TrueBlue4ever

As for the kicker situation, I am surprised we don’t have another one coming to camp, but even if Liegghio is being awarded the job without challenge, history will strongly suggest that it really doesn’t mean much. Traditionally kickers (especially in the NFL) are given a super short rope, and every game is an audition. Failure in game 7 is as likely to get one cut as a poor training camp. And clubs seem able to bring in a new guy on zero notice and give him the job. So I am not going to sweat the lack of competition at training camp - it seems to be perpetually there for kickers year round until they have enough career success to earn a reprieve for one bad game. As for the DB situation, that spot seems to have a bunch of turnover as the season goes on pretty much every year. Our starting 5 in game 1 in 2019 was Rose, Sayles, Alexander, Chandler Fenner, and Jeff Hecht. We finished with the first 3 and added Matson, Nick Taylor, and Mike Jones by Grey Cup Sunday. It is a position that gets flipped a lot, and players are plentiful (it may be the easiest position to fill on a team), so again question marks going into training camp aren’t as big a deal to me, and even if we appeared “set” it wouldn’t mean there was no concern or changes coming by mid-season.

Fact: you have expressed repeatedly how the Bombers have only found one good starting QB in the last 50 years. Conjecture: that statistic means that Danny McManus will automatically fail in finding talent because past regimes did You lament the lack of home grown QB success we have had, and now that we are going that route with McGuire you want to abandon that plan and being in a veteran. You are talking out of both sides of your mouth here. McGuire is not being handed the job, there are more than 2 QBs signed to come to camp. And he did earn a spot in competition last year, beating out incumbent Brian Bennett (and outplaying Streveler in pre-season by all metrics). Now with Streveler gone he has, temporarily at least, moved up the depth chart. You label those who believe he has skills as “only seeing the most positive outcome” where he is the next Bo Levi, which, unless you can provide an actual citation where someone said that, is not a FACT. You also say when we bring up Dane Evans as another example “congratulations, you have identified the 1 in a million case where it worked out” which is also not a FACT. And is not remotely accurate as conjecture. Your claim that you are wired to look at the most likely outcome makes the assumption that failure is the most likely outcome. That is not a FACT either, that is your perception. And it could be argued that it is comparable to saying “when a QB throws a pass, 3 things can happen, and 2 of them are bad” to suggest that there is a 67% chance of incompletion or interception, so failure there is the most likely outcome (ignoring that most QB’s have a completion percentage of over 50% at minimum). I can accept that there are concerns about the lack of experienced depth at QB behind Collaros, and with Collaros’ injury history, maybe we should have more insurance. That is fair comment and worthy of debate. But you have trouble sticking to that argument when challenged and go off on exaggerated “one in a million” claims to double down on your point, and then act surprised and get defensive (that’s my conjecture, I won’t call that a fact) when people see you as overly negative. The conjecture, not fact, is that if Collaros goes down that may thrust MCGuire into a starting role he is not ready for and we will struggle. We may be “hooped” as you say. But it does not make it a fact that this is the most likely outcome. And frankly, every team outside of Hamilton and maybe Toronto would be in the same boat if their starter went down. And Hamilton would have said that last year when Evans was untested behind Masoli. Same with the Riders and Fajardo behind Collaros. Hopefully a full year to heal in 2019 and then another bonus year without contact, coupled with a much better offensive line, will allow Collaros to have completely recovered and we won’t have to find out what happens if he goes down. Final thought - we have a salary cap and need to make choices. We have opted to spend money on keeping a strong front 7 on defence and a solid o-line and running back on offence (and until Medlock’s retirement, we spent a lot on our kicking game). That leads to shortfalls in money elsewhere, like back-up QB. I am OK with that plan if it creates a stronger overall starting group of players. This management group seems to have figured it out, to the tune of a championship team. I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now on their roster management.

