THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. TO ALL OF THOSE DEFENDING ANDREW HARRIS: I’m hearing explanations ranging from, “He’s a good guy” to “He wouldn’t do that on purpose” to “He’s really important to what they (the Bombers) do.” 

Why does any of that matter and how does it make him any less of a cheater?

We either have zero tolerance for Performance Enhancing Drugs or we don’t. We have drug testing for a reason and if we give players who cheat a slap on the wrist, like we are in letting Andrew Harris off with a 2-game suspension, we are forcing all players to either cheat, themselves, or risk falling behind.

The only travesty in Andrew Harris testing positive is that he’s allowed to return after 2 weeks. If I was chief for a day, it’d be more like 2 months.

2. FAVORITE LABOUR DAY MEMORY: 1994. Quarterback Keithen McCant started in place of an injured Matt Dunigan and was driving for a Winnipeg game-winning touchdown when someone (I think it was linebacker Ray Bernard but not sure) tipped an endzone pass into Dan Rashovich’s hands who rumbled 100+ yards to the other endzone for the game-clinching score in a 42-31 final. Most Rider historians talk about the 90s like it was some kind of a wasteland. Not true. Some of my greatest Roughrider memories happened in that decade.

3. FAVORITE BANJO BOWL MEMORY: 2011. The Riders had just fired Greg Marshall as their head coach (and thank goodness they did) and replaced him with Ken Miller. Grandpa Kenny and his 2-7 juggernaut rolled into the old Canad Inns Stadium and pulled out a 45-23 upset. Darian Durant got into some trash-talk with Blue Bomber fans, my “Welcome back Winnipeg Jets, 17 more years of suck” sign got attacked in the parking lot and our 5-and-a-half hour drive home suddenly became a lot shorter. Predictably, the good feelings didn’t last as the Riders waddled to a 5-13 finish the rest of the way and Buck Pierce’s Bombers under Paul Lapolice would lose the 2011 Grey Cup to the BC Lions. 

4. ONLY WILLIE JEFFERSON STANDS IN THE WAY OF A SWEEP: Some great stunting from the guy who has the quickest feet I have EVER seen out of a defensive end. If only they could come up with an answer for him (don’t ask me), then the Riders should be able to cruise to a sweep of this home-and-home. Both quarterbacks played well in the Labour Day Classic but Cody Fajardo’s stats didn’t look great, solely because of the time Willie Jefferson spent in his face. The Rider O-line didn’t play poorly or anything. Like so many other teams have found out, they just didn’t have an answer for number 5, Willie Jefferson.

5. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAST YEAR AND THIS YEAR: Records are on par to end up similar but the biggest difference I see is that last year’s team was built so heavily on its defense and special teams. This year’s defense isn’t quite so dominant and Jon Ryan keeps over-kicking through the endzone for single points. But the rouges do add up, the defense is still pretty good, and Cody Fajardo looks the part in a way last year’s starter, Zach Collaros, never did. Zach always looked like he had just seen a ghost. Cody Fajardo is always in a rush to get his next drive started. Having a leader who has his mojo going like that makes a big, big difference. 

6. ISN’T IT ODD: We call a game ‘The Labour Day Classic’ even though it isn’t actually played on Labour Day?

7. KENT AUSTIN A PERFECT FIT FOR BC LIONS: He’s ready for this new challenge to be a head coach again and did win a Grey Cup as a quarterback for that franchise in ’94 so he might have a little BC Place Magic left in him. The Leos should hire Austin to replace DeVone Claybrooks at the end of the season because Kent will know how to get the most out of Mike Reilly. He never was GM material so let him focus on being the head coach and don’t bombard him with all that stress like they did in Hamilton. It makes too much sense for this not to happen. And besides, like Trudeau in the last election, we’re seeing that DeVone Claybrooks ‘just isn’t ready’. The only problem with this theory is that Kent is currently the Offensive Coordinator at Liberty College.

8. FEDERAL ELECTION: Trudeau wasn’t and still isn’t ready. But, sadly, neither are the other 2 guys. Jagmeet Singh will play the race card or accuse you of harassment if you dare question him. Andrew Scheer won’t clarify his views on abortion or march in the Pride Parade, which is a deal-breaker for me. Think I’ll just go ahead and vote for Ralph Goodale again.

9. HALIFAX NEEDS THE CFL: Great documentary on CBC about Northern Pulp in jeopardy of needing to close its pulp and paper mill in Nova Scotia by the end of January unless it can come up with a better plan for where to dump its wastewater. This would be a crushing blow to that province’s economy and their economy isn’t real strong as it is. The thousands of jobs created by construction of a new football stadium to go along with the excitement generated by having a team to call their own would all come as a welcome distraction for Nova Scotians. This is going to happen. Not a matter of ‘if’ but rather ‘when’.   

10. WHAT I MISS ABOUT TAYLOR FIELD: Damn near nothing. I was one of the many who were vehemently opposed to the idea of building the new stadium through flushing hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain for a comfy seat 10 days out of the year. But I have since seen the error in my ways in realizing we were going to have to do something eventually anyways and they did do it right. But I do miss the view of Regina’s skyline like the SGI Building and the twin towers. It’s a small thing, I know, but when they build the new baseball park, they should do it on the south side of the Dewdney strip with the stands facing south so everyone gets the Folk Fest experience of a front row seat to Regina’s downtown. 

(Follow Brendan McGuire on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)