THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. RIDER FANS LUCK OUT WITH BC STRUGGLES: It is nothing short of a miracle that the Saskatchewan Roughriders aren’t dead and buried already in the CFL west division playoff race.

The BC Lions level of stink under their shiny new $3-million dollar quarterback is astonishing and quite frankly, giving Rider nation more hope than anything we have seen thus far from the Riders themselves. All Saskatchewan has to do, is hold serve with this lackluster bunch and keep pace until labour day in order to build the necessary confidence to duke it out until the bitter end for that crossover 4^thplayoff spot. A sweep of this home-and-home with the Leos would be a god-send and looks do-able at this point. At least a split is a downright necessity.

Or else this whole thing could get really ugly. And fast.

2. ROUGHRIDERS STILL SEARCHING IDENTITY: Like many of you, I’m rooting for Craig Dickenson, as likeable of a sports coach you will ever find. But we still haven’t figured out what his identity is or that of the football team he’s coaching. This is THE SPORT where teams truly do adopt the personality of their head coaches and nowhere has that been better on display than right here in the ‘306’.

Danny Barrett was decent but inconsistent as a CFL quarterback, just like his Rider squads from 2000-2006. Future Hall of Famer Kent Austin was a perfectionist and hated losing as a CFL quarterback, just like the 2007 Grey Cup Champion Roughriders he coached. The humble and hungry Corey Chamblin did a masterful job of meshing veteran egos together to win the 2013 Grey Cup before his own ego ballooned to the size of Nate Davis and imploded that team thereafter.

The head football coach’s identity is EVERYTHING! We still don’t know what Craig Dickenson’s is but we should have a better idea about the Riders after this home-and-home with BC. A CFL sked is usually broken down into three 6-game segments and this year will be no different.

3. ATTACKS ON KAVIS REED UNFAIR: He handled the 13^thman fiasco like a champ in 2009 and tried to make the best of a very difficult situation in Montreal. Good for them to clear the deck for a new owner to make his/her own decisions but to throw Kavis under the bus because he tried to find loopholes in the salary cap or booked flights for personal use on the company dime is nothing short of gutless. Kavis is a good person and will land on his feet somewhere better than the situation he was faced with in Montreal.

4. ARGO SCAPEGOAT: It was Chris Rainey last week and is probably Corey Chamblin and Jim Popp this week but that’s all wrong. It should really be team president Bill Manning who talked a good game when he took over the Argos after their 2017 Grey Cup win, continued to talk a good game when he fired Head Coach Marc Trestman in the middle of the night at the end of last season and continued to talk a good game about putting faith in James Franklin to be his quarterback for 2019. If the Argos turn this around and win a championship in November, Bill Manning can take a bow.

And if they don’t, he can wear that too. 

5. EAST NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL: The Redblacks, Ticats and even the Alouettes all of a sudden look legit. And those teams will all get chances a plenty to get fat off the lowly Toronto Argonauts as the season goes along.

If I’m a Rider fan, which most of us are, this makes me real nervous. The crossover is far from a certainty at this point and sneaking ahead of Calgary, Edmonton or Winnipeg looks like a non-starter.

All of a sudden, things don’t look so bright now that Montreal is getting up off the canvas.

6. TREVOR HARRIS VS MIKE REILLY: Esks look much better under Harris than they did last year under Reilly. I’ve always sensed that Jason Maas preferred Harris from their Ottawa days than he ever did Mike Reilly. Now we’re seeing why.  

7. SOX SNAG FIRST PLACE: 14-2 at home and 10-9 on the road. That could really help the Sox if they end with the best record in theEast and grab homefield advantage through to the finals. Their pitching is by far and away the best in all the land and despite Monday night’s 3-0 loss to the Swift Current 57’s, the Sox still own a share of top spot with the Weyburn Beavers. Looks like this whole thing will come down to the Sox, the Beavers, the 57’s and Okotoks Dawgs.

The rest of ‘em? Get serious. They’re all pretenders.

8. HOW TO GET BACK AT KAWHI: New Balance Athletics is the sneaker shoe manufacturer with recently-departed-from-Canada basketball star Kawhi Leonard under contract. They have been encouraging Kawhi to move to southern California in an effort to better capitalize on that lucrative market.

Well last time I checked, Canada is about the same size as California, population-wise, and if New Balance wants to take us for granted, so be it. Think I’ll stick with Nike and Skechers.

9. RATINGS DO MATTER: It was brought to my attention recently there are still some radio and TV sales people who roam Regina telling business owners who are potential clients that “Ratings don’t matter.”

For real? The amount of listeners/viewers hearing or seeing my ad that I’m buying from you doesn’t matter?

That would be like me owning a bakery and telling you, my customer, that the taste of my cinnamon bun doesn’t matter. My advice: If you’re a radio station or any other medium you are trying to sell ads for and you don’t have ratings or an audience worth bragging about, then go out and invest in some on-air talent. If you’re asking others to invest in your product, then the very least you could do is, exactly that.

Y’er welcome.

10. WEEKLY WISDOM: Life is a garden. Sometimes you have to weed out the bad apples in order for the good stuff to grow. Be fair. Be forgiving. And be open-minded. But if someone is drowning out the good in your world, always remember to weed your garden.

(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)