McGuire was actually directly involved in more scoring plays than either Collaros or Streveler. Zach is responsible for 6 points with his handoff to Harris, Strev for 6 for his pass to Harris, and McGuire for 21 as the holder for Medlock on the field goals and converts.

In a weird way, Trump’s election was a big boon to those who feel emboldened to let their real prejudice show, and also may be their biggest detriment. The TV show “The Good Fight” did an alternate reality episode where Hillary Clinton won the election, and it starts by painting a rosy picture of the world (rainforests saved, polar bears not endangered any more, Merrick Garland and Liz Warren on the Supreme Court) but then shows Harvey Weinstein still in power in Hollywood and no #Metoo movement. Women don’t want to speak out because to sell Hillary as President the male voters cannot see women being angry and vengeful. Without Trump coming to power, yeah, we may not have seen a white supremacist March in Charlottesville or a Capitol attack, at least not this soon, but the hatred has always been there. And maybe instead of hoping it creeps back into the shadows to lurk is not better than seeing it exposed and being ready to face it head on. Without Trump backlash, do we see the outrage over George Floyd and the true rise of the BLM movement? Racism has not really waned since the end of slavery, or the exposing of the KKK and lynchings in the south, or the Civil Rights movement, or Rosa Parks, or MLK. We still had the Central Park 5, Fruitville Station, Rodney King, Trayvon Martin and literally thousands of others nameless black victims that no one saw as the tipping point. But the climate Trump engendered has raised awareness to a new level - the racist behaviour has not really grown or changed, it is just more acknowledged and decried more vociferously.

That’s not anything remotely resembling a quote. That’s Donald Trump-speak declaring as proof that “people out there are saying......” But let’s inject another opinion into this. Here’s Ed Tait’s write-up on McGuire and the situation he comes into. And also some QB comparables who AREN’T Bo Levi who came in the positive early reviews. https://www.bluebombers.com/2020/05/23/column-story-sean-mcguire/

I just checked myself. You are correct. “As God as my witness”, I thought he had passed.

Didn’t Richard Sanders (a.k.a. Les Nessman) die in the last couple of years?

Totally missed this as it was blended with the People magazine guy. Is that 3 down from WKRP now?

I’m confused. You decry our lack of developing starting QB’s ourselves, yet you don’t like the idea of us developing our own rookie kicker and would rather bring in another team’s castoff vet.

That’s shockingly good advice considering the source.

New to this site, are you?

My wife said I was looking a little blue. I said I did not feel sad, she said no that’s not how she meant it. Should I be concerned that things are starting to fade to black?

First off, I will just say that I take a lot of what Alternet posts with a heaping of salt because they skew and spin hard left to the point of editorializing as much as the hard right wing sites do. I will say that I saw MTG also swooping in on the Carlson conspiracy, and I really wish a Democrat would jump at this chance and say “given the GOP concerns about the Jan. 6 insurrection and the need for answers, despite the fact that they have already shot down one attempt at a bi-partisan commission to investigate what happened, now that they are seeing the error of their ways and the need to expose what happened and who was involved, I am re-submitting a bill for a full commission. Not just for the protesters, not just the ties to the MAGA rally beforehand. Not just the failed response to pleas for back-up by Capitol police. Not just the possible involvement of members of the House in communication with the President. But everything, including any possible DOJ or FBI involvement, and who they were taking their orders from, and who appointed them to those positions. No cherry picking select targets, let’s do a full examination of everyone. I’m sure my Republican friends, who have so quickly voiced their concerns now given a sober second thought to the incident, will have no objections and will vote unanimously in both the House and Senate to ensure that this is more than just empty baseless conspiracies from a TV talking head, who himself is now endorsing a full investigation.”

