Expect sports to be “the wild west” in transitional season

Gainer the Gopher makes his rounds after a Roughriders TD in 2019.

Do not expect it to be business as usual for the overall sports scene in the world for the upcoming 2021-22 winter season.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world will still be throwing wrenches into plans in the upcoming campaign even as vaccines for the virus continue to roll out.

Life in North America is proceeding like the COVID-19 pandemic is in its concluding run. You can expect sports leagues at all levels will do whatever they can to ensure that major championship events happen.

Still, you can expect to see inconsistencies on how sports will be rolled out dependent on league and geography. Those inconsistencies have shown up this past week.

Early Friday morning, those that woke up in Canada got to see the country’s senior national women’s soccer team win the gold medal game at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, on television. Canada and Sweden played to a 1-1 draw thru regulation and extra time before Canada came away with top spot pulled out a 3-2 win in a penalty kick shootout that went six rounds.

That contest like the whole Summer Olympics was played without fans in attendance. Players wore facemasks during the medal presentation ceremonies.

The precautions are in place as Japan is facing a health care crisis due to the spread of COVID-19.

On Friday evening in Regina, Saskatchewan, a sellout crowd of 33,350 spectators filled into Mosaic Stadium to watch the Saskatchewan Roughriders open their CFL schedule taking a 31-0 lead on the visiting British Columbia Lions before holding on to a 33-29 victory.

It marked the first time in 628 days the Roughriders played a game. The 2020 CFL was lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cody Fajardo throw a pass for the Roughriders in 2019.

Those that attended Friday’s Roughriders game didn’t have to show proof of vaccination. That was a big contrast from Thursday’s CFL opener in Winnipeg, Man., where the host Blue Bombers downed the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats 19-6.

The Bombers announced an attendance of 29,376 which was just over 3,000 short of a sellout at IG Field. Those that attended Thursday’s CFL clash in Winnipeg had to show proof of vaccination for COVID-19 to gatekeepers before entering the Bombers home park.

“Vaccination” will be the key word in the sports scene going forward. Going hand in hand regarding the issue of vaccination will be question about whether games will be forfeited if teams are unable to play due to a COVID-19 breakout.

It is assumed a forfeit rule will motivate those involved in sports to get fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

On Tuesday, the CFL announced a COVID-19 game cancellation policy.

If COVID-19 issues force a game to be cancelled and it can’t be rescheduled where one club incurs COVID-19 issues, that team will forfeit with its opponent being credited with a 1-0 victory.

If COVID-19 issues are prevalent on both teams, both clubs will be credited with a loss.

In both scenarios, players will be paid for forfeited games, if a team can prove that 85 per cent or more of its contracted players are vaccinated at least partially or fully. If a team falls below the 85 per cent threshold, players will not be paid.

As of Friday, only three of the CFL’s nine clubs have reached that 85 per cent threshold.

Back on July 22, news broke that the NFL had a forfeit policy regarding COVID-19 outbreaks. If a game during the 18-week NFL regular season can’t be rescheduled due to a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team with the outbreak will forfeit and be credited with a loss.

The CHL is expecting to hold a complete season in 2021-22.

Players on both teams will not be paid for the lost contest. The team responsible for the cancelled game due to unvaccinated players will cover financial losses and be subject to potential discipline from the Commissioner’s office.

In Canada, it remains to be seen if these types of policies will be mirrored in circuits like the CHL, CJFL, U Sports, junior A hockey leagues, under-18 AAA hockey circuits or high school leagues. The same goes for circuits like the NLL, which plays in both countries.

In recent days, it is easy to find news stories that vaccination efforts for COVID-19 in both the United States and Canada have stagnated.

In January, the United States experienced days where it was dealing with 279,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day. As vaccines rolled out, the United States began to experience days where it was only experiencing around 6,000 new COVID-19 cases a day at points in June.

Over the past week, has become common for the United States to have days with over 125,000 new COVID-19 cases a day as vaccinations stall. The reports commonly say over 95 per cent of those new cases are from people who are not vaccinated for COVID-19.

In Canada, new case counts are starting to rise again. Last Sunday, there were 279 new COVID-19 cases in Canada. On Thursday, there were 1,445 new COVID-19 cases and 1,519 new COVID-19 cases on Friday.

Both the United States and Canada have about a solid 25 per cent of their respective populations that don’t want to be vaccinated for COVID-19. That reality exists despite concerns about variants of COVID-19, especially the Delta variant, that are more transmissible.

That will all translate to bumps in the sports world in both countries, which could result in craziness of “the wild west.”

Could restrictions and Public Health Orders that were lifted in various areas in both countries return?

U Sports is set to play for the first time since March of 2020.

It feels like many decision makers will be very hesitant to backtrack on reopening, so you can expect sports seasons on all levels will go ahead.

How those seasons will play out on all levels remains to be seen.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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An ultimate Robotech cheese episode

“Broken Heart” offers classic damsel in distress rescue

Lynn Minmei cries in the arms of Rick Hunter.

Sometimes the simple and classic damsel in distress storyline can deliver the best escapism entertainment.

Episode 32 entitled “Broken Heart” of The Macross Saga of Robotech animated series from the 1980s delivers that in spades. In just under 26 minutes, you get to see a bad guy kidnap a damsel, who is ultimately saved by the good guy all in a science fiction environment.

So why am I using my blog to review an old animation episode originally created in Japan that first ran on television in North America 35 years ago?

