THE MONDAY MORNING GOALIE
BREAKING NEWS, RANDOM THOUGHTS AND A CONTEST AT THE END
Kansas City, here he comes.
620 CKRM Sports can confirm Weston Dressler heads to Kansas City, Missouri today for his first-ever NFL tryout and it comes with the Kansas City Chiefs. The workout is scheduled for Tuesday.
The identity of the team giving the popular Roughrider slotback a tryout has been closely guarded but we learned who it was over the weekend and got the green light to report that it is indeed the Chiefs.
Dressler, a Bismarck, North Dakota product, has spent the past six seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and has reached a thousand yards receiving in all but one and that was 2009 when he broke his ankle in October on his way to a thousand yards.
The 27-year old already has a Hall of Fame-worthy resume including being named CFL All-Canadian the past two years, a four-time West Division All-Star, the Roughriders’ MVP in 2012 and was the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie in 2008. He’s also appeared in two Grey Cups, winning one.
The UND grad will be trying out for an NFL team which lost in the first round of the playoffs 45-44 in Indianapolis last weekend after a stellar 11-5 campaign. It’s not known if the Chiefs are looking at Dressler as a receiver or as a returner, but he stands a good shot at both positions. The Chiefs never had a thousand yard receiver this year and as far as Weston’s size goes – he’s 5’7″, 179 lbs – that puts him at about the same dimensions as the Chiefs’ leading punt returner, 5-foot-8, 172 lb Dexter McCluster who, before coming to Kansas City, starred with Kent Austin’s Ole Miss Runnin’ Rebels.
Dressler’s CFL contract with the Roughriders is due to expire on February 15 and that’s when he’s eligible to sign with any pro team in North America.
* Amidst the Dressler news, last week the Roughriders added to their negotiation list wide receiver Greg Hardin from the University of North Dakota. The 5’11”, 177 lb wideout from Bellevue, Nebraska had 14 touchdowns during the 2012 season which tied him with Dressler in the UND record books. The Riders may have to wait on Hardin however as he stands a good shot at going in the 2014 NFL Draft.
* The second leg of the Roughriders’ Grey Cup Tour is in full swing. The Cup headed to northern Saskatchewan on the weekend with stops in Macklin (Saturday), Kindersley (Sunday) and today fans will get to see the Cup in Rosetown.
* The Grey Cup is not in Regina but the Stanley Cup will be on Tuesday. Lord Stanley will be at the Wickenheiser Arena Tuesday from 6:00-9:00 AM for photos and there will be a free breakfast and free hot chocolate.
* The Winnipeg Blue Bombers plan to announce their full coaching staff by the end of January. Rookie head coach Mike O’Shea still has to hire a defensive coordinator, offensive line coach and QB coach. A report out of Winnipeg last week said there are four candidates on O’Shea’s shortlist for the DC job.
* The BC Lions may be getting ready to say their good-byes to receiver Nick Moore. The pending free agent has worked out for Minnesota, Houston and San Diego.
* On Friday we noted that Montreal Alouettes Coach and GM Jim Popp may be eyeing the vacant GM’s position with the Miami Dolphins. However the first wave of interviews included Steelers Director of Football Operations Omar Khan, Cardinals VP of Player Personnel Jason Licht and Dolphins Assistant GM Brian Gaine.
* Jim Popp is a season ticket holder for the Carolina Panthers.
* The social media incident which Rider tailback Kory Sheets found himself embroiled in last week wasn’t, and isn’t, news. What it is, is very unfortunate. It’s probably too late now but I vote all leagues forbid their players from having Facebook and Twitter accounts, and the like. It may be an infringement on their personal rights but it would clear up a massive amount of needless problems.
* It’s Manning versus Brady for another conference championship. The pair has met three times in the post-season with the home quarterback winning each time, and going on to win a Super Bowl. In 2014 they’ll meet in Denver.
* New England’s Bill Belichick earned his 19th career playoff victory Saturday night with a 43-22 win over Indianapolis. He’s one post-season victory back of Tom Landry for the most in NFL history. Or as they call him in Dallas, “Coach Landry”.
