THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. JON RYAN STILL WANTS TO PLAY: Hard not to admire any player who wants to end on his own terms rather than it ending it in the middle of this nightmare. I tip my hat to Jon Ryan for his determination to play another year after this mess is behind us. It reiterates my point about junior hockey players walking away from it all because of missing out on a season. If that’s enough to make you give up on your dream, then maybe it wasn’t all that important to you in the first place.

2. MOSAIC STADIUM ICE RINK: Looks great. Can’t wait to get out there. The one up at Currie Field looks pretty awesome, too. This is much more spectacular than any outdoor game ever has been.

3. KEION ADAMS SIGNING: The Riders might’ve scored a real coup in snagging the NFL reject to patrol the Saskatchewan linebacking crew/defensive secondary. He’s had some injury problems but if the time off has solved all of that, this could be more about Jeremy O’Day stepping out of the shadow of Chris Jones than it is about anything else. This defence is still the house that Jones built and that will be the 900-pound gorilla in the room until O’Day flips the roster successfully. And that will take some time.

4. ATLANTIC SCHOONERS COULD STILL HAPPEN: Regina’s Gary Drummond, part of the prospective ownership group bidding for the CFL’s first maritime franchise, sure sounds like someone who thinks the CFL team for Halifax might still go ahead. The general consensus has assumed that project to be dead in the water in the wake of the world disaster that we’ve all been living through. But Drummond recently predicted that if a 2021 season goes ahead, an Atlantic Schooners season could be played in 2022, based out of Moncton, New Brunswick. I applaud his enthusiasm and agree that downturns in the economy are the perfect time to do infrastructure projects like a new football stadium. But it still all boils down to the same thing it always has since the start of this whole exercise: Either the people of Nova Scotia want this or they don’t. That is still the $250 million-dollar question we haven’t seen answered.

5. GREY CUP FAVORITE FOR 2021: Hamilton Tiger-Cats, hands down! Jeremiah Masoli will be ready to go after an entire year off and their resolve will be nastier than ever after being denied the opportunity to avenge what happened in Grey Cup 2019, a year later. I expect the Ticats to be like ravenous dogs in 2021.

6. STREVELER STARTING MORE PROOF OF CFL BASHERS INFERIORITY COMPLEX: I once heard a CFL basher lecture me on how he had watched Seneca Wallace perform in a Seattle Seahawks preseason game as their 3^rd-string quarterback and how Wallace would be a much bigger star in Canada than any existing CFL quarterbacks of the day. Really? Seneca Wallace? He couldn’t even get a regular starting assignment down south but yet Chris Streveler, who bombed as a starter in Canada, is all of a sudden good enough to start on an NFL Sunday. Some quarterbacks are better in the NFL than they would be in the CFL and Chris Streveler is a prime example. The CFL is not inferior to the NFL. It’s just different.

7. SEAN PAYTON’S CFL REFERENCE: The New Orleans Saints Head Coach plied his trade as a quarterback with the Ottawa Rough Riders briefly in the late 1980’s. He says his Saints Christmas Day beatdown of the Vikings reminded him of a CFL game by using only two downs to navigate his way down the field. CFL minds have added a lot more to the four-down game then the NFL coaches have added to the CFL. That’s not even up for debate.

8. JASON MAAS: Seems like forever ago he was handed the keys to the Cadillac as new Offensive Coordinator of the Roughriders and we still haven’t seen if he can drive the thing or not. He must be sick of waiting to make his debut in showing us all if he can use Cody Fajardo better than Stephen McAdoo ever could. My guess is that this offence will be better and less conservative. But it will be strange having Jason Maas on our side. He was so much fun to hate when he was with Edmonton.  

9. WORLD JUNIORS: Can’t get into it. Is it because junior hockey seems so unimportant with what’s happening in the world today or is it because the International Ice Hockey Federation has turned this event into a cash-cow rather than a unique amateur international competition? A little from Column A and a little from Column B. I don’t resent them for playing in the middle of COVID-19 but at the same time, I just can’t bring myself to get excited about it, either.

10. DARKHORSE NFL PICK:  The Miami Dolphins. Look like a great team hamstrung by a lackluster quarterback (Tua Tagovailoa) only to be saved by a good, but underappreciated quarterback (Ryan Fitzpatrick). Fitzmagic and the Fish would be a great pick for any gamblers this January. Especially if the payout gives you heavy odds and you keep your wager amounts within reason to keep it fun and not serious. Y’er welcome.

(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)