What A Bunch Of Sellouts :-)

28,800 fans at Mosaic Stadium (I know you can not see me, but I am giving you all a standing ovation right now) got not a great show last night, but still a pretty good show. Back to the game in a moment. My broadcast day started as it does with The Touchdown Club. I got to the park at around 3:40 to get set up - I like to go early and get prepared and get into the zone. It was such a beautiful afternoon, I was very pleased just to be sitting outside let alone getting to do the first TD Club of the year. Bob was even a little early today (4:20), so I knew it was going to be a good show. Bob and I went through the positions and went over his thoughts on them. I asked him his thoughts on Kent Austin as I said to him, “You know him better then most of us.” He was very positive when he said Kent will be a great coach and he will have a well-coached team and a team that will be a team. We had the Grandson of Fred Ritter, Glen Maddock, on the show. He was visiting from San Diego on a fact-finding mission to learn more about his grandfather. Fred was, for those that did not know, the first coach and one of the players from the 1910 Regina Rugby Club that became the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Glen was very impressed with the amount of information that he was able to find on his Grandfather and also thought Regina was a wonderful place. One comment was that the weather yesterday felt like San Diego here in the beautiful Queen City. The Riders even made him the Alumni of the Game (Brought to you by Memories Fine Dining) and that I thought was very cool. It was awesome to be back in Section 25 Row 50 last night! It felt like forever ago since we were there, but right away it felt like home again. I thought the game was very good. It had shades of a regular season game, but at times was still a pre season game. A few guys that stood out to me were: Sean Lucas # 31 - I thought he played a very good game; Mike McCullough also had a very solid game at linebacker. Both quarterbacks had decent games (again, not great) but were throwing the ball ok and were making good decisions. I, like everyone else, saw they needed to work on their play in the green/red scoring zone (pick which you would like to call it). But, that along with accuracy and timing with the receivers will come. Kent will work with them and things will only get better. If the quarterbacks were a bit off, their receivers made them look very good last night with some spectacular grabs. Andy was Fantuztic : -) and the Doctor showed he is ready to operate this year. I don’t know if YAC yards are an official stat, but if not it should be, as both of the above-mentioned had great runs with the ball after the catch, as did others. One thing I noticed as well is that a lot of the time the receiver was in motion when he got the ball unlike what we have seen a bit in the last number of years. It’s going to be a great year for receivers this year. Can you say 3 – 1,000-yard men? I will even go 4. There, I said it. I think we will be seeing two kickers for the duration this year as both played their roles and did a great job in doing so. The D on the whole played great. Richie has them in fine form already and I think we do not need to concern ourselves with that aspect of the game this year. I know there is a lot more to talk about re the game but there is lots of info on that out there so I will leave it at that for now. Roundtable went well. We had a good number of callers most, but not all, happy with what they saw or heard last night. I say “most but not all” because of Justine (sp) - she was our 4th caller in and actually left me a little speechless for a second or two with her comments. She said that our quarterbacks played horribly, not a direct quote, but the general idea of what she said. If I remember correctly, she said that she has been following this team for three years now and that we have never in that time had any quarterback that could play well. Now, as I said, I thought the boys at the pivot position had good games (not great), but to say that they sucked (again not a direct quote but pretty close) was in my opinion, WAY off base. I asked if she was at the game and she said no. I told her come to the game next time and talk to me then. WOW, I’m not sure if Roundtable is recorded anywhere out there, but if it is, I will try to find it and have a clip up later so you can hear. I do not mind differing opinions - I have stated that numerous times - what I do like to see though is that you at least have some idea of what you’re talking about when you call in. I feel she had no idea, that’s just my humble opinion. The other callers were pretty cool and as always I thank you for calling and or listening.

Cool to meet some of you that I had not met until yesterday. Dave, great to meet you and as always thanks for reading : -) Aaron, it was cool to finally meet you as well. Cathy and Phil as always a pleasure and I look forward to dinner on the 30th. For everyone else, next home game come say hello. I will be the guy hanging out with the headphones attached to his head, sitting with Bob Poley. I gotta tell ya folks, Bob’s a great guy (he really is) and he was awesome on the air yesterday.

There is my take for now. Please feel free to leave a comment. Next Friday should be a very good game for the boys, and the next 24 hours or so should be interesting as well as we wait to see who the cuts are. I do not envy those making the decisions as I feel they will have a number of difficult ones to make.

Results from the latest poll:

Who Would You LIke To See Be The Starting QB For The Riders In 07?

Kerry Joseph 50% (11 votes)

Marcus Crandell 9% (2 votes)

Do Not Care. Just Win! 41% (9 votes)

Total voters for this poll: 22


I have put a new one up.

From the newsreel:

The Winnipeg Football Club's board of directors voted unanimously to transfer ownership of the team to Asper and his company, Creswin Properties. ... Full Story

Time for my weekly yard work and then I think this afternoon we are going to head out to Southey for the annual Mopar Meet. For the car nuts that read TRR, I will hopefully have some pictures up later today or tomorrow.

As I type this I see the little weather plug-in I have on my desktop is telling me there is a Tornado watch out for the city of Regina, so take care out there.

Today’s Lyrics

“One day is fine, next day is black
So if you want me off your back”

If you have no plans for Sunday afternoon and want to see a little touch football, don’t forget the RFSL plays in the meadow behind the Mackenzie Art Gallery. First game is at 4:00 P.M. and there should be some good match ups.