* A Wall Street Journal article reported last week that Belichick smiles once every 16 minutes.
* The early Quote of the Week comes from the NFL on Fox’s Troy Aikman who noted on Sunday, “No matter what you’ve accomplished, there’s always someone waiting to tell you what you haven’t done.”
* Congratulations to our new-found friend Marcus Allen! The 53-year old Pro Football Hall of Famer welcomed a baby boy late last week. We got to know Marcus at November’s Grey Cup in Regina. His brother Damon is a Canadian Football Hall of Famer.
* How refreshing it is to see the roll on which the Regina Pats currently find themselves. The Queen City Kids have points in their past five games and have nudged their way into a tie for fourth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. They’re also only one point back of the division lead. The Pats are off until Friday when they host the Kootenay Ice on Rogers Sportsnet. The buzz around the Pats in town these days is ultra-positive and as one WHL insider said on the weekend, “Kudos to Chad Lang. He’s made the team better”.
* Sad to see the firing of Claude Noel as coach of the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday. I don’t know if I agree with his comment, but TSN’s Steve Simmons took aim at Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff (a Blaine Lake, SK product) on The Reporters on Sunday. Simmons said, “It’s going to hang on Cheveldayoff who’s done very little to that roster since he took over. He’s been an inactive GM. He hasn’t helped his coach at all”.
* Show host Dave Hodge put the Calgary Flames in his crosshairs saying the team’s offensive woes during their six-game home losing streak are “worse than embarrassing”. That losing streak is a club record.
* Still shaking my head at the comments by Oilers coach Dallas Eakins who called out a reporter for noticing the only NHL team Sidney Crosby hadn’t scored against was Edmonton. That ended Friday night when Crosby notched a goal and a helper and Eakins said after the game, “Whoever pointed that out, thanks a lot”.
* It seems if you combined the Oilers’ talent and the Flames’ work ethic, you’d have a first-place team and a Stanley Cup contender.
* Who knows how long it will take but Brian Burke will turn the Flames around. He built the Canucks, Ducks and last year’s playoff Leafs. They got the right guy.
* Racehorse Midnight Hawk battled Kristo around the track before taking the lead coming out of the stretch in a 1 3/4-length victory Saturday in the $100,000 Sham Stakes, an early prep on the road to the Kentucky Derby. The 3-year-old grey colt is co-owned by Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville and newly hired Atlanta Falcons offensive line coach Mike Tice, who was on hand at Santa Anita. You always wonder where these relationships are formed.
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FINALLY, THE CONTEST
* It’s the Rodpedersen.com Mosaic Place contest! Enter to win four tickets to Blue Rodeo who’s appearing in Moose Jaw on Tuesday, January 21. Simply text ‘Mosaic’ to 393939. The winner will be randomly drawn from entries up until 5:00 pm today. For a full listing of Mosaic place events please visit www.mosaicplace.ca.
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THAT’S ALL! HAVE A GREAT SPORTSCAGE WEEK!
RP
@sportscage
It may be picky, but Macklin, Kindersley and Rosetown are not northern Saskatchewan. West Central, yes, but far from being in the north.
And players should be able to be on Twitter and Facebook. League policies also need to reflect that other people behave very badly on social media. Players need to be aware of what they are saying, but banning isn't a solution.
Brian Burke is a clown. I'm getting my Monday Morning hate on. haha.
Sorry about that man. To us anything north of Davidson is "northern Saskatchewan".
Sorry about that man. Anything north of "Chamberlain" is "northern Saskatchewan".
Sorry about that man, anything north of "Weigh Scales Hwy 11just past Ipsco" is "northern Saskatchewan".
Combine Oilers' talent with the Flames' work effort and you may get a playoff contender – a first place team and a Stanley Cup contender is a bit of a stretch. Edmonton's talent isn't that good – no D or goaltending.
Tough to be a Flames fan at the moment as they have lost 7 of 8 games since the Christmas break and have been shut-out in 5 of those losses. There are several players in the league who have scored more goals than the 6 goals tallied by the entire Flames team since Christmas.
