THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. CODY RESTRUCTURES CONTRACT: Can someone tell me why the CFL announces restructured contracts but refuses to ever explain any details of said restructured contracts? We can usually find out all those details through insiders like 3 Down Nation’s Justin Dunk, anyway. But it’s almost like “We’d like to announce that we’ve made a change but aren’t going to tell you what that change is.” How exciting!

2. RIDERS SHOULD PURSUE SHILTZ: Alouettes backup Matthew Schiltz has shown as much as either of the Roughriders backup quarterbacks Isaac Harker or Mason Fine. If Schiltz is available, the Riders should consider taking a run at him for a valuable insurance policy for Cody Fajardo.

3. JONES HAS NO QB SOLUTION FOR ELKS: Bidding on Jeremiah Masoli doesn’t inspire confidence that Chris Jones’ quarterback situation will be any better solved in Edmonton than it was in Regina. Will be interesting to see if this trend continues to dog him well beyond his years with Saskatchewan. And by running his mouth about the Riders letting offensive play-caller Stephen McAdoo leave, Chris Jones has kind of put pressure on himself and his staff to put their money where his mouth is and build an offence with the Elks.  

4. TICATS SALE: Knowing Stelco of Hamilton just dropped 20 million dollars for a 40% ownership share of the Tiger-Cats should be enough to tell us all the CFL isn’t going away anytime soon. And the head of Stelco is a minority owner of the Atlanta Falcons, too. Point being: There are rich people galore living in southern Ontario, many of whom would love to own a pro football team. The CFLs ownership situation hasn’t been this good since maybe ever.  

5. BEDARD EXPERIENCE BEING WASTED: Lost his first season which didn’t bother me anyway because I don’t think 15-year-olds should ever be playing in the WHL. This year, the crowds have been lackluster and the Pats might not even make the playoffs. That will probably leave Regina with just one year of decent crowds and a championship contending team with Connor Bedard a part of it. This is the big problem with megastars in junior hockey. If you blink, you just might miss them all together. 

6. TAMPA MONTREAL SISTER CITY PLAN: The woe-is-me attitude I’m hearing from Montrealers and national media about Major League Baseball slamming the door on that ridiculous shared team concept proposed by the Tampa Bay Rays to play half of their home games in Montreal. You might’ve noticed from the photo that appears at the top of this column each week that I’m very passionate about this issue. But I don’t want the Tampreal ExRays or Monpa Raypos. I want the Montreal Expos. And the attention given to this ridiculous idea by some of the most prominent Canadian media blows me away. Fans, business leaders and politicians in Montreal should be able to figure this out easily. If they want to prove a point by telling Major League Baseball that it’s wrong to use public money to build pro stadiums, that’s fine. But if MLB never returns to Montreal, it will have everything to do with the defeatist attitude in that town and lack of will in that province to make it happen. It has nothing to do with anything Major League Baseball ever did. 

7. NFL OVERTIME RULES A DISGRACE: The celebration from Chiefs fans I saw on Sunday when they won the coin toss was embarrassing. The CFL has the best overtime rules, hands down. But you’ll never hear that from the CFL haters. 

8. SCOTTIES: Cheering for Nunavut to finally win a game. They even have a skip from Nova Scotia to move that operation along. I’ve always said we should send Russ Howard or someone up there to teach those folks how to curl. I like the format in the Scotties and hope they do something to make all of the territories more competitive to ensure we don’t lose it. 

9. THIS WEEK I’M JEALOUS OF: Kerri Einarson. The Team Canada skip is quietly steamrolling her way to a 3^rdstraight Canadian title and she’s doing it with so much enthusiasm you feel like you just might want to cheer her on even though she is from Manitoba.  

10. REGINA BYPASS: If there was ever a time to be thankful for it, it was Saturday afternoon. After experiencing a half hour delay to getting home because of other truck traffic in the city, I discovered the real truckers out on the bypass doing their job safely and quietly while not holding up flags with middle fingers or honking their horns or bothering anyone. I salute those truckers happy to go to work every day like the rest of us. 

(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)