THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. THE STUPID BOWL: Close finish but other than that, an overhyped crappy football game. Calgary Stampeder coach Dave Dickenson nailed it when he countered CFL critics during the season by pointing out the NFL’s allowing of ticky tack penalties to decide the outcome of close games. Boy did super bowl Sunday ever prove that! It made me even more appreciative of the great Canadian Football League. And the CFL doesn’t reward losing like the NFL does, either. The Cincinnati Bengals are still a disgrace, much more so than any CFL organization, and only made it as far as they did because they sucked badly enough at the right time to draft Joe Burrow. I cheered for the Bengals Sunday for the good people of Cincinnati like Rod’s pal Mo Egger and my old pal/former Estevan Bruin stick boy Perry Wenham. but I still have zero respect for that organization. The owner hires all of his family to run the joint, pays them great bonuses and names the Stadium after his dad. This would be great if it weren’t for the small detail that he (Mike Brown) badly underfunds the football operations, complains to the rest of the NFL that small markets like his need to be subsidized, doesn’t honour any of the hard-working alumni who have made his family rich over the years and consistently delivers a piss poor product to his fan base. I struggle to envision a world in which the Cincinnati Bengals are anything but an embarrassment.       

2. RIDER FREE AGENCY: Of all the new players joining Saskatchewan (Duke doesn’t count because he was already here last year), the biggest wave was easily made with Derrick Moncreif. The new/old Roughrider linebacker who played in one regular season game with the Los Angeles Rams last year says he wants to retire a Roughrider. That’s a pretty cool thing to hear from someone who had a taste of the NFL and is clearly better than plenty of linebackers down there and would still be there if he wasn’t pushing 30. The CFL should focus on mandating more multi-year contracts in exchange for better guaranteed bonuses as a way to help the fan base have superstars like Derrick Moncreif to cling to. All these one-year contracts, like the one given to middle linebacker Darnell Sankey, do nothing to build superstars within your brand. The CFL needs to stop pandering to players thinking about NFL tryouts and focus on athletes who want a long-term career in Canada.     

3. DURON REJOINS CHRIS JONES: Seems ridiculous but that’s kind of the norm for Chris Jones. From signing Vince Young three years after he played a down, flirting with Michael Vick about coming to Saskatchewan, giving Terrell Owens a workout at age 44 and signing both Adarius Bowman and Manny Arceneaux more than two years after their last catches, inking Duron Carter seems like just another in this long line of experiments/publicity stunts that Jones likes to dabble in. I didn’t even include the four games from former NFL high first round pick Trent Richardson a few years back. I admire outside-the-box thinking as much as anyone but until one of these gimmicks actually works, they’ll be laughed at and ridiculed. As they should.     

4. VERNON ADAMS COULD REJOIN CHRIS JONES: Don’t rule it out. V-A is mad at the Alouettes for bringing back Trevor Harris for 2022 and Chris Jones was madly in love with Adams long before anyone else was. And given Jones’ shoddy record of finding a quarterback, he could do a lot worse than put his Elks offence into the hands of Vernon Adams. I base this on no inside knowledge whatsoever but rather just pure speculation. Watch for it and if/when it happens, I told you so.  

5. GAMBLING BRINGS HEADACHE TO THE CFL: I’ve been told by somebody on the IN that one CFL free agent was passed over due to concerns about a gambling addiction. Although I have not had enough sources corroborate this claim to declare it to be fact, I do know it is inevitable that this newfound alliance with the gambling industry will bring its share of problems for the especially vulnerable Canadian Football League. Like in U.S. colleges, some CFL stars don’t get paid tidy sums like they do in the NFL. Are we all naïve enough to think some players won’t be tempted by offers to fall below their personal over-under rushing/passing/catching/tackling marks? I’m not at all suggesting we shouldn’t accept gambling as a new revenue source the CFL so desperately needs but what kind of safeguards do we really have to navigate this brave new world? 

6. OLYMPICS: The curling has been great although some of the camera work has been disappointing. Men’s hockey has been so-so and the women’s hockey has become too much of a two-country event to hold my attention before the gold medal game. Seeing Vladimir Putin at the games after his country was banned from using their name or flag reminded me of the creepy ex-boyfriend stalking some poor woman who had little-to-no interest in him in the first place. Reinforces the narrative that Russia is in disarray and Putin is desperate to show the oligarchs who keep him in power that Russia isn’t a laughingstock on the world stage. Not going to be good for him once they figure it out and decide to move on from him. 

7. CFL NEEDS IMMIGRANT SUPERFAN: The CFL not reaching out to Raptors superfan Nav Bhatia is akin to the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment rejecting overtures from Drake to join the Raptors before Tim Leiweke came on scene. That all eventually changed and the rest is history. The CFL needs some kind of hip connection like that but geared specifically to new Canadians. I’ve been beating this drum on this year for a long time and will continue to do so until the league, and more specially the Argos and Lions make progress in this area.  

8. THIS WEEK I’M JEALOUS OF: Colton Flasch for unseating Matt Dunstone at the tankard in Whitewood over the weekend to represent Saskatchewan at the Brier in Lethbridge. First laying an egg in the Olympic trials and now this, we’re in a curling season that has felt like a trip from the penthouse to the outhouse for Dunstone’s crew. Excited to see what the new crew can do.

9. BRAD HORNUNG: Been a rough few weeks for Regina Pat alumni passing away. First Clark Gillies and now Brad Hornung. It reminds me a bit of 2011 when Derek Boogaard and Rick Rypien both died in a short span of one another. Although I would suggest the circumstances this time around are not quite as sudden or tragic as to what happened 11 years ago, no-one can deny that both Gillies and Hornung died far too young and made an incredible impact on hockey fans around here for decades. I never met either one of them at all but saw Hornung at just about every Pat game I’ve ever attended and was blown away by a TSN piece done on him from years ago which had quotes from then Blackhawks GM Mike Smith explaining how he was also blown away by Brad and had to hire him to their staff. Hornung’s positive outlook on life, despite the horrendous hand that life dealt him, is something that will never be topped. If there’s an alumnus who the organization needs to showcase as someone who embodies the fibre and the fabric of the Regina Pats, it’s Brad Hornung.   

10. QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Those guys should grow up and get a life.” — a local tow truck operator who’s been attacked by the protest convoy for daring to tow one of these trucks away that was illegally blocking people’s access to Albert Street. If any politicians had stones, they would threaten to add one week to the mandates for each day this nonsense continues to disrupt the freedom of ordinary citizens just trying to function. The mandates will end but not because of these jokers.