All players, coaches and fans are naturally fully behind the CFL's recent push for player safety, protecting the players at all costs, in particular the head shots. Unfortunately, and rather strange, league officials have obviously forgot to send this message to the very people who would enforce these new standards, the referees, as there have been numerous violent, helmet to helmet hits that for some unexplained reason have not been called. Call the head shots!
The most serious of these involved Edmonton’s star QB Mike Reilly who got absolutely hammered, helmet to face mask in the last minute of play and not just once but twice in back to back games, and if that wasn’t bad enough, it probably cost them a win in at least one of those games. If the league is serious about this issue, and they say they are, please stop giving it only “lip service” and actually do something about it, before a player gets seriously hurt because it will happen sooner than later. Order your refs to throw the flag more often, then hit the players where it really hurts, in the pocketbook.
TSN has welcomed back two of their former favourite sports broadcasters from days gone by, Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole, but the jury is still out on whether they can claim back their old magic with their offbeat sense of humour in the sports arena. The pair had defected to the States for greener pastures (which of course included more greenbacks) but after a couple of years of not so much fame and fortune, found out that most Americans didn’t really appreciate their type of “delivery” of the sporting news, which ultimately meant they were soon seeking employment elsewhere. Personally I think they’re overdoing their “shtick” with too much Jan & Dan, not enough sports news.
I know that the Jets’ Bryan Little is a very good player, has been with the club since being drafted by Atlanta 10 years ago, and is no doubt one of the leaders of club but, is he worth $6.25 million, as a second line centre? If you’re in the NHL, between 20 a 25 years old and can score 15 to 20 goals, (which isn’t that many), you must be ecstatic these days with what other similar players are signing for, namely huge contracts, “no questions asked”. Just ask the Bruins’ David Pastrak, Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau or Nashville’s Flip Forsberg who have all signed big long term money deals and only time will tell who got the better of the deal, the player or the team. History tells us, it’s always the player.
The NHL and their rules committee are not only a joke, they’re an embarrassment to the league and the world of sports. The big emphasis (read “clean up”) this season is suppose to be #1) the crack down on slashing (on average over six slashing penalties are being called in each pre-season game compared to less than one per game last season) and #2) cleaning up the problems on face offs, centres will be penalized for a face off violation, such as not coming to a complete stop or skates in front of the lines. The joke is that this will all change come playoff time (if not a lot sooner), like it always does, with play reverting back to plenty of clutching and grabbing, hooking, slashing and cross checking, with absolutely very little being called. Heaven forbid; we can't have a game decided by those zebras, can we, even though most people really like it when true skill and talent takes precedence over assault and thuggery.
The new season for the Oil Caps begins tonight when they host the Dauphin Kings to begin their sixth year in the MJHL. They'll then return the favour tomorrow night and travel north to be the opposition in the Kings’ home opener. Coach Leslie should be quite optimistic with what he can put on the ice as he has a number of very good returning veterans who should provide local fans with plenty of excitement through their offence and defence, plus provide strong leadership to the rookies as the season progresses. I’m sure the Caps faithful loyal fans are looking forward to a banner year, so let’s hope their all their dreams and aspirations come true.
Those many players and fans who have been saying all season long that the baseballs being used this season in MLB are “juiced” (harder) may now have some proof to back their theory. A new all-time record for the most home runs hit in a single season was set on Tuesday when the 5,965th dinger cleared the outfield fence in Toronto. This is 2,000 more than were hit only a few short years ago, and there’s still two weeks left in the season. Until next time....
