Monday Headlines

ROD BLACK KILLS PUPPIES

Now, I have no actual proof that Rod Black kills puppies - the only thing I'm going on is a comment he made near the end of Friday's Roughrider game, Black said something to the effect of, "This puppy is over," or, "This puppy has had it." We were all so sick of hearing Black drone on about who-knows-what for 3 hours that this comment immediately led to speculation of Black's puppy killing habits. I believe the story went that Black was holding a puppy hostage in the broadcast booth and if the Roughriders did not win he was going to kill it on national television. And when Marcus Crandall threw the 4th quarter interception that was returned for a touchdown, that puppy was over alright.

But seriously, the Rod Black/Danny McManus booth combo has to be the worst in sports history doesn't it? I don't mind Black's voice but I don't think he can think/react quickly enough to do play-by-play for fast moving sports like basketball, hockey and football - and football doesn't even move that quickly. The only thing I don't mind Black doing is baseball and I think that's because it moves at a pace he can handle and he'll have stats and a script that he can work with.

My favorite Black-ism from Friday night: He was commenting on how Saskatchewan would have to bring its A game to beat a team that was an A+ (B.C). Now I'm not sure how scientific Rod's alphabet ranking system is but wouldn't an A+ still beat an A? Maybe it's just me.

And Danny McManus, wow - were to begin? I think the idea behind former football players in the broadcast booth is so they can provide inside information and insight that the viewing public might otherwise not be aware of. I can't be certain but I don't think Danny provided either one of those things on Friday. TSN needs to put Matt Dunigan in the broadcast booth and move Danny to the studio show, where there is a script and he doesn't have react and think on his feet so much. I'm not saying that McManus is not able to think on his feet but the guy has never been a broadcaster before, he's one year removed from playing in the league - that's a big jump. He was sideline reporter during the first week of the season and now by Week 3 he's a colour commentator - that's an even bigger jump. How about letting him do the studio show for awhile so he can get some experience in broadcasting instead of just unleashing him on the viewers.

Wow, that was quite the headline story.

SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDER QUARTERBACK HEADLINE

This is not about a quarterback controversy. If I hear that phrase I'm going to puke in my own mouth. No, this is about an interesting discrepancy we noticed while watching the game on Friday. In his one half of work, Kerry Joseph threw the football almost exclusively to D.J Flick and Andy Fantuz. But as soon as Marcus Crandall came into the game, he immediately began throwing the ball to Matt Dominguez - and Crandall threw it to him often as well. This produced the only touchdown the Roughriders scored. I'm not sure if Dominguez's involvement in the second half was because of Crandall or possibly something that B.C was doing defensively but it was still interesting to note anyway.

COOPER'S VICIOUS REVERSE-JINX

To my great surprise, Cooper actually picked the Roughrider's to beat B.C 27-24 on Friday. I was so surprised in fact that I accused him of trying to reverse-jinx the Roughriders by picking them to win. He claimed that wasn't his intent, but it looks like I was right. So to combat the bad luck that he brings upon the Roughriders, Cooper is now going to be picking against them for the rest of the season.

GARY BETTMAN EVEN FAILS AT FAILING

The commissioner of the NHL is clearly trying to get himself fired. But he is going about it in such an overt way that nobody believes he is trying to sabotage himself - it's just too obvious. If you hadn't heard the NHL released it's schedule last week and once again they are going to play an outdoor game during the season - which was a success despite bone-snapping cold 2 years ago. This year the game is going to be played in Buffalo, between Pittsburgh and Buffalo.

HOWEVER, this game is going to take place on January 1st, 2008. And that may not seem like a bad thing at first glance. But Mr. Bettman has long made it clear that his only mission in life is to grow hockey in the United States. And what are the majority of the people in the U.S doing on January 1st? They are watching college football. January 1st is probably the single biggest day in U.S college football and hockey has no chance at competing against it, none - even if it is a special game involving hockey's biggest star (Sidney Crosby). I have no idea why Mr. Bettman continually sets this league up to fail. Why on earth would the NHL want to compete with college football bowl games - or even think it could compete? This almost makes less sense than the glowing puck.