THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. ROUGHRIDER SEASON OPENER CANADA’S BIGGEST SPORTING EVENT IN 2021 SO FAR:  A packed house that looked normal, sounded normal and felt normal was the greatest sports moment inside of Canada so far this year. Jokes of the CFL folding have swirled around forever but the last 18 months have given us a front row seat to what that would actually look like. And it wasn’t a pretty sight. The CFL’s return, after all the league has been through since Grey Cup 2019, tells me this league isn’t going anywhere. Not now. Not ever. And that’s a wonderful thing. If the pandemic couldn’t destroy it, what else on earth ever could?  

2. SECOND HALF NEAR-COLLAPSE HARDLY CAUSE FOR CONCERN:  Riders being outscored 20-1 in the second half following quarterback Michael Reilly’s return has some naysayers telling us all that Cody Fajardo wouldn’t have beat Reilly one-on-one. That might be true but fact is, we’ll never know. With a big lead of 31-0 late in the first half, the Roughriders eased up on the throttle and let the Lions back into it before hanging on for the 33-29 final. The Riders would have treated the 2nd half much differently on both sides of the football, had the game not been a blowout at that point. Round one of the Fajardo vs Reilly gun fight goes to Saskatchewan, period. That said, it would be nice to see how Fajardo reacts if/when Reilly is counter-punching Saskatchewan’s early scoring drives. Hopefully we’ll get our chance to see the real showdown for a full 60 minutes later this season.    

3. CFL PLAYER COVID PROTOCOLS TRENDING TOWARD UNREASONABLE:  In following the NFL’s lead, the Canadian Football League wants teams to be 85% fully vaccinated, and is threatening players on teams who can’t meet that threshold to withhold their game cheques if a game is cancelled due to COVID issues. And while I support the league’s efforts to get everyone on board with VAXXING UP, it’s important to remember that most of us who have been double-shot could somehow get the virus—likely the delta variant—remain non-symptomatic and nobody would ever know or care. The problem with these guys is that they’re around so many people and are at a much higher risk of having COVID problems. For the most part, it sounds like some fully vaccinated people are getting the delta variant but aren’t actually getting very sick from it. Still a problem for sure but I don’t agree with the league’s position to threaten the players livelihood over something that might or might not be within their own control.   

4. BC LIONS FUMBLE INJURY REPORT:  I have no doubt in the world that the Leos were honest and sincere in expecting Michael Reilly (he wants to be called ‘Michael’ now to honor his late mother) to start week one in Regina. I do however, take issue with them declaring Reilly as the starter rather than as “questionable” on the report. The league office doesn’t need to throw the book at these guys but it does need to lay down the law. The Leos knew Reilly had/has issues with his elbow and still gave an inaccurate depth chart. A small fine should be coming from the league office to make sure this type of nonsense doesn’t keep happening.  

5. VIDEO REVIEW ISN’T MAKING THE GAME BETTER:  Time for an angry, old white guy moment. CJME’s Darrell Davis and I have discussed video review on a couple of occasions and he has suggested all this replay we’ve been layering on since 2006 hasn’t made the game better. And he covered the Rider beat every day for about 20 years in the heyday of the Regina Leader Post. So, he knows what the game looked like inside-and-out before on-field replay and in the 15 years with on-field replay. I’m not quite all the way to launching a movement to get rid of replay all together, but I’m getting close. When Cody Fajardo tried to fight his way out of the end zone Friday night, nobody on earth saw anything wrong with the play. After slow-motion angles galore showing the tackler’s helmet nicking Cody’s helmet, Mosaic Stadium made a big fuss over a perfectly legit tackle. And the refs took more abuse than usual from the drunks in Pil Country too lubricated to understand any rational explanation about the non-call. Then, on Saturday night, I watched the Ottawa Redblacks pull off an amazing rendition of MUSIC CITY MIRACLE PART II, with the kick-returner-pass-to-another-kick-returner run for an electrifying score, only to have replay wipe it out because it might’ve been a forward pass. Video review is there for a reason but there is room to tighten it up. Stick to the one challenge per team per game with no more automatic booth reviews. If the refs screw up, the league office can deal with it by finding better refs. I’m not even sure this will be enough, but it’s a start. That’s why I love the Regina Red Sox games so much. On a stolen base, if the throw beats the runner, the umpire does the dramatic fist punch-out and the crowd goes nuts with rarely a protest from anyone. And on the odd time there is an argument, we all get to enjoy a little entertainment. Enough with the mind-numbing delays and misleading slow-motion replays, already! NOW, GET OFF MY LAWN!      

6. THIS WEEK I’M JEALOUS OF:  Cody Fajardo, of course. The guy has a legit chance to get on the short list of star quarterbacks in the 100-plus-year history of the franchise and is a gunslinger to boot. And, unlike Kent Austin, Kerry Joseph and Darian Durant, Cody seems like he really wants to be here and has yet to engage in any public arguments with the fanbase. He’ll never eclipse Ronnie Lancaster status in this town but aside from that, sky’s the limit if Cody turns out to be as good as some of us think he might be.   

7. BETHEL-THOMPSON SHOULD HAVE ARGOS STARTING JOB:  There’s no WAY Toronto coach Ryan Dinwiddie can bench McLeod Bethel-Thompson after Saturday’s Argo win on the road over the Stamps. I don’t care that McBeth is 32 years old. Football people need to get past this idea that it’s all about age. Kerry Joseph never set foot in Canada until just before his 30th birthday and that worked out okay, didn’t it?     

8. TOKYO OLYMPICS:  I miss it already. Best part was the women’s gold medal soccer game. I literally got a knock at the door just before the game-winning kick, and the visit lasted just long enough for me to miss it. The coronavirus and no fans in the stands didn’t ruin it for me. I loved every second of it.  

9. JAYS POSTSEASON CHASE:  Good trades at the deadline and it looks like Toronto fans are about to be rewarded for missing baseball for the past year and a half. I predict they’ll muscle their way into a wild-card spot and from there, anything can happen. As much as I’m not a fan of team president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins, even I have to admit this two-headed monster has done a nice job of assembling the Blue Jays for this year and at least the next four years beyond.   

10. DID YOU KNOW: Roughrider merchandise still accounts for 50% of the entire CFL and is eclipsed in Canada by only the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks? Kind of embarrassing for the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors, don’t you think? 

(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)