STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS
1 – SHAQ CALLS OUT SASK – Football receiver Shaq Evans (who currently has no league to play in) caused a stir on Twitter when he let loose with some raw emotions saying he wasn’t sure he wanted to play in Saskatchewan anymore after seeing a number of opinions about Black Lives Matter and the recent sports boycotts that weren’t in agreement with his. How tolerant. Evans ended up retracting the statement to some degree but I hope he reads this particular paragraph and understands that Saskatchewan people aren’t racist. Last week when the federal Conservative Party chose its new leader, Saskatchewan voters put black female Leslyn Lewis as its top choice over three white males. We were the only province to place her that high. I don’t proclaim to speak for most Saskatchewan people, but I, myself, won’t offer blanket unconditional support for a man who was a known criminal and was failing to comply with a police request. That important aspect is never acknowledged by the protest movement and the education needs to begin with telling people to respect police officers. What happens when you don’t respect them is a conversation I’m willing to have as far as what would be a reasonable thing for an officer to do. Maybe when a cop tells you to put your hands up, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. Just carry on doing whatever it is that you were doing. Someone may be killed, but at least it’s not the criminal or the cop. Is that what we are after here? Contrary, if you do as you are told and still get abused or worse, then there needs to be teeth in the law so that cops are dealt with in a ‘kill a mosquito with a jack hammer’ fashion. I’ll be the first in line to go harsh on a police officer who abuses power against a compliant suspect.
2 – YOUTH VIEWERS – Young people don’t watch sports the way I used to; or at least it seems that way in our house. Granted, two of my three kids are girls and I don’t think girls have ever watched professional sports the way boys do, but when I was a teenager it was quite routine to gather at a friend’s house and watch a baseball game (if it was summer) or hockey game (if it was winter). Even as a teenager, I was fairly glued to my television on Sunday afternoons to watch football. My son, who has played baseball, basketball, and football at fairly high levels throughout his youth doesn’t ever sit down to watch a pro game on tv and whenever he has had friends over none of them watch either.
3 – FANTASY SPORTS – I’d be really curious to know the average age of people who play fantasy sports. I was in my first league when I was fifteen. I don’t believe that is the case of most fifteen year-old sports enthusiasts today. I’ve been in either a hockey, baseball, or football league every year since. I took many years off from hockey because there wasn’t enough offense but I re-immersed myself this past year but I can, honestly, say that without fantasy sports I wouldn’t turn on the tv to watch. Prior to the Jets returning to Winnipeg, I was almost done with the NHL. My favorite baseball team is the Red Sox, but they are unwatchable. Because of the draft I’m in, the Twins are a team I pay a lot of attention to and they are my go-to on a regular basis. When the NFL hits, I will be on my phone checking stats and watching Red Zone all day long because of the draft. If I think about it and am honest about it, NFL is a league I would watch even if I wasn’t in a draft. I like basketball but I won’t miss it if they decide to go home over social justice issues.
4 – NBA SOCIAL JUSTICE – Which brings me to the issue of the NBA players thinking they will enact some sort of change to their social justice cause of police shooting black people by boycotting the rest of the season. It’s just a hunch, but I believe not many people under the age of 35 watch pro sports as it is when you compare the viewing habits of young people to twenty or more years ago. Therefore, I think once these pro leagues turn off the mature aged fan (I’m talking those over 40) they are going to have a difficult time getting money from fans to support their living. Even if young people were to watch on tv, they won’t pay for it. They find loopholes to pirate what they consume on video and most aren’t interested or have the financial means to fork over hundreds of dollars to attend a single game. These pro leagues are playing a dangerous game and I believe it’s one they will lose when they come to learn the fan interest, simply, isn’t there as it was any longer. Especially in a pandemic where many people have figured out there are other ways life can go on and the world doesn’t stop if there are no sports on television.
