TrueBlue4ever

At the current moment, there are only 2 points at which I get concerned: 1. We start losing multiple games in a row directly attributed to his absence 2. The first playoff game and he is still not back Even then, both of those things are out of my control as a fan, so I would classify it more as disappointment rather than concern, no point fretting about what you can’t alter. Next man up, go 1-0, etc. As for injuries making signings bad, it is a risk with every contract signing, but Ellingson has not shown signs of being chronically injured in the past, so still a good signing to me. And as we’ve seen with Collaros, even signing a historically injured player can turn out great.

*no animals were harmed in the making of this gif *this one, not so much

Here’s an all-time top 5 for me:

What is wrong with teams wanting to keep their advantage, and why should any fan’s “need” to know supersede that? When Streveler had his foot injury in 2019 and it was known, the Stamps in their playoff game took every opportunity to grab and twist his ankle to hurt him if not knock him out of the game. Fajardo says the knowledge of his bad knee is leading to teams targeting him. It happens all the time, and players play hurt all the time. Protecting them is well above the gambler’s need for full disclosure in the team’s mind. Besides, as a gambler all you need to know is “is the player in or out this week before I place my bet?”. You have that information. Whether or not he is back next week is next week’s news. Why he is out this week is irrelevant for gambling purposes. This is not about gambling, it’s about the fan’s feeling of entitlement to be “in the know”. And Mike O’Shea does not feel you are entitled to that information, because his need to protect his player and maintain an advantage in an effort to win games and keep his job is more important than a random fan’s feelings, IMO.

I know exactly why this makes me happy. Arrogance combined with ignorance is a character trait I cannot stand, and comeuppance for those people is the most delicious form of schaudenfraude. This contemptible excuse for a human being has made a very profitable living based on lies, deceit, inflammatory rhetoric, and has bullied and tormented the victims of a horrible national and more importantly personal tragedy for them with zero remorse. Now that he is found liable he is playing a shell game with bankruptcy hearings to cover his ass and avoid the consequences of his own actions. Now caught lying again without a doubt, because of a screw-up, and exposing how much his media empire has actually made, which he tried so hard to cover up. Willful misconduct and perjury, I hope they hang him high and then bury him so deep he never surfaces again. Also curious if any January 6 texts that have gone “missing” are connected to his phone messages? That would be something else!

Cheese grater. Prison rules.

A broadcasting legend has passed. https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/02/sport/vin-scully-obit/index.html

O’Shea doesn’t strut. He walks quietly, speaks softly, and carries a Bighill.

Haven’t seen anything inspiring from the Elks yet this year.

I can’t. The inmates may be running the asylum in Regina, but their defence can keep them in a few games, and Chris Jones is in charge of a circus next province over. Cutting a quarter of your roster in one week for a major airlift, playing players out of position, and the fashion in which they have lost (multiple blowouts) and won (Hamilton literally handed them the win, Montreal blew a 19 point lead) shows me that Jones is more Nutty Professor than Mad Scientist.

Funny thing is the Riders may have the second best shot at getting to the Grey Cup right now. The East is yet again a dumpster fire, so the crossover is probable. Saskatchewan only has to be better than Edmonton to get in, and Chris Jones is too busy building an entire new roster each week to worry about a consistent game plan. Once in the playoffs, wouldn’t shock me to see them pull off a couple of wins given the eastern competition. A much easier road than going through BC/Cal and then Winnipeg. Then they waltz in to a home Grey Cup game where once again they meet the Bombers for another historic first at IG Field West: First pre-season game ever: Winnipeg ties Sask First regular season game ever: Winnipeg wins over Sask First playoff game ever: Winnipeg wins over Sask First West Final ever: Winnipeg wins over Sask First NHL game ever: Winnipeg wins (over Calgary, since Sask has no team) First Grey Cup game ever: Bomber Three-peat! Even if it meant having to put up with two Rider playoff victories, this would be glorious

Speaking of horrible colours, why is your avatar on a green background????????? For shame!

The correct answer is blue AND gold. The all-blue concept in 1996 created a lot of debate. Most of it hostile. A re-visit of all blue in 2014 created even more outrage. Plus, gold is the colour of first place. The colour of a champion.

The eye roll option gets created and the Collaros thread gets resurrected a week later. Coincidence? I think not! Now if you’ll excuse me I have about 30 pages of a two year old thread to add emojis to, lol.

Father Time is undefeated, and Wally Buono became very successful with the attitude of “better a year early than a year late” when moving on from players. But Bryant has earned the right to retire on his own terms as much as anyone.

Looking at your list of requirements: 1) “compete” is definitely do-able, “complete” is possible (maybe 50/50) 2) “all phases” - difficult 3) “error free” - unlikely 4) “disciplined” - on a scale, with “zero” being “no chance” and “10” being “guaranteed”, I’d ask if I could use negative numbers. This is where it falls apart for them 5) “us have mistakes” - as last year’s West Final showed, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, so it is a tiny bit possible even with our usual ball protection offence, but even those errors were not enough to derail us in that game 6) “parade of penalties” - we are the anti-Montreal in terms of discipline, so us melting down seems quite unlikely (and Montreal also being super-disciplined at the same time seems like a pipe dream) 7) “total stinker of a performance” - the great equalizer here. Short week, back-to-back on the road, coming off the emotional high of winning in Calgary, and for all the brilliance of an 8-0 record, this teams has somewhat played to the level of it’s opponent all year. Our best 2 games have been against the supposed powerhouses, and there have been warts in the others that have been the subject of discussion here. O’Shea has been great with getting buy-in with his “we are trying to go 1-0 this week” mantra, but have we truly walked in as strong favourites and buried a lesser team all year? Add it all up and I agree I can’t see it happening, especially since even if we stink Montreal has to play inspired ball at the same time. Would like to see a follow-up performance from us after a big win over Calgary that does not resemble the Elks game, though.

On the coach’s show (last week?) O’Shea was praising one of his players (did not catch the name, but I got the vibe it was a plug-in back-up and not one of the stars) saying he loved the player’s energy and that if he bought a jersey that’s a player whose name he would want on it. Someone texting in said that they wanted an O’Shea jersey, and he said “oh God, don’t waste your money on that. That would be a terrible idea”.

And it would get just as heated.

I recall an efficiency expert being brought in to assess costs at HSC. May have been the same person. They said the hospital needed to immediately slash $400,000 off the top and targeted shift nursing positions instead of middle management salaries. And guess what the payment to the efficiency expert was for their services? Yep, $400,000.

Local radio - pre/post game is Bob Irving, Ed Tait, Joe Poplawski, and Bob Cameron. Game call Irving, Neil Lumsden and Greg Marshall (player, not coach) for colour. Player features Joe Pascucci. Sideline Kelly Moore. Happy honker Jack Wells. TV - pre/post game James Duthie, Chris Schultz, Matt Dunigan, Bo Levi Mitchell, coaching analyst Paul LaPolice, features Dave Naylor/Stephen Brunt, play-by-play Don Wittman, analyst Duane Forde, sideline Sara Orlesky.

Here’s some potentially worse juju - is it too early to talk about an 18-0 season?

Everybody.

Outside run to burn the clock rather than pass here.