentially, good news for Rourke’s long term outlook I can’t help but wonder if the two-year lay-off has caused some irreparable damage as far as Rourke reaching his potential. A second astute CFL follower dissected Rourke’s one season before leaving for the NFL and it’s fairly obvious that Rourke had his way with the league’s weak sisters but there really was nothing spectacular about his other games.  While Burris and Ray rediscovered their form, Casey Printers came back from the NFL and never did.  

7 – NHL SALARY CAP – Clearly, NHL teams believe the salary cap is going to go up and it’s going to go up sharply in the near future. There’s no other way to explain some of the long term deals being handed out to younger players. The most recent is the Utah Whatchamacallits signing Dylan Guenther to an 8-year deal with an annual salary north of $7-million despite having only 78-career games under his belt and less than 30-career goals. Seattle signed Matty Beniers last month to a 7-year deal worth $50-million despite his regression in year two to 37-points in 77-games. The only plausible argument against these contracts would be if you feel the salary cap goes up and players like Guenther and Beniers are worth more than $12-$13 million per season in the next three or four years. Under the current structure, they’d need to be 100-point players for that to happen so they roll the dice that both players will be elite and that the salaries they are paid today (which look elite) won’t be so high halfway or two-thirds of the way through the contract.

8 – SJHL TERRIERS AND MILS – For the first fifteen years that I lived in the Yorkton area, the SJHL Terriers and their nearest rivals, the Melville Millionaires, were two of the most formidable teams in the league.  The Terriers won titles in 2005, 2006, 2013, and 2014. They were runner ups in 2010 and 2011. Melville was a runner up in 2003, 2007, 2009, and 2014. For the last ten years, both clubs have struggled for the most part.  The Mils missed the playoffs every year from 2016-2023 except for one. Yorkton has been bounced in round one or missed entirely in seven of the last ten years. If Friday’s season opening games are any indication, the Mils and Terriers are about to, once again, become tough outs for visiting teams on the schedule. Melville defeated Estevan 4-2 on the strength of a Ryan Roethke hat trick and four point game from vet Caden Drury.  Yorkton dominated Weyburn 6-1 with Jaron Desnoyers netting four and finishing with five points. The Terriers and Mils meet for the first time in about a month.

9 – RULE INCONSISTENCY – The hockey season begins and once again the sport is caught in a situation where, I feel, the maltreatment rule has gone too far. Calling someone a midget shouldn’t warrant a five-game suspension, especially when a hit from behind that results in a concussion and three weeks missed to heal up doesn’t result in a suspension at all because the infraction was missed by the referee. I understand those that govern the sport want to eliminate name calling and bad words but a better way to go would be to fine the teams and make them hold the players more accountable. If you let me pick whether or not I am going to be called a name or get a cross check in the teeth … I’m taking the name 10 times out of 10.

10 – MAYBE I DO LIKE UFC – For the most part, I pay no attention to UFC but I found myself fully interested in UFC 306 last Saturday night, watching the broadcast with the Flin Flon Bombers players and coaches at Bakers Narrows Lodge. While the main event between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili wasn’t the most thrilling match on the card, it was still captivating and I found myself rooting for the underdog Dvalishvili, who emerged with a unanimous decision. Meanwhile, the first two fights were nothing short of exciting. Ronaldo Rodriguez should have been knocked out cold against Ode Osbourne, but he showed how tough his chin is and ended up taking a split decision. As if that couldn’t be topped, Esteban Ribovics and Daniel Zellhuber went toe to toe for 15 minutes and I don’t know how either of them were standing when it was over. It was enough to have me waiting for UFC 307 on October 5th and UFC 308 in November that will feature heavyweight Jon Jones, in what could be his last fight.  

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)