THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. AMBROSIE SHOULD STOP MOVING START DATE AROUND: An early August start date, as per what the league is proposing right now, seems optimistic at best. How about instead of getting people’s hopes up with these willy-nilly kickoff dates, why doesn’t the league simply pick a date at the latest possible juncture and cast it in stone? Something like an, oh I dunno maybe Labour Day weekend kickoff, perhaps? Shorten up the season a little bit and plan to open training camps in the first week of August. That way, we all have a much better shot at planning our own schedules around this thing and if for some crazy reason we still can’t get this thing moving by then, it’ll be easy to just cancel the whole thing and prepare for 2022. Enough fooling around with these dates. When you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie is learning that the hard way. Make this as simple as possible and focus on executing.  

2. LEAGUE STILL DOESN’T NEED TO PLAY THIS YEAR: There will be lots of pent up demand whenever the CFL returns. Stating that the league must play this year or die forever would be like saying the Ottawa CFL franchise could never return after two years away. Nonsense. The CFL came back after an eight year absence in our nation’s capital and it came back stronger than it ever was before.  

3. CFL NEEDS TO FOCUS ON DIEHARDS, FIRST: Stop listening to people who don’t like the CFL, don’t care about the CFL, mock the CFL and some who would even love to do it harm. Ignoring your diehards is reckless behavior that is dangerous in business, politics and entertainment. When the greatest Canadian quarterback ever, Russ Jackson, says he might give up his Hamilton Ticat season tickets if they mess with the CFL rules, he’s not fooling around. And he’s not the only one.   

4. AMERICAN CITIES THE CFL COULD TRY: For the record, I am absolutely opposed to this idea but also appreciate the discussion of new ideas. I absolutely loved the adventure of the mid-90’s U.S. expansion, as bush-league and dangerously unsustainable as it was. But I’m not quite as opposed to trying American markets as I am to messing with the Canadian rules. Sacramento, CA showed some really encouraging signs when they hosted the Gold Miners in 1993 and 1994 but they couldn’t get a suitable venue to play out of. Shreveport, LA also had some promise being the size of Winnipeg and kind of on an island with a hunger for pro football. San Antonio, Memphis, Birmingham and Las Vegas were, and are, all dead ends for the CFL. Baltimore was a shining success until the NFL came calling. So if the CFL does fool around with that experiment ever again, why not try St. Louis?  

5. ALL YOU ANTI-VAXXERS: You’re just living off of everyone else’s efforts. If you have a medical reason to not get vaccinated, then you should steer clear. If you’re just waiting for everyone to do it so you can be protected without doing your part, then shame on you.

6. HOW PARLIAMENT COULD HELP THE CFL: Use the federal purse to help build new college football stadiums in Quebec City and Halifax. Ottawa showed interest in doing something for Quebec City a few years back and then backed away when learning the stadium could be used for professionals. Who cares? It’s not like these CFL franchises get rich off of anyone, anyways.

7. BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK: $132 on the MLB TV package and you can share it with up to three other people. You get all out of market games anytime. That’s about a dozen ball games per day that you can access. If you can be entertained by baseball, you will have the cheapest entertainment expense of damn near anyone.

8. SPORTING LEGEND I WANT TO MEET THE MOST WHEN THIS ALL CLEARS: George Reed. None of us will be around forever and I hope to have a sit down with number 34 who has seen just about everything in his ten different decades on this earth. Boy if I ever took meeting our heroes in person for granted before, I sure won’t anymore.

9. HAVE YOU SEEN?: The Sylvan Lake Gulls of the Western Canada Baseball League have very nearly completed construction of their brand new state of the art ballpark and the Edmonton Prospects new stadium in Spruce Grove should be ready next year, too. This league is the best in western Canada and in order for our teams in Saskatchewan to keep up and stay relevant, Regina needs to lead the way with our own park that should be the league’s best. Don’t ever think we don’t deserve things as nice as what Alberta has.  

10. TIDBIT OF THE WEEK: Phil Andrews’ 24-game commitment as Voice of the Regina Pats expires this evening when Regina plays Game #24 against Winnipeg. Who do you think the next VOICE OF THE PATS should be? Send me some names and perhaps we can create a twitter poll for who it should be.  

(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)