THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE
1. MEXICO WRONG PRIORITY FOR CFL: The fact we’re even discussing this is ridiculous. No disrespect to new Roughrider receiver Rene Francisco Brassea for being drafted in this PR scam, but what on earth could possibly be Commissioner Randy Ambrosie’s endgame with this Mexican draft?
In an offseason chalk full of labour unrest, an unfinished expansion deal for Halifax and still no strategy to attract Canada’s immigrant population, the CFL board of governors is wasting all of this time poring over an estimated 18 prospects with any real shot of ever cracking a CFL roster. That’s 2 per team. Seriously?
So, the real question here has to be asked: Is the Mexican football governing body or Mexican government writing a cheque to the league office to do this?
Why else would our league waste so much time in one of the most-important-ever offseasons in CFL history on this?
There just has to be a side deal they’re not telling us about.
2. JOHN MURPHY WITH THE ARGOS: Photos emerging from the aforementioned PR scam showed ex-Rider PR maven John Murphy sitting at the Argos table. Funny how the Coaches cap meant we couldn’t afford ‘Murph’ but the Toronto Argonauts could.
Bottom line: Chris Jones was ready to move on from John Murphy to Paul Jones.
3. COACHES STILL WILDLY OVERPAID: It came up on Friday’s Sportscage again. CFL coaches were mostly paid and treated like garbage in the 1990’s. Staffs were capped at usually 7 coaches total and sometimes even less. The result: Only the finest era of football we’ve ever seen north of the border. The on-field benefit from all of these highly paid coaches in the last 10 years has been negligible.
4. WHINEY JASON MAAS: Love having Jason Maas still in Edmonton because he makes it so easy to throw stones at the Eskimos. Now he’s whining about the playoff format as if that’s to blame for his failure to lead his team out of last place, despite having the greatest quarterback in the league. Would love to see how many games the Esks would lose in 2019 if Mike Reilly wakes up one February morning and decides he’d rather live in Regina.
5. KLIFF KINGSBURY: Ryan Dinwiddie’s Blue Bomber backup in their Grey Cup 2007 loss to Saskatchewan is now calling shots for the Arizona Cardinals. Just the latest CFL quarterback benchwarmer to strike it big with a headset down south. Sean Payton, Jason Garrett, June Jones, Jeff Tedford, Steve Sarkisian and Mike McCoy have all gone from the Canadian quarterbacking outhouse the NFL/NCAA penthouse. I’ve heard just about all of them credit their experience in the CFL for getting there.
That’s pretty cool. Pretty awesome thing we have up here. Too bad not enough Canadians don’t even know it.
6. CREATIVE QB CALLS: The ‘Halle Berry’ audible and snap calls from L.A. Rams quarterback Jared Goff lately reminded me of something I’ve wondered about forever.
Why don’t all teams do that?
Start naming plays after random ex-Roughriders or forgotten local celebrities! I mean we don’t have too many Halle Berry’s in the 306 like they do in Hollywood but I just have to think hearing whoever our quarterback in 2019 hollering for a ‘Dick Assman’ would really add some juice.
7. PATS ARENA JUST FINE: Nice to see the Pats playing nice with the Regina Exhibition Association Limited on extending their lease at the Brandt Centre through 2023. It’s a welcome change from the constant whining of the Brent Parker era and the arena, while not perfect, is plenty adequate for anything we need here. I’m all for thinking big and talking about a new arena but just don’t use our tax dollars or even think about switching locations. It’s perfect right where it is.
8. HUMBOLDT DRIVER: Jaskirat Singh Sidhu has handled himself as well as anyone could have since the disaster of April 6th. Hopefully he gets less than 2 years, like one prominent Regina defense attorney suggested recently, and then gets a chance to meet with at least some of the victims so he can repay his debt to society and be forgiven. We all make mistakes in our jobs. Most of us don’t pay for it the way Sidhu or the victims have.
9. TAYLOR KEAST: A nice story for the La Ronge Ice Wolves to use a female goalie as their emergency backup over the weekend. I don’t expect it to be a common occurrence but can’t understand why we don’t have female refs in the SJHL, WHL or NHL. Woman have been constantly proven to be smarter than men so what gives?
10. THE CONNORS: So much better without Roseanne!