In a world that is in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, I thought I would change things up and try to type out something more entertaining. Due to the fact my audience looks for columns and stories from the sports world, I know this post will like get only 30 page views, but it is still good to switch things up every now and then.

Khyron is the villain that likes to be drunk with power.

Anyways, back to the episode review.

The “Broken Heart” episode can hold up well as a great standalone episode due to its classic storyline. Still, some groundwork needs to be laid.

In The Macross Saga of Robotech which runs in the fictional timeline of 1999 to 2014, the Earth defensive forces are at war with species of giant humanoid aliens called Zentraedi.

The “Broken Heart” episode occurs in 2013, which is a little over two years after main part of the war has ended. The Earth defensive forces were victorious, but most of the Earth was devastated in the main part of the war that saw incredible losses on both sides.

Admiral Henry J. Gloval is the cool Earth defence forces leader.

The survivors from Earth along with friendly aliens that switch sides are working on reconstruction. Still, there are alien survivors that aim to continue to make war, and they are led by a male named Khyron.

In the “Broken Heart” episode, Khyron kidnaps Lynn Minmei, who is an extremely popular pop music star from Earth. Khyron holds Minmei and her manager and cousin, Lynn Kyle, hostage.

Khyron wants to exchange his hostages for the powerful flagship of the Earth defense forces called SDF-1. The Earth defence forces have until noon the next day to meet his demands.

Khyron has Lynn Minmei in his grasp.

In the episode, Minmei and Kyle are ultimately saved by Rick Hunter, who is the ace pilot of the Earth defence forces.

In classic style fitting for the 1980s, the pilots of the Earth defensive forces fly around in fighter planes that look like F-14 Tomcats made famous in the motion picture movie Top Gun. The fighter planes, which are called Veritech fighters, can transform into robots, which is another classic 1980s fictional thing.

The Veritech fighters in robot mode stand as tall as the alien adversaries.

What makes the “Broken Heart” episode great is the fact Khyron is an outstanding bad guy character. There is no question he is the villain as his enjoyment of war, destruction and death just surpasses his love for alcohol. He is known to go into battle on an alcoholic rage, and there is a scene where he drinks heavily before going into the climactic battle in the “Broken Heart” episode.

Lynn Minmei is trapped in Khyron’s hand.

(*Believe it or not, the Robotech series was marketed to children in North America in the 1980s with a villain that had this sort of back story.*)

Khyron, who also has the trademark villain laugh, boasts in the episode about how much pleasure he would get if he crushed the life out of Minmei. However, he ensures Minmei and Kyle stay alive so they can be used for ransom demands.

Khyron’s place as the villain is further cemented in an exchange he has with Earth defense force leader Henry J. Gloval in a video conference.

(*Hey, they predicted in the 1980s there would be video conferences in the early 2010s, but no one carries mobile phones in the Robotech universe*).

Rick Hunter is the hero that is going to save the day.

Khyron starts the exchange with, “It is a great pleasure to interrupt you admiral Gloval.”

Gloval responds, “On the contrary, the disgust is all mine I assure you.”

Khyron gloats, “That makes me very happy.”

Of course, the Earth defence forces don’t give into Khyron’s demands, and they set out to rescue Minmei and Kyle. The Earth defence forces create a diversion by drawing Khyron into a trap.

Some of the aliens that have switched sides stage a fake battle where it appears they need to be rescued by attacking Earth defensive forces. Khyron goes to rescue them and gets caught in a trap that sees his forces take a massive ass kicking.

One of the good guy aliens, right, enjoys a cigarette.

On a side note, one of the good guy alien actors in the diversion is shown smoking a cigarette during a down moment. You would rare see that type of scene in any television or movie episode produced in the current day.

Anyways, the diversionary battle allows Rick Hunter to go in and rescue Minmei and Kyle from the guards that are holding them captive. Hunter and Minmei have had a past romance, and there is lots of dialogue throughout the episode that makes it clear that romance has occurred.

After Hunter returns Minmei and Kyle to Earth defence force headquarters, Kyle yells out at Hunter’s commanding officer, Lisa Hayes, that Hunter was absolutely reckless when he swooped in to make the rescue.

Rick Hunter flies in to save Lynn Minmei.

Hunter breaks up the verbal confrontation saying he didn’t make that rescue for Kyle and that his main focus was to save Minmei. Minmei proceeds to run crying into Hunter’s arms and they proceed to have a smooch session.

In most damsel in distress type rescue stories, this would be the part where all the good guys live happily ever after. The Robotech series was great for producing some good cheesy fun episodes like this one and other more serious episodes, where main characters actually die.

Hayes breaks up the smooch fest between Hunter and Minmei ordering Hunter to go mop up the trap battle, where Khyron’s forces were in retreat.

The bad guys go down to defeat.

Hunter and Minmei have a cute and cheesy parting scene where Hunter flies off into battle as the episode comes to an end.

The “Broken Heart” episode works because the characters pull you into a classic storyline that is still satisfying when it gives you an ending you expect. The episode contains a few humourous one-liners that help keep it rolling too.

It is a great episode to pull you into the entire Robotech series. Of course if you do watch The Macross Saga in its entirety, you learn Hunter, Minmei and Hayes are in a love triangle storyline, and Hunter and Hayes ultimate end up together by the end of the series.

Lisa Hayes, right, breaks up the Lynn Minmei and Rick Hunter kiss.

Still for one episode, “Broken Heart” provides 26 minutes of fantastic escapism and fun. It is a great quick way to leave the troubles of the current world behind for a bit.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.