The Oilers should send Ralph a hand written apology to Ralph Kreuger and ask him to come back and relieve Dallas Eakens of his job. But they won't and they'll be the same sorry bunch until Daryl Katz wakes up and ditches Kevin Lowe.
You can't ban players from Twitter/Facebook/Social media. the league already struggles to have fans engaged with the individual players. They need to market the individual players for the good of the league, blocking social media will be the opposite. Does the league offer any tools for the players for dealing with incidents such as this? Training on how to respond to negative fan interactions, etc. Reality is, if you have a job where people pay to watch you, you are going to get this, social media, out in public, etc. If the league had some training in place to help… Read more »
Read a book by Dr. Henry Cloud published in 1992 entitled, "Boundaries". There is an entire series of books he published which provide coping mechanisms to set boundaries and limit behaviour you deem to have crossed your personal property line.
That's the best training you can get, and another wise man once said, "Are these people coming to your funeral?". If the answer is no, then the advice I was given was, "F$#$ 'em."
Words to live by.
Obama
Let's not order the ticker tape for the Pats just yet. The team has won a few games but it's too early to tell what they've really accomplished. The team has some tough patches ahead. they play Kootenay then PA, Calgary and Edmonton on the road. Let's maybe make another assessment after those four games. The Pats have had a hard time regularly beating teams ahead of them. If that trend continues then battling for a playoff spot is where they'll find themselves. It's far too early to say if the trades have really helped, even from an "insider". McVeigh… Read more »
Just checked the midterm draft rankings and there's not one Pat listed among the 217 North American skaters. Notwithstanding, the Eastern Division is well represented with 15 players listed among the top 143 (Brandon 3, Moose Jaw 3, Swift Current 4, Prince Albert 2 and Saskatoon 3.) Draw your own conclusions.
Just checked the mid-season draft rankings and there's not a Pat to be found among the 217 North American skaters listed. Notwithstanding, the Eastern Conference is well represented with 15 players listed among the top 143 (Brandon 3, Swift Current 4, Moose Jaw 3, Prince Albert 2, Saskatoon 3). Draw your own conclusions.
I wish nothing but the best for Weston Dressler, but displacing McCluster, that might be a stretch….however I see McCluster is a free agent, so maybe this is just KC playing. Dressler would be cheaper, for one and give them a back up plan should they not be able to re-sign and 2nd shows McCluster camp that they have options. I hope Dressler is not just a pawn
Social media flare-ups are bound to happen, particularly with highly testosterone charged athletes and youth who follow them. I agree that the league should have a mandated training course and protocol in place.
Athletes also have to understand sometimes you take the good with the bad. When a player is stranded and wants a two hour ride home (for free), and gets it through the same medium it's food for thought. Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.
Eakins is a sorry excuse for a NHL Head Coach I said when the Oilers hired him that he would be fired before the seasons end and back in the AHL where he belongs. He has had way to many retard comments in the media and this recent 1 just adds to it.
The Flames may not be a talent bunch but they play a much more entertaining brand of hockey then the Oilers could ever dream of… too bad Eberle's career is rotting away in Edmonton I hope he gets traded so I can finally get an Eberle jersey
Getting shut out on the regular is entertaining? Go Flames I guess.
I'm amazed that Eakins is still around after the way he slammed the fan that threw his jersey. Lowe and MacTavish went into serious damage control after that one.
Eberle's career is wasting away in Edmonton plain and simple. He needs out and the sooner the better. He's been on the #1 line producing then he's booted of to the #2 line with various linemates while Eakins experiments. Sometimes he's on the 2.5 line, sometimes back for a shift on the #1 line. You can see from his facial expressions he just hates it. He can't find any chemistry. This is a sad sack team run by sad sack management and coached by sad sack coaches. Hopefully Philly slides a lot and they resurrect that proposed trade from November.… Read more »
Good Luck Weston!
Wiki:
Douglas J. Dressler (born August 19, 1948 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania) is a former professional American football player who played running back for five seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the New England Patriots.