TUESDAY COMMENTARY – SOME GOOD CFL NEWS
(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary at 9:50 am and 5:20 pm on Cat Country 98 FM)
FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS AS FAR AS THE CFL IS CONCERNED.
BRIGHT AND EARLY THIS MORNING THE CANADIAN FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCED ITS 2021 INDUCTION CLASS.
YOU CAN ARGUE WHO HEADLINES THE LIST; IN FACT THEY PROBABLY ALL DO WITH THEIR HALL OF FAME CAREERS BEING HONOURED IN THIS FASHION.
I RECALL WATCHING JUST ABOUT ALL OF THEM PLAY, OR HAVING HAD SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR CAREERS. THAT MAY SEEM ELEMENTARY, BUT SOMETIMES THESE HALL OF FAME CLASSES GET ANNOUNCED AND THERE’S A LEAST ONE THAT MAKES ME GO, “WHO?”
NOT SO FOR THE CANADIAN FOOTBALL HALL THIS YEAR.
THE CLASS INCLUDES NIK LEWIS, ORLONDO STEINAUER, WILL JOHNSON, DON WILSON, MIKE WALKER, COACH MARV LEVY AND FORMER CFL COMMISSIONER DOUG MITCHELL.
THE CANADIAN HALL – BASED IN HAMILTON – HAS ALWAYS GONE OUT OF ITS WAY TO ENSURE YOU KNOW IT’S NOT THE CFL HALL OF FAME, BUT RATHER THE CANADIAN FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME. BECAUSE THERE’S A DIFFERENCE. BUT NOT THIS YEAR.
YOU ALSO WON’T NOTICE ANY GREEN IN THE PHOTO OF THE INDUCTEES. THERE WERE NO ROUGHRIDERS, ALTHOUGH MIKE WALKER WAS THE D-LINE COACH HERE FOR A PERIOD ALMOST A DECADE AGO. AND HE WAS A GREAT ONE.
THERE WAS A TIME THE HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CLASS WOULD ALWAYS INCLUDE AT LEAST ONE ROUGHRIDER, KNOWING IT WOULD DRUM UP INTEREST IN THE 306 IF NOT AS MUCH ANYWHERE ELSE.
PERHAPS THEY FEEL THEY DON’T NEED TO ANYMORE? BESIDES, THIS CLASS SELLS ITSELF.
BUT THAT IS NOWHERE NEAR IMPORTANT TODAY. WHAT’S IMPORTANT IS TO GIVE THESE GENTLEMEN THEIR DUE, AS THEY’VE HELPED FORM THE BACKBONE OF THE CANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE.
WHEN ARE THEY SLATED TO BE INDUCTED?
DURING GREY CUP WEEK THIS NOVEMBER IN HAMILTON, OF COURSE.
THAT’S TODAY’S ROD PEDERSEN COMMENTARY.
Will Johnson played 3 games with the Riders. He had 5 tackles. He was a BIG signing by Roy Shivers. He paid Will a $50,000 signing bonus. He was very high risk. He suffered from concussions in Calgary and got hurt here and only played 3 games. What a bust and a huge waste of money. Not the player’s fault. If some fool is going to lay you $50,000, take it and run. Thanks Shivers.
Mr. Roy Shivers successfully laid the foundation of professional football from ground zero in Saskatchewan on behalf of the Roughriders franchise. A sincere Thank you to Mr. Roy Shivers.
(paul brown, do have something personal with Mr. Shivers? Have you discussed your problem with him? Your comments comes across with a racist intone)
Just because you don’t agree that Shivers was less than a Saint does not make me a racist. I have no personal issue with Roy Shivers and, no, I’ve not talked with him. Do you pull out the racist card whenever your opinion is different. Shivers signed Nealon Greene and anointed him the # 1 quarterback, degraded and didn’t re-sign the much better qualified quarterback Henry Burris, leaving our club much worse off and improving the Stampeders, Shivers got into a pissing contest with Paul McCallum, didn’t re-sign him, leaving our club much worse off and improving the B.C. Lions,… Read more »
paul brown, you’ve been called out. Pointed out your first comment has a racist intone to it. (calling Mr. Shivers a fool, etc etc) Its very obvious with your second comment that you have a very big problem with how Mr. Shivers ran the football club while in Saskatchewan with the Roughriders. (Your problem, not mine).
“Mr. Roy Shivers laid the foundation of professional football from ground zero in Saskatchewan on behalf of the Roughriders franchise. A sincere Thank you to Mr. Roy Shivers.”
Kudos, job well done to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, a fabulous class of inductees this 2021 year, absolutely fabulous.
(Will it be the last? going out with a bang)
Side note – Speaking of noticable, you won’t see any Double Blue on the 10 year celebration promo picture as TSN Radio 1050 Toronto has phased out the Toronto Argonauts. Is this the start of the CFL disappearing in Toronto?
Rod, Will Johnson was with the Riders in ’97