TrueBlue4ever

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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!)

Yep I was wrong about that. He is eligible. And I think Brossoit gets exposed even if he is a pending UFA (will still be under contract at thE time of the draft) He has a no-move clause, must be protected.

I see Copp being protected. Wheeler (no trade), Scheifele, Connor, Ehlers, Dubois, Lowry and Copp up front, leaving Appleton exposed. Morrissey, Pionk, and one of DeMelo or Stanley on the back end. Plus one goalie (flip a coin, so long as it’s a two headed coin with Hellebuyck’s face on it). Berdin is exempt due to years played.

You are actually agreeing with my point here despite trying to insult me and make judgements on my character. The comparison was made between the Bombers signing their guys and a team like Calgary signing “thugs, criminals, and cheaters” and then doubling down by pointing out a PED player on their team. My sole point was to say if you want to point a finger know that 3 more are pointed back at you, as the saying goes. And any Bomber fan who brings up PEDs to claim some moral high ground on another team should expect the name Harris to come up. Not a shot at Harris himself, or a condemnation of the poster who brought up Calgary’s sketchy player history, just trying to say let’s not pretend Winnipeg is clean here as a franchise and using Harris as an obvious example of how others could throw stones our way. And as for the “grey area”, I am pretty confident that if he was not a Bomber you would not be so willing to look the other way about his positive test, and the grey area is largely confined to the jersey he wears. As it is with fans and team sports across the board. You can disagree with me vehemently BUT history has borne out that fans are pretty willing to tolerate the same behaviour from their own players that they would castigate opposing players for. I would never cast Tom as the villain. He is the only player I know of to have been awarded the prestigious “Happy Honker” award by Cactus Jack Wells when playing for the team opposite the Bombers that day.

See my post at the bottom of page 31.

He was injured in the regular season shortly after completing quarantine, then was out for the first game of the playoffs, so we know he was hurt at some point. The speculation comes from how he played upon return, and if it was just bad play or that he was not fully healed.

I know it seems silly. I live in Manitoba and watch the Jays, and the best rated games are western match-ups, but as I said the PERCEPTION of losing Toronto and all the corporate offices in advertising that might be lost scares the league. Can’t think of any other reason why they cling to such a failing franchise.

Sadly, in a league where TV revenues account for such a large amount of the profits, the perception of losing 11 million eyeballs makes a big difference.

Don’t spend it all on that. Only 90K. Save 10% to waste on something useless.

Well if the Argos left then any chance of a Sportsnet rights bidding war is gone.