THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. DICKENSON A REFRESHING CHANGE FROM ‘ME-FIRST’ CHRIS JONES: I’m not sure he’s an upgrade over Chris Jones but I can promise you Craig Dickenson wants to be a Roughrider a heckuva lot more than the last guy ever did.

I mean let’s be honest, in the words of CJME’s Murray Wood, “Chris Jones was always about Chris Jones”.

He never planned to be here long and is always thinking about his next stop. That’s where his replacements, Craig Dickenson and Jeremy O’Day, are different. You could see both of these guys settling in here and quite content to live in Regina for life. They both embrace the community and have put down roots here. It’s a big change from the last head coach who lived out of a hotel.

Like Chris Jones, Don Matthews was a very successful head coach but never really fit in here. And if for no other reason, sometimes change just for the sake of change can be just what the doctor ordered.

2. DON’T RULE OUT A LAST-PLACE FINISH FOR ROUGHRIDERS: It’s a quarterback-driven league and the addition of Trevor Harris to the West only pushes the Riders back another notch on the ranking for starting quarterbacks in this division. There isn’t one other western team who doesn’t have a better option under centre than the Roughriders do right now. Matching last year’s win total of 12 games looks pretty daunting. Another home playoff game in a division stocked with Mike Reilly, Bo Levi Mitchell, Matt Nichols AND Trevor Harris? Forget it.

Expect the Riders to hang on for dear life right up until the playoffs and maybe even need an injury from some else’s quarterback just to sneak in. Luckily, they should get fat on easy opponents out east and a 4th place finish into the crossover could get them into the Grey Cup. And now that whats-his-name (Chris Jones) is gone, expect this group to play with a little more heart for the crest on the helmet instead of loyalty to Chris Jones (see: Willie Jefferson).

3. WALLY BUONO MISSES THE MARK ON CFL 2.0: Great Q and A on stage at the Regina Thunder Dinner of Champions Thursday night. I was going to leave early and Michael Ball did such a great job with Wally Buono and Wally’s daughter Christie that I stayed up way past my bedtime for the whole thing.

But it was one of Wally’s takes on the whole CFL 2.0 thing that had me shaking my head. He rationalizes Randy Ambrosie’s initiative by proclaiming the CFL to be a “stagnant business” that needs to extend outside the borders of Canada.

I could buy that explanation if the CFL was doing anything for outreach to its immigrant population IN CANADA. How many signs do the B.C. Lions have in the Asian community of the west coast? What events have the B.C. Lions put on to promote the great 3-Down game of ours to the influx of newcomers to Canada in Vancouver? What have the Toronto Argonauts or Montreal Alouettes done to partner with soccer or cricket or rugby associations in those communities? As near as I can tell, damn near nothing.

The problem with the CFL is that it continues to hang its hat on old, white guys like me and most of you. And until they aggressively recruit the immigrant populations in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, we’ll continue to see empty seats in those cities and keep having these same old conversations.

4. ALOUETTES SALE PART OF BIGGER PROBLEM: It’s encouraging to see that someone wants to buy Montreal’s football team but the fact the keys are being thrown on the table speaks to a bigger problem about the league’s ownership. Since the 90’s we’ve seen great stability with owners like Robert Wetenhall, David Braley and MLSE. These guys have been writing cheques with a smile on their face this whole time. The problem with this group is they haven’t shown any willingness or ability to grow this game. Like actually putting out good merchandise or aggressively marketing their teams locally the way Bob Ackles did in B.C. or Jeff Hunt did in Ottawa.

It’s almost like these guys don’t believe in what they are selling and it’s so bad they think the only solution is to write cheques at the end of the year without bothering to create a sustainable model. Time for some younger blood at the governor’s table.

5. NEW ERA CFL UNIS: Montreal’s new unis look great. As for everyone else, meh. Get rid of all of that terrible piping on these jerseys and that especially goes for the Riders and Calgary Stampeders.

6. COACHES JUMPING SHIP: How do Jaime Elizondo and June Jones get to jump ship to a different league right before training camp, not to mention Chris Jones so late into the offseason, but Paul Lapolice couldn’t come back to Saskatchewan? The league needs to figure this out and come up with a better system to make sure assistants with a chance to take a step up are able to do so right up until the end of February. And if that means delaying free agency, then so be it.

7. CFL POWER RANKINGS BY QUARTERBACK: Calgary, BC, Edmonton, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal. Another long year for the east.

8. REGINA RED SOX OPENING DAY: Cannot wait for Wednesday night’s opening day for the Regina Red Sox when the Yorkton Cardinals come to town. As I approach middle-age, I am learning that the great game of baseball is far superior to hockey. I think far more about Red Sox season during the winter months than I would ever think about the Pats over the summer. And to you hockey fans who ridicule such a remark, let me say this: At least at the ball diamond we don’t cheer for 16 and 17-year-old boys to fight.

9. RAPTORS IN THE FINALS: I think people are counting the Raptors out a bit early here. I give them at least a 40% shot in this. Boy, they could sure get a lot more mileage out of this playoff run if their marketing people decided to do some outreach outside of Toronto like the Blue Jays have done. Why can’t they send Serge Ibaka or Fred VanVleet out here to do the weather forecast on CTV Regina this summer? It would be fantastic for both the players and fans but I still can’t see it happening.

10. ON THE AIR THIS WEEK: Leo MacDonald and I have Wednesday night’s Regina Red Sox season opener live on Access Communications when we test out the new radar gun and then I’ll have our first Youtube Soxcast of the year Thursday night against the Weyburn Beavers on the Regina Red Sox youtube channel. Join us for both.