Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RIDER QUARTERBACKS – As the Saskatchewn Roughriders settle into their offseason, fans and media are starting to speculate on next year’s starting quarterback, unhappy with incumbent Trevor Harris, who turned in an excellent season.  In fact, if you go back through the last 30 years of Roughrider quarterbacks, it wouldn’t be outrageous to say Harris ranks behind only Darian Durant and Henry Burris and, perhaps, Cody Fajardo but Fajardo’s end days here were so bad I give Harris the edge.  But, such is life in Rider Nation where it seems nobody here can evaluate a good quarterback.  Burris was, basically, chased away.  Kerry Joseph’s tenure was very short and the thanks he got for winning was a ticket out of town.  Fajardo was also treated so poorly he ended up making his own bed.  Then you have the likes of Tino Sunseri, Brandon Bridge, Kevin Glenn, and Mason Fine who were given countless and endless opportunities despite plenty of evidence they weren’t good enough.  To that end, the popular name to throw out there for next year is Bo Levi Mitchell, who upon a quick glance, had a really nice season.  But, the Riders need someone who can help them beat the better teams in the league.  Here are Mitchell’s numbers against the top two teams (Winnipeg and Montreal) this season:  4 games, 61 of 102 passing for 912 yards and 1 touchdown, 5 interceptions.  I’d keep Harris, myself, and ensure there is a very good back up ready to take over in the likely event Harris can’t play the full 18 games.  

2 – COX GIVES THE FINGER – Almost 31 years after his father, famously, gave a double middle finger to the Buffalo Bills’ fans as he entered the field of play from the locker room, Bryan Cox’s son flipped off the Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans during the Saskatchewan Roughriders loss in the CFL’s West Division final.  I’ve seen various opinions from fans on this, more than a few who support Cox throwing up his middle finger because Bomber fans deserve it.  My question is who gets to determine what’s deserved and what’s not?  The CFL has fined Cox for the obscene gesture and he’s a free agent, so my guess is that the Riders (setting their precedent with Garrett Marino) will have no interest whatsoever in having Cox back on the roster.

3 – TYSON PAUL FIGHT – The match didn’t live up to the hype and it also did nothing but damage the image of Netflix along the way as the streaming service, apparently, wasn’t able to handle the enormous traffic. One thing is for sure, people love nostalgia.  For as unpopular as Mike Tyson was during his heyday, he was 180 degrees as popular for this fight but, in the end, the result was very predictable.  Nobody was punched senseless and the 58 year old legend lost to 27 year old Jake Paul as expected.  For me, I wasn’t interested in this at all and actually forgot the match was taking place.  I didn’t even try to watch on Netflix as the complaints on social media were enough to keep me away.

4 – BOXING HISTORY – The popularity of Tyson for this fight brought me back to my teenage years when Tyson destroyed all comers in heavyweight boxing.  In the days of pay per view, people would fork over big dollars to watch matches of Tyson, sometimes only lasting a few seconds, defeating supposed challengers.  I remember the Tyson-Michael Spinks build up.  I actually believed Spinks was going to be a formidable foe by the time match day arrived.  Yet, Tyson dropped him in 91 seconds and only 10 punches were landed in the fight, 8 by Tyson.  It’s actually not talked about enough the impact of this match on heavyweight boxing.  Spinks never fought again.  Tyson, who was only 21, fired his trainer and made only two more title defenses before losing to Buster Douglas and that, really, was the beginning of the end as far as professional heavyweight boxing is concerned.  Yes, it still exists and yes there were a few more glory days ahead for the likes of Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, and Riddick Bowe but the Spinks-Tyson fight was the pinnacle of Tyson’s boxing career and boxing as a mainstream public event as a whole.

5 – DRAWING POWER – The price to attend in-person sporting events continues to rise and while the major events still attract sold out crowds, you have to wonder how much longer that can continue.  People who are in a similar age bracket as myself and grew up on the likes of Gretzky, Jordan, Tyson, Tiger, etc. would go through heaven and hell to watch their idols in person.  Who are those idols today?  Do they have the same drawing power?  Would Gretzky and Jordan have that kind of drawing power 30-40 years ago if the price tag to see them was what it is to attend similar events today?  For example, I could save my paper route money for a couple weeks and buy a ticket to a game.  You can’t do that now.  Are people today as inclined or dedicated to sports?  I’d be interested to hear from some of you who have kids and would like to know if your children are as excited about going to games as you were at their age?  It’s a small sample size, but people I talk to tell me the answer is a resounding no.  I know my three kids have minimal interest.  My son even played sports at a fairly high level but never had the desire to watch others.  My daughters will go, but only if I’m going too and can foot the bill!

