Friday Thoughts

As you no doubt know, today is April Fools Day. Now each year various news outlets and message board posters make up a bunch of ridiculously false stories in an attempt to get people in a frenzy. It’s surprising and somewhat saddening how often it still seems to work. I however realize that my devoted readers are above such shenanigans. 

 

I mean I could have posted headlines such as:

- Riders sign Jesus to Fill Void Left by Andy Fantuz

- Rider Prophet is endowed with an eleven inch penis

- James Johnson to be inducted into the Plaza of Honour along with Jim Daley and Jason French.

But clearly you would have seen right through these lies. I mean if Jesus were to play sports it would as a goaltender in the NHL since everyone knows Jesus Saves. Admittedly, the Rider Prophet’s manhood is not eleven inches… its 12 and a half but who’s counting? As for the last one, while I’m fairly certain that the hollowed ranks of the Plaza will not be sullied by Daley or French, it’s sadly very likely that there will come a day when James Johnson is honoured as being among the greatest Riders in the history of the franchise. Part of me will die that day. 

Anywho, now that the obligatory April Fools commentary is out of the way let’s turn our attention to the actual news... and by that I mean my Random Quasi-Coherent Thoughts on what’s going on in the sporting world.

- The Riders have signed former Eskimo DL Dario Romero (2 year deal worth $80,000/season) to fill the void left behind by the departure of Chunky. At the ripe old age of 32, Romero is a short term solution but the price is right and he’s a proven force on the interior of the D-line. If it wasn’t clear before that Greg Marshall has a different philosophy about the D-line than Etch did, it sure is now. While Marshall is bringing in big guys like Curious George and Romero, Etch would likely have openly discussing converting Tad Kornegay and Weston Dressler to defensive tackle.

- A big trade went down this week as the Bombers shipped QB Steven Jyles to the Argos in exchange for a 1^st round pick in 2011 and a 4^th rounder in 2012. Now I realize that the Bombers are almost barren of Canadian talent and desperate to restock the shelves but it would seem to be an unwise move to trade away your only experienced back-up when your starter has never come close to completing a season. They are unwisely placing all their eggs in the Buck Pierce basket… and if history is any indicator the handle of that basket will likely break off when a slight breeze rolls in and the bottom will collapse during a routine stroll.

- As much as the Argos needed to do something to address their embarrassingly awful passing attack and as much as Jyles is an improvement over Cleo Lemon, its not like this is a miracle pill for the Argos either. For one, the Argos still have the least intimidating group of receivers in the CFL. Not to mention the fact that Jyles is coming off shoulder surgery and only recently began throwing again. Cleo Lemon had offseason hand surgery and still isn’t throwing the ball yet, meaning that Dalton Bell is currently their only healthy QB.

- There is a very real chance that there could be bidding war between these 2 teams for Michael Bishop by Labour Day.

- The March Madness finals are right around the corner… but as with most years my bracket has been thrown in the trash at this point so I really could care less. Well that’s not entirely true, I still have a chance to win some money if there is somehow a double disqualification in the Kentucky/UConn game. Sadly this marks the most successful Prophet bracket ever.

- After 347 pre season games, the Major League regular season finally opened this week. I can barely contain my excitement as we are only a mere 4825 games away from determining which overly rich team will be successful in buying a pennant this year. It’s a wonder this game doesn’t attract more fans with drama like that.

 
- Baseball has the steroids scandal, hockey has the whole headshot controversy, the NFL has a lockout… I never thought I’d see the day when the CFL was shining beacon of normality in the sporting world.