THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. BOOMER ESIASON’S CFL BASHING: This is nothing new, really. Boomer once interviewed Doug Flutie during Flutie Magic in Buffalo in the late 90s when he said “Boy it’s too bad you wasted so much time in Canada.” Doug, to his credit, responded with something to the effect of, and I’m paraphrasing here, “It wasn’t a waste of time. It’s legit football up there.” Apparently, Boomer didn’t get the memo. He was too busy hosting that awful radio show with that awful cohost of his (Craig Carton just got out of jail for a ponzi scheme conviction) to pay attention to anything happening in the Canadian Football League. As evidenced by his split from Al Michaels on Monday Night Football about 20 years ago, Boomer is all about Boomer and his CFL bashing over Chris Streveler’s interception Sunday is nothing personal. It says more about Boomer Esiason than it does about the CFL.

2. STEVE SARKISIAN’S REGINA STOP: The University of Texas Longhorns new head coach has recovered from a nasty ending to his last head coaching job when he was fired from USC caused by his alcoholism more than five years ago. It’s great to see a comeback and even greater to see it from an ex-Rider QB. Bill Toffan, who used to co-host 104.9 The Wolf’s popular Bill & Jeff morning show used to tell me stories about Sarkisian, then a lowly 3^rd string quarterback, bringing the radio guys slurpees from 7-11 for his weekly early-morning radio appearance. Needless to say, backup jocks doing slurpee runs for a radio deejay in Regina going on to coach a prolific NCAA program would be a very short list. Always appreciate your humble beginnings.  

3. STILL EXPECTING A FALL KICKOFF: There’s so much pressure on our governments to ramp up vaccinations that it’s hard to imagine being at less than 50% complete by Labour Day. That should be enough to allow at least partial crowds to assemble at stadiums across the country. My optimism for this is growing and I’ll be surprised if we go another year without pro football in this country.

4. GEROY SIMON WANTING TO BE LIONS GM: If the Leos were the least bit interested in handing Geroy the keys to the Cadillac, though the BC Lions have looked more like a Volvo lately, they would have done it already. End of story.

5. HALIFAX GREY CUP: I’ve suggested the league think about an American Grey Cup in some warm weather destination and it was met with heavy scorn and ridicule. But here’s another one: If we get a shortened season in 2021, with reduced crowd sizes, why not play the Cup in the Maritimes? Would make cities like Hamilton and Regina feel like their next Grey Cup hosting will be from a legit full season and maybe kickstart some badly needed momentum for this Atlantic Schooners thing. Think about it.

6. CANADIAN KICKERS: Interesting op-ed piece on 3 Down Nation by retired Stampeders punter Rob Maver over the weekend. Not surprising to see he is very much against Commissioner Ambrosie’s CFL 2.0 initiative to recruit more global players from outside of North America. The plethora of Canadian kickers we see today even catches the attention of the NFL and has created lots of opportunities outside of the CFL for these players. This global initiative should be scrapped immediately and replaced with a new focus on finally, once and for all, developing that first Canadian star quarterback in more than 50 years.   

7. COVID RESTRICTIONS: I support our government’s efforts to keep our case counts down and don’t think preventing our healthcare system from being overrun is any less important than the Yorkton Terriers getting to play. At the same time, I’m finding it hard to criticize people bending the rules by gathering to play hockey or quietly slipping out of the country. This has been rough on all of us. And although some would have you believe the contrary, we are all in this together.

8. WORLD JUNIORS: Three shutouts for Canada is great but not going to excite me enough to watch the gold medal game Tuesday night. I’ll be out walking the dog, getting some extra office work done and maybe a nap. Glad they’re playing to keep us entertained with something but the entertainment product isn’t enough to hold my attention. (YAWN)

9. TRUMP: Not surprised at his ridiculous antics but utterly appalled at the 150 or so Congressmen actually pandering to his deplorable comments by rejecting the United States election results. A reminder of how much lucky we are to live in Canada but I do long for the days when we can look to our friends south of the border for leadership again.

10. BOOK OF THE WEEK: This is the first time I’ve endorsed the same book on three separate occasions through this platform. I don’t plan to make a habit of this but The HARASEN LINE is a read that I finally completed in its entirety over the past week and must say it connects the dots to the past 60-some years of broadcasting, journalism, politics, agriculture and sports for Saskatchewan in a way no other book or video has. A great COVID-19 time-killing read for any resident in our province who has either grown up here or is new to the prairies.

(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)