Brendan McGuire's blog

For all the abuse yours truly has heaped on Roy Shivers in the last year and a half, I must tip my hat to the man who built this team which I fully expect to bring home the Grey Cup. Roy Shivers treatment of the Saskatchewan people was wrong when he labeled us all "a bunch of racists". However, Shiv gave Kent Austin his due in that recent Darrell Davis interview done with the Regina Leader Post. I still think Roy built the foundation for this to happen, however it was his unfortunate stubborness in sticking with Danny Barrett at head coach, which led to his downfall.

(Calgary Stampeder part-owner and president Ted Hellard)

Ted Hellard really needs to give his head a shake! The president and part owner of the Calgary Stampeders has done a remarkable job for the most part since taking over the reigns of that football team nearly 3 years ago, but his dealing of the recent turmoil swirling around Stamps head coach Tom Higgins is inexcusable!

It wasn't supposed to be this way!

Beautiful! Funny how what goes around comes around.

Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hhhhhhhoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Correct me if I'm wrong but tomorrow's Rider game is a first place showdown, is it not? You wouldn't know it unless you were a hardcore football fan or some-one reminded you about it. The province seems remarkably quiet about a game with first-place on the line. When was the last time we had something like that in late September?

The loss of Matt Dominguez has me more than a tad bit concerned. This offence has yet to see any significant contributions from any-one without the names Dominguez, Flick, Cates or Joseph along the back. Granted, Corey Grant appears to have drawn inspiration from my incorrect training camp prediction that a shoulder injury would keep him out for the year. And while number 2 has played a lot better than even I had had predicted he was capable of, Corey Grant is still a long ways away from becoming a legit number 2 option for an offence with slightly above average ability.

With apologies to John Gormely's copyright infringement policy, the last few days have cooked up my latest lead line. All the negative attention I'm seeing from the Rider nation directed at the new retro jerseys just makes me shake my head. For years, so many of us complained that we didn't have a retro uniform to see our current Roughrider team play in to bring back memories of the glory days of way back when. Finaly we get our wish, but for some that's apparently not good enough.

Sitting at my desk just hours prior to tonight's opening kick-off, I am convinced the Eskimos went out of bounds in keeping one of their own stars in tonight's lineup. The fact linebacker A.J. Gass gets to play tonight, after the CFL suspended him and already rejected his appeal, is laughable. Going to an independent arbitrator is clearly a sign of desparation from the Evil Empire which knows it quite simply doesn't have the horses to compete tonight.