6 – HURTFUL WORDS – London Knights forward Zach Sim has been handed a 5-game suspension for calling an opposing player a Mennonite.  The suspension is a result of Sim contravening the Ontario Hockey League’s code of conduct ‘intended to provoke an opposing player that was marginalizing on both religious and cultural grounds’.  Former Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, openly, joked on his social media that he doesn’t understand a suspension being given to a player paying someone else a compliment. If he was Sim’s coach, he’d be looking at five games too.  Meanwhile, the NHL suspended Los Angeles forward Tanner Jeannot for 3 games after he delivered a hit on Vancouver’s Brock Boeser that has put the Canucks forward out indefinitely.  The player on the receiving end of the Mennonite comment isn’t expected to miss any time as of last report but I’m getting old so perhaps the victim will need a lengthy safe space rehab facility to recover from the hurtful name.  I’m just going to come right out and say it.  Hockey administrators have lost their marbles on this ‘maltreatment’ issue.

7 – FALLOUT FROM THESE RIDICULOUS SUSPENSIONS – One hockey coach said to me that leagues want their referees and linesmen to have positive relationships with its players and coaches but the maltreatment rule is only putting a greater distance between them.  “It’s getting to the point where some of the officials are viewed as ‘narcs’,” said the coach, who wished to remain anonymous. “There needs to be quite a bit more balance and discretion used.”  At some point a player is going to decide to cross check an opposing player in the teeth and knock out all of his chicklets because the reality now is this:  call a name you will get 5 games minimum.  Do something physical that injures the player and you are quite likely to get less.  That’s the message that administrators from the NHL on down are sending.

8 – WHAT’S THE STANDARD – I just want it to make sense.  If we are going to suspend players for five games for hurtful name calling, then we have to go to 25 games or more for physical infractions that cause other players to miss time.  Here’s another one that was brought to my attention earlier this week and I will try to make it as PG as possible:  two players get involved in a verbal sparring match and Player A indicates he’s spent some quality romantic time with Player B’s mother, to which Player B tells Player A to commit a sex act to him.  The crude comment about the mother goes unpunished, it’s fair game (apparently).  The reply to that is regarded as homophobic so it’s subject to a 5-game suspension.  

9 – RUSH AIMING FOR PLAYOFFS – The Saskatchewan Rush have playoff aspirations as the NLL season gets set to begin at the end of this month.  For that to happen they will not only need to be better than last year, but they’ll need a couple of teams above them to be worse than last year.  One potential candidate would be the San Diego Seals, who lost Dane Dobbie and Curtis Dickson, who are in Calgary, as well as feisty scorer Austin Staats, who is looking at a possible jail sentence on top of a 7-game suspension as he is facing a number of criminal charges from an altercation this summer.  In their place, the team has brought in former Rush scorer Ben McIntosh as well as ex-Halifax point producer Ryan Benesch.  Halifax is also a candidate to drop in the standings with Benesch gone and Austin Shanks now with the Rush. Friday, the Rush played their first preseason game and beat Las Vegas 13-8.  Rookie Brock Haley scored 3 and veteran Robert Church 4.

10 – WHAT A BEAUTIFUL CITY – This isn’t a sports related item, but rather about a sports stadium so it still fits the parameter of the column.  The City of Toronto is clearing tents belonging to homeless people from in front of Rogers Centre as it prepares for the arrival of Taylor Swift.  One individual who had settled into the area and calls it home said that the City offered him a taxpayer funded stay at a hotel while Swift is in town.  Toronto, which is basically over-ridden with homeless and lawless situations that have overtaken various sections of the city, is trying something similar to what San Francisco did about this same time last year when they wanted to put on a good image for the APEC Summit.  Once that conference was finished, it went right back to being what it was before.  It just goes to show you what officials can do if they want to impress the right people.  You, the taxpayer, aren’t ‘right people’.  It’s why I have nothing but disdain for an overwhelming majority of politicians, political parties be damned.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)