Although great news that the CFL is coming back, here is a big example of why this league is still in trouble. Went to TSN for their 5:00 pm Sportscentre show, and what do you think the lead story was for the official broadcaster of the CFL? The return of Canada’s biggest professional league? Nope. Ok, I guess the Habs in the final 4 of the Stanley Cup could rate as bigger. But that wasn’t it either. The lead story was Euro 2020. Then on the TSN website last evening they reported on the Stanley Cup, Euro, Blue Jays, NBA playoffs, rest of MLB, US Open golf, and the NFL. Two small opinion columns by Naylor and Lalji if you scrolled far enough, but zero news stories. Sportsnet had the story buried behind all the same stuff except for the golf. And on both sites if you search under the sports’ headings for links to stories, neither one has the CFL listed in the top banner (both have the “big 4” and soccer and then “other sports”. Sportsnet has the CFL ranked behind World Championship hockey and auto racing in the “other sports” menu, so 8th in priority, and TSN rates it 7th behind the big 4, soccer and golf. If the co-owner of the team in the largest market ranks it 8th and the host broadcaster ranks it 7th, is it any wonder the game is floundering in the big markets?

Murat Ates did a piece in The Athletic about the Jets expansion draft. Says DeMelo has a modified no trade and therefore does not need to be protected. So do Morrissey (starts in 2025) and Scheifele. Only Wheeler with a full no move MUST be protected in that fashion. https://theathletic.com/2648101/2021/06/12/projecting-the-protected-list-whos-staying-with-the-winnipeg-jets-and-who-could-be-picked-by-the-seattle-kraken/

Heard one media wag spitballing that Copp could be a 4x $4million range deal, and Pionk would be in line for a similar deal to Morrissey’s. The going rate for forwards now seems to be $100,000 per point. But I would see anything over $3-3.5 million as an overpay for Copp. I think this year’s offensive output was an outlier spurred by a contract year surge. He is not a 60 point/yr player as this year projected. Not close to that. As for Pionk, hoping we can keep him under $5.5 million, but he will get paid.

One thing I did not factor in pondering the protected list for the expansion draft was queued up by Maurice in his exit interview when talking about the young defence. Pointed out that Samberg, Heinola, and Stanley are all lefties along with Morrissey so he does not want to pressure them into playing the off side at the start of their career. And we saw the success of Stanley playing 3rd line sheltered minutes. So with DeMelo being a righty, and with his contract locked in, I now feel he will be the 3rd defenceman protected over Stanley. This would leave Stanley or Appleton as the likely departure, unless (a) the prospect of Andrew Copp’s salary increase handcuffing the team makes him the unprotected forward (hard to imagine), or (b) Chevy cuts a deal like he did with Vegas.

Manchin at least has explained his rationale, and it’s not entirely incorrect. He remembers when Harry Reid was Senate majority leader and changed the rules surrounding the 60 vote threshold using the nuclear option. Then when the GOP regained the Senate McConnell used it to help ram through Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, saying he was simply following precedent. Manchin fears that any new rule imposed by the Dems now could cause long term pain if the GOP gets a chance to abuse it once back in power. And considering that, even with all the nonsense that went on in the Senate during the Obama and Trump terms, the best the Dems could do during the “blue wave” was to eke out a tie on the Senate, the odds are decent that Republicans re-gain control soon. And even if Republican voters are the minority in the US, they are most likely the most galvanized single voting group out there. Even on a 2 party system, Dems want to flip flop on old school vs moderates vs progressives.

Both doses needed? And how about a mask requirement even if vaccinated?

Open question: Would you be in favour or against the requirement of needing to prove your vaccination status to be allowed entry into the stadium?

Shouldn’t be too hard to plan the parade route. Wait, they haven’t built a road in Regina yet, have they? Figured they’d just pick a field somewhere.

If I read the rules correctly for goalies, only one is required to be under contract. So a UFA goalie could be left unprotected provided another goalie under contract is also exposed. And again erred with Morrissey, his modified NMC kicks in in 2025 (hmm, lots of inaccuracies and conflicting info out there in internet land - once more the universe has let me down!)