5 – SOCIAL MEDIA ECHO CHAMBER – Something else I could be wrong about as this is pure speculation, but based on how people talk to me is that social media isn’t reflective of society as a whole. It’s, basically, a big echo chamber and while I, myself, am in the minority on social media the reality is that most people aren’t interested in posting the common sense rationale I bring to the table because they don’t like to be screamed at by left wing crazies. So they stay off Twitter and refrain from expressing opinions on Facebook. It makes me look like I’m nuts, but I have many many private messages and private conversations with people who tell me to continue doing what I’m doing because most feel similar to how I do but just don’t have the stamina or desire to withstand the barrage that comes at you. Politicians and other people in authority tend to make their decisions based on social media, however, and that has resulted in a tremendous amount of chaos and failure right across the board. Even with this virus, if there was no social media there would never have been a lockdown. We’d never know a virus was present because hardly anyone has it. We just look at numbers such as ‘1600 cases’ and because that is the capacity of a small hockey rink we hit the panic button.
6 – ANNOUNCERS CUT – Sportsnet hasn’t announced anything, but they’ve opted to no longer employ Dave Randorf and Brendan Dunlop. Randorf was the number two hockey play by play man behind Jim Hughson, but was shown the door when Chris Cuthbert came on. My guess is that if Canadian football is ever revived that he will become the main play by play voice of it. Don’t assume 2021 pro football in Canada is any sure thing. There’s no evidence to suggest it at this point. A lot would need to change. As far as Dunlop is concerned, I don’t really recall him but I believe he was on the anchor desk doing highlights and such. It’s been a long time since I’ve tuned in to those types of shows but hopefully he lands on his feet.
7 – COHORTING – The big word bandied about for schools is ‘cohorting’. Expect to see this word be prevalent in junior hockey in the weeks and months ahead as well. If they are given the go ahead by governments, look for it to be under a ‘cohorting’ format. So for the WHL, maybe that means you only play the teams within your division. Forget the virus, would you want to send your teenager to Portland or Seattle to play hockey with their unsettled social situations? That would be a hard pass for me, I’d much rather deal with Covid. Cohorting in a league like the SJHL would be interesting to say the least. You could be looking at three teams branching off and playing each other for a month at a time and going with an unbalanced schedule.
8 – SHOTGUN START – If/when hockey comes back will all leagues and all age groups be allowed to start at the same time? I’m, personally, not an advocate for that just because it’s a lot of traffic in rinks from morning to night instantly as soon as it gets green lighted. It doesn’t matter to me who goes first as long as someone is allowed to get going. My vote would be for the U18 AAA to go first. Is that what we are calling it instead of Midget? Anyways, with those kids in school September 8th, it only makes sense to me for these players to get started prior to October 1st.
9 – CITY IMPATIENCE? – I also wonder if we don’t see a municipal government, at some point, say ‘Hey look this is our hockey arena and we’ve had no cases in our community since March. Keeping this closed today makes no sense so we are going ahead and reopening and putting our own protocols in place to maintain social distancing and cleanliness’.
10 – NFL FANS – Here’s the latest on what NFL teams plan to do as far as fans are concerned: Week one is slated for September 10th. No fans all season – Chicago, Vegas, and Washington. Dummies to make this proclamation today. But whatever. Kill your business if you wish. No fans until further notice (which seems a lot smarter) – New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia. No fans for first two games – Denver and San Francisco. No fans in September – Atlanta, Buffalo, Detroit, Green Bay, Houston, Minnesota, New England, New Orleans, Seattle, Tennessee. Admitting fans but unspecified capacity – Cincinnati, Dallas, Pittsburgh. Other teams allowing fans with capacity in brackets – Baltimore (10.5), Miami (20), Kansas City (22), Indianapolis (25), Jacksonville (25). No plan announced – Cleveland, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Arizona. For what it’s worth, a couple of coaches are already ticked that they have to be in empty stadiums and their competition may not be.
(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)
