VITERRA CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Men's Provincial Curling championships are over for another year and to no one's surprise Reid Carruthers and Mike McEwen will once again have their names engraved on the Viterra Cup. By defeating William Lyburn in the final, they have secured their place at the Tim Horton's Brier scheduled for Brandon in two weeks.
As usual the competition at the "Timmies" will be extremely tough as Kevin Koe (AB), Brad Jacobs (NO), Brad Gushue (CA) and Jim Cotter (BC) will all come with only one goal in mind. WIN! Koe will be gunning for his fourth title as a skip while Gushue will be going for a three-peat.
Trivia time #1) Who is the only skip to win it all three times in a row?
A huge "shout out" has to deservedly go out to the local committee co-chairs led by Cory Barkley, Roxanne Freeman, Jay Kinnaird and Carol Polk, along with their dedicated, hard-working committees and the many volunteers, who did such an absolutely outstanding job in hosting this prestigious event. The countless hours and meetings that were held over the past months obviously paid off as shown by how much the fans loved the entertainment and the smooth running of this competition from start to finish. Bravo!
Trivia time #2) what were the three previous names for the men's provincials championships?
NHL
With Auston Matthews recently signing with the Maple Leafs for an average yearly salary of $11.6 million, it makes you wonder what other so-called young superstars will demand from their teams come negotiation time. His teammate and line mate, Mitch Marner, will also want something similar but can the Leafs afford to have $33 million of their salary cap tied up with three players, Matthews, Marner and Tavares?
Closer to home, will the Jets ante up that kind of money for their young but streaky sniper, Patrick Laine? Is he more valuable than Blake Wheeler ($6.5) or Mark Scheifele ($6.4)? Didn't think so.
AAF
Americans sure love their football, don't they? You probably haven't heard too much about the newest football league on the block, (then again, who has?) but the AAF (Alliance of American Football), has begun operation with eight teams mainly located in the American South. The league hopes to fill the football void left after the Super Bowl is played with a league that plays a more up-tempo type of game than the NFL; it's shorter in duration by half an hour.
To accomplish this, they have adopted a few rule changes, such as: 1) no kickoff after a TD, 2) no PAT (converts), a team has to go for the two-point conversion, 3) 35-second play clock (NFL is 40), 4) no television time outs, 5) maximum of five players can rush the QB, and 6) 60 per cent fewer commercials, which will definitely speed up the game, (they want games to be only 2 1/2 hours long). Sounds progressive to me.
The teams in the AAF are: San Diego Fleet, Salt Lake City Stallions, Orlando Apollos, Atlanta Legends, Birmingham Iron, San Antonio Commanders, Memphis Express and my favourite, the Arizona Hotshots. The average salary is around $75,000, very similar to the CFL, and they have most of their games on TV (CBS, Turner and NFL Network). This doesn't look like a fly-by-night operation and with former NFL coaches at the helm, it certainly lends credibility to the entire operation.
And if that wasn't enough pigskin for your palette, the old XFL will try and make a comeback in 2020 with the original founder Vince McMahon of WWE fame calling the shots and bankrolling the league. They already have eight teams lined up but this may prove to be overkill in the long run. Stay tuned!
Trivia answer #1) Randy Ferbey (2001-03). #2) the British Consols, Labatt Tankard and the Safeway Select.
Until next time....
