Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

3 – RIDERS INTERNALLY – While I choose to believe that Mace is a good thing for the Riders, that doesn’t change the fact there is still a lot wrong with this organization. Let’s be honest here. The Riders are, usually, quite sensitive to what’s being said about them in public and won’t stand for messaging they don’t approve of when it’s done by their official and unofficial staff. To that end, I’m told part of the radio postgame show last week targeted fans who left the game early because the Riders were trailing by a significant amount and they missed a potential comeback. Fifteen years ago, it would not be acceptable to blame the fans for anything.  Their financial and personal investment into the team was treasured and, often, publicly acknowledged.  That is long gone. Professional sports teams are playing a dangerous game criticizing their customers. We saw during Covid when the Riders introduced their vax pass (before the government made it mandatory) and proclaimed that every person who refused to go would be replaced by ten others who would (that was false by the way). The fans are the ones who have the hammer in this relationship and they’ve come to realize it.  Blasting them for leaving early after they pay for a ticket and are free to leave whenever they want, is not good business.  When you suggest they aren’t real fans, you run the risk of finding out what you have for ‘real’ fans as the ones you insulted may just decide to stay home.  When Edmonton’s President called down their fans as old and white, nobody showed up to the games and the suits sit around the business table scratching their heads wondering why.  Further evidence that just because you are well educated, doesn’t necessarily mean you are smart.

4 – JETS – The Winnipeg Jets are another team going down this dangerous path.  Once or twice a year they threaten to leave town because not every game is sold out.  In the mid 1990s when everyone could afford to go to a game, this wasn’t a bad strategy.  Now, ticket prices are so expensive that a lot of people who buy them are buying them knowing full well they aren’t getting equal value in return but want to support a professional franchise in their city.  When that is met with lecturing from a billionaire owner, it’s not hard for me to understand that fans, collectively, say ‘don’t let the door hit you on the way out’ as a response.  

5 – OILERS CORNERSTONES – The Edmonton Oilers have locked up both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to long term contracts despite Edmonton, supposedly, being the second worst place to live in the NHL.  The long held argument that players don’t want to play in certain cities is, simply, untrue.  Players want to play where they can win.  If they know they can’t win, then all teams in Canada go to the bottom of the list for a litany of reasons I don’t need to get into here but even the Canadian born ones don’t want to be here unless their Cup odds are in their favor.  The whining in Winnipeg about it being a market where it’s impossible to win because they can’t attract players just isn’t something I subscribe to.  Change the culture and the players will come despite it being an unattractive city in an increasingly unattractive country.  It’s that simple.

6 – RUSH EXPANSION DRAFT – The Saskatchewan Rush brought back defender Matt Hossack in the Panther City dispersal draft on Monday.  Hossack led the PCLC in loose balls and his veteran presence will be of tremendous benefit for a young Rush team set to take another step towards, once again, being a NLL contender.  The Rush also added Evan Messenger (cousin to Mike) with their second pick.  I wanted the Rush to focus on face-offs during the offseason but it appears as though Mike Messenger is going to get another crack at it although Hossack does have a bit of experience in that area as well.

7 – RUSH FREE AGENCY – It’s also being reported the Rush are signing free agent Austin Shanks, recently of the Halifax Thunderbirds.  Shanks put up 85-points last season, which would have put him one ahead of Zach Manns and good enough for third overall if he was playing for the Rush last season so this acquisition would be significant to say the least.  Shanks had 13-points in 2-games against Saskatchewan this past season.  He could be the perfect complement to Robert Church on the right side as the Rush look to have a little bit more balance in their units.

8 – NFL SEASON – The NFL is back and after watching Thursday night’s season opener between Kansas City and Baltimore as well as Friday night’s game between Green Bay and Philadelphia, I find myself really looking forward to a lazy day on the couch on Sunday.  While it’s hard to imagine a team winning three straight Super Bowls, I don’t really have a strong alternative to the Chiefs in the AFC even though I think there are players on the Chiefs who are focused on things other than football and it may be their downfall.  In the NFC, I’d pick Detroit to advance to the big game but the Lions are just not a franchise one should bet on.  I had the Packers as a bit of a sleeper pick but if Jordan Love misses any amount of time all bets are off.  I am, admittedly, wrong on Love by the way.  I had him as a flop but it appears as though the Packers have their next great QB.

9 – GAUDREAU FAMILY – A little something that I keep hearing that irks me to no end:  when the media talks about the Gaudreau tragedy, it’s always ‘Johnny Gaudreau and his brother’.  His brother has a name.  Matthew, or more affectionately known as Matty.  Just because he wasn’t an NHL superstar doesn’t mean he was any less important.  Having said that, he was a former player in the USHL with Omaha, spent four years at Boston College, and played in the minor pro ranks for four years.  He was 29-years-old and had a lot of life in front of him.  This issue is one of many that I have with a lot of the mainstream media folks today.  They are lazy, lack empathy, and have been poorly trained.  And, while I get that Gaudreau was well known, the deaths of these two young men shouldn’t hit home with people in Saskatchewan more than the death of a child, who was one of four people hit by a drunk driver near Kamsack a couple weeks ago.  We are so caught up in the world of celebrity that we’ve lost all sense of compassion for the common human being that we should be much more related to.

10 – STANLEY BRYANT – It’s been a little over two weeks since Stanley Bryant left a CFL game on a stretcher after suffering a ‘medical event’ that the league later characterized in a very general way as heat exhaustion/dehydration.  Typically, people come back from heat exhaustion within a couple of days and heat stroke can linger for a little more than a week, but Bryant is having a hard time shaking this ‘illness’.  His coach said in a press conference after the last game in which Bryant played that the Offensive Lineman had been feeling ill all week which really makes me wonder why the Bombers put him on the field that night.  To me, they are culpable here.  If they knew he was sick, the onus was on the team to keep him out of the game.  Bryant is 38-years-old, one of the greatest to ever play the position, and one has to wonder if he’s played his last game as a pro.

BONUS: HAPPY ENDING – University of Cincinnati DT Dontay Corleone will start for the Bearcats this weekend after successfully overcoming a normal bout of blood clotting in his lungs that was diagnosed in June.  Corleone was cleared for full contact earlier in the week.  He was a second-team All Big 12 selection last season after finishing with 39-tackles and 3-sacks at nose tackle.  

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)