THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. GREY CUP 2020, IF IT HAPPENS, SHOULD STAY IN REGINA: Even if the Roughriders aren’t in the big game, it should still be held in the Queen City. We’ve got the facility to put on a world-class TV event. And while we’re at it – since there won’t be any gate revenues this season anyway – why not sequester the whole league to one hotel? Rates are probably cheaper here than just about anywhere else. That way you can somewhat isolate the players and don’t need to travel around. And what better way to keep costs down than to use just a few practice facilities around Regina for the entire league? This just makes too much sense. That is, if the league plays at all. The federal government would still need to co-ordinate travel of American players into Canada. And we all know how quickly the federal government moves on anything. By the time they get it all sorted out, we might as well just cancel the season and not even bother.

2. CFL CAN’T BE THAT POOR: If I’m a business owner crying poor because my operating costs are too high, then wouldn’t I be better off not operating at all? I realize these organizations can’t just lay off all coaches and scouting staff, but the bulk of operating expenses comes from player salaries, facility rental and travel. Stuff the CFL doesn’t need to worry about if it doesn’t operate in 2020. The big push to play, even without ticket revenues, tells me the league just isn’t all that broke.

3. PANDEMIC COULD HELP ATLANTIC SCHOONERS: The federal and provincial governments plan to spend a bunch of cash on infrastructure projects to re-ignite the economy coming out of this disaster. Maybe a new football stadium for Halifax, perhaps? Plus, a 10-million-dollar expansion fee from the new franchise would be a nice help in stabilizing the rest of the league coming out of this, too.

4. CHL PLAYERS LAWSUIT: Legislation has been amended to close the loophole that opened the door for a bunch of ex-WHL/OHL/QMJHL players to sue the umbrella organization for not paying proper wages. The plaintiffs will get paid but it will do nothing for future athletes. The players were selfish to sue, but the owners were even more selfish to refuse negotiations with a union in the first place. The union’s big beef was to lift the restriction on using tuition assistance past 1 year after graduation from the CHL. Did you know what you wanted to do at age 21? Me, neither. Shame on the CHL for being so heavy-handed on that issue while bragging about providing world class scholarships. Like the owners, I don’t agree with the lawsuit, but I do think this was a reckoning long overdue.

5. SILVER LINING: I’m learning all kinds of things about yard work, home repairs, books, history and hiking. Stuff I’ve always been certain I was completely incapable of. Discover your silver lining in all of this. It’s out there, somewhere.

6. SPORT I MOST BADLY WANT TO SEE: Baseball. I miss it so much. This was supposed to be my 5^thsummer involved with the Regina Red Sox broadcast crew and we had big plans for 2020. In the blink of an eye, it’s all being taken from us. The vintage Expo games on YouTube have been a big help, but an actual live competition is something I’ve been thirsting over for 2 months now. Missing an entire season is something I’m struggling to comprehend right but it truly is a first-world problem. If this is the biggest issue in any of our lives right now, we’ve still got it pretty good.

7. WHEN IT WILL ALL BE BACK TO NORMAL: Nobody knows for sure. I’m confident that 2020 is pretty well a complete write-off and by 2022, we’ll be back to normal or some semblance of it. The wild card in all this is figuring out what 2021 will look like.

8. WORKING FROM HOME: Sparking a new revolution but also a great reminder of what we take for granted in heading to the office every morning. When my office re-opens back to normal, it will be one of the happiest days of my life. Being the chatty Cathy that I am, I love to visit and I’m not built to hide out at home. I suspect some of you aren’t either.

9. BOB McCOWN’S NEW SHOW: It is absolutely dreadful. Tuned into the first episode on YouTube Monday and it’s Bob chatting with a regular Joe for 5 minutes. Like, why even bother to set up for that? Bobcat is probably North America’s greatest sports talk show host ever, and this would be an awful way for him to go out. Time for Bob and the people around him to come up with a better idea than this.

10. BOOK OF THE WEEK: Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big is that Jose Canseco book you might remember that blew the whistle on baseball’s steroid abusers. It only took me 15 years to get around to it but I finally dug it out and went cover to cover with it over the weekend. There isn’t much going on to keep us entertained these days as you all well know and the book was a good distraction from reality. I just love the fact that ex-teammates he ratted on got so angry but not one of them actually filed any lawsuits over the book. Probably because it was all true! Baseball is doing better now at managing it’s doping problem, largely because the book made them crack down, but don’t be naïve enough to think it will ever disappear completely.

(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)