This And That

Apologies for the lateness of this post. I know its usually up late Thursday night-early Friday morning, but circumstances prevented me getting this thing online until early Friday evening. As usual, these are just the weekly thoughts running through my muddled mind

• One thing that was nice about being away for a week was not hearing the question "What's wrong with the Riders?". It didn't take long for that question to crop up again this week though along with the entitlement of the fan as to what he or she deserves to know.  Riders head coach Corey Chamblin in my mind has told you all you need to know when it comes to Keith Toston and why he isn't playing. He says its a coaches decision.  That is all you need to know and after that its none of your business unless Chamblin or GM Brendan Taman or Toston himself wants to share more information.  Yes, the fact some members of the media know the answer to the question is a sign of trust between organization and person. You can bet your bottom dollar if we blabbed every piece of information we heard on a day-to-day basis that the fountain of info would be shut off extremely quick. I don't make things public at my workplace that I don't think should be made public and either do you. Why do you think this is any different? Don't give me the "We are the fans who pay the salary!" excuse either. You put your money down at several places, but I'm sure if you're favourite teller is gone from the bank or your favourite product is gone from the grocery store, you can ask the question and get an answer but if there is more to the story that they don't want to tell you, they won't. Its as simple as that. Just because you are a fan doesn't mean you get an all-access pass. Some of you know that---actually a lot of you do, but it would seem as if some of you don't.

• I am going to be honest and say the Chris Getzlaf injury is becoming more and more worrisome. What is wrong with Getz? Its something that is being kept hush-hush, but its something where the team won't put him on the six game injury list even though this will be the 3rd game he will miss. I thought he would be ready to go for the Toronto game but he's not. The Rider offence needs number 89 in there.

• I'm disappointed with those who are elated with the fact Jon Cornish is done for the first half of the season. The Calgary running back is done until September after being placed on the six game injury list with concussion symptoms. I fully realize Cornish is public enemy #2 around here behind Henry Burris, but its not good on a league-wide basis to have the league's reigning MVP on the shelf. If fans of other teams were crowing about Darian Durant being lost to a long-term injury, you would be outraged. There is no difference here.

• How would you like to be that 20 year old who won 350-thousand in the 50-50 draw at the Eskimos game. That's an unreal number. How many went to the game to get a ticket and how many went to watch the game---while getting a ticket. Bottom line is the Eskimos had 41 thousand on a Thursday night to watch the game and that's what counts. Could the Argos find someone corporate to put up 20-grand in a 50-50 draw every home game to entice more people out. Yeah, it would probably mean a 50-50 of 22-thousand, but you know what I mean.

 

• For what its worth, I loved the call by Chris Jones at the end of the first half Thursday night, but I questioned the when he did it. That was not the time to run that play and it cost them. Doing that earlier in the quarter and or midway thru the 3rd would have made that play a lot better in my mind win or lose.

  

• A very astute point from my good buddy Rob Vanstone in his Friday column on why there is a need for TSN to keep showing us "That's Hockey" in July. Why? They aren't even the chief network anymore!  How about a daily half hour show on the CFL to maybe pump up some more interest across the league. It can be done so why isn't it?

• Are the Regina Pats ever going to get around to hiring a head coach?

• Has anyone been to the NAIG events in Regina? Many media outlets including mine put up polls asking if people will be going and the answer is an overwhelming no. That being said, I heard the CKHS was as packed for the basketball finals as it was for the CIS National Womens Basketball Championship a couple of years ago.

 

• Let me get this straight. A small child falls out of an ages-old tree in Regina Beach and hurts  himself and now there is a move on to get rid of the tree?  Really??? Are we getting rid of the playground equipment for fear someone will get hurt too? Where did our mentality change? We weren't like this 20-25 years ago and frankly it was rather refreshing compared to what it is now.  Some people just go wayyyyyyyyy too overboard on things and this is one of them.

 

•  This will anger the hard-core NFL fans, but the NFL network is must-watch TV right now as they show highlight films of all 32 squads from last year and take us from one training camp to another. If you are a hard-core football fan, this is a great time of year.

 

• How are the San Francisco Giants managing to stay ahead of the LA Dodgers in the NL West. With the pitching staff the Dodgers have, they should be cruising in that division, but the Giants are finding a way.

• The Yankees are loading up trying to make a playoff push. I can only hope this fails. Baseball is much better when the Yankees aren't in the playoffs. Sorry Yankee fans!  By the way, why doesn't anyone in the southern US complain about their name.

That's all I got. Have a great weekend!! GO RIDERS!!