Under Further Review – Douglas Smith with Editor Bill Morphy. Special thanks to our regular contributors including Jordan Moss, Ian MacPhee, Dave Kittle, Ted Tait, Frank Sullivan, Peter Hucul, Glen and Bill Myles, Howard Steiss, Rob Wagner and John Dancause.

Spanning the digital ether to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… This is Under Further Review.

Apologies for the sporadic nature of our columns over the course of the summer. Yes, there are more important things in life. Here’s a few random thoughts before we depart for a vacation in Portugal. We will return with a column sometime in November. Should have lots of talk about then.

Great Expectations – On the eve of training camp, Canucks coach Rick Tocchet is already sounding the alarm. After exceeding expectations last season, Tocchet warns it’s only going to get tougher this season and he’s right. The Canucks won’t be sneaking up on anyone.  Why not set the bar high? That’s what good organizations do. Making the playoffs should not be considered a good season.

There’s been some natural roster churn. The team wanted to get faster on the wing and they’ve done that. The defence is still gigantic despite losing Nikita Zadorov. Injuries are already a concern in goal where Thatcher Demko and Artus Silovs are both not fully healed from knee injuries. News that Dakota Joshua had surgery following the discovery of testicular cancer is hugely concerning. There’s no timetable for his return so already the lineup has taken a big hit.

NHL Notebook – It’s funny how we are programmed as hockey fans to think that a $10 million dollar a year contract is massive. When you compare hockey salaries to the other major sports, ten million a season is chump change. Back in 2004, before the NHL instituted a salary cap, Peter Forsberg and Jaromir Jagr were the two highest paid players in hockey, both making $11 million. In the 20 years since then, the bar has barely moved. Leon Draisaitl’s new deal in Edmonton will make him the highest-paid player in the NHL next season at $14 million. Makes you wonder what Conner McDavid will earn when his next contract kicks in. How about $18 million per season? Seems about right.

They are all giddy in Toronto where the Maple Leafs are again waxing enthusiastic and talking Stanley Cup. The fans suffer from collective amnesia. The Leafs two goalies, Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz, have a combined 28 career wins. Doesn’t exactly instill a lot of confidence. Canuck fans know all about Oliver Ekman-Larsson. He played sheltered minutes in Florida. He won’t in Toronto. Sorry but Leaf fans can expect the Canuck version of OEL.

Seahawks Notebook – Looks like the Seahawks defense is making big strides this season under new head coach Mike McDonald, who arrived in Seattle with  a reputation as a defensive guru. We are already seeing a marked improvement in tackling as players swarm to the ball. The Ravens were 28th in defense when McDonald took over in Baltimore. He took them to 8th in his first season and to first overall in his second season. May see something similar in Seattle.

The Seahawks season is going to hinge on whether there’s improvement up front along the much-maligned offensive line. Injuries forced the unit to roll out 10 different line combinations over 17 games last season. The O-line’s pass-block grade ranked 28th. They’ve been 25th or worse in that stat in eight of the last 11 seasons. It’s time to stop getting pushed around.

The Seahawks have added three new faces to the offensive line including center Connor Williams, guard Laken Thomlinson and third-round pick Christian Haynes. A lot will depend on the status of right tackle Abe Lucas who’s still not been cleared to play with a chronic knee injury.  The Hawks are already starting third-stringer Stone Forsythe at right tackle and he’s a turnstile.

With a rookie head coach, rookie OC and rookie DC, the Seahawks are sure to have some growing pains this season. But if Seattle can win nine games each of the last two seasons with a crap defense and a suspect offensive line, you would have to think there’s plenty of reason for optimism.

NFL Notebook – It’s shaping up as one of the worst trades in NFL history. Move over Herschel Walker and Russell Wilson. Welcome Bryce Young. In March of 2023, the Carolina Panthers surrendered wide receiver DJ Moore and five draft picks to the Chicago Bears in order to select Young with the top overall pick. The picks included 2023 first-round offensive tackle Darnell Wright; 2023 second-round pick CB Tyrique Stevenson; plus the first selection in the 2024 draft, quarterback Caleb Williams; 2024 fourth-round pick, punter Tory Taylor; AND a 2025 second-round pick that is still to come. Six pieces in total. Meanwhile, the pathetic Panthers have mishandled Young and he may never develop into a competent starter. Presumably, the haul will eventually help turn the Bears into a playoff team.

Of course, the Bears are anything but a model franchise. It remains to be seen if they will develop Williams properly. The results so far have been less than impressive. Since 1986, the Bears have blown through 45 different starting quarterbacks. Talk about a quarterback graveyard. Doug Flutie and Henry Burris are part of that list. So is Jim Harbaugh. They tried Cade McNown and Josh McCown. Who can forget Kyle Orton and Kordell Stewart? No wonder Bears fans are so pumped about Williams.

Which leads us to the question – why do NFL teams insist on throwing rookie quarterbacks to the wolves? The Chiefs did it right by sitting Pat Mahomes behind Alex Smith for a year. Why not follow that lead? Already this season, you have Williams starting in Chicago, Bo Nix in Denver and Jayden Daniels in Washington. Young has been benched in his second season in Carolina. Starting a rookie quarterback has seldom worked. Bad organizations want quick results and the collateral damage is predictable.

Funny how things change when quarterbacks move to a better organization. How can you explain the early season results in Minnesota and New Orleans where Sam Darnold and Derek Carr are lighting it up? The Jets couldn’t get rid of Darnold quick enough. Carr was chased out of Vegas in the off-season. It says so much about coaching and scheme and stability. How else can you explain it?

Is there a biggest bust in the NFL than Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson? Since signing a record-breaking, fully-guaranteed $230 million dollar contract, Watson has been limited to six end-of-season appearances in 2022 and six more last year before his season ended due to shoulder surgery. And now, he faces more sexual assault allegations.

There’s no doubt the San Francisco 49’ers still have more blue-chip players than any other team in the NFC West. But when you start dishing out big contracts, at some point, the run of excellence comes to an end. Brandon Aiyuk just got paid. Brock Purdy is the lowest-paid starting quarterback in the NFL. What happens when the 49’ers have to ante up for Purdy next season? Can you justify paying him upwards of $50 million per season?

Good luck to Tua Tagovailoa! He’s out at least eight weeks with what’s reported to be his fifth concussion. Maybe he can pull a Troy Aikman and come back and play several more seasons but long-term health should be the priority.

Is the NFL experiencing parity or is it just mediocrity because, save for the Kansas City Chiefs, are there any truly dominant teams this season? The 49’ers look beatable. So do the Lions and Eagles. The Ravens and Bengals have both lost twice. The Cowboys are a joke. Who’s going to step up?

Here’s a stat for you. NFL teams are now 1-249 since 1991 when their teams: Gain under 330 total yards, allow 21+ points, commit 3+ turnovers and convert 15% or less on third down. The Chiefs became the first team to beat those odds when they held off the Bengals last Sunday.

Blue Jays Notebook – How can any Toronto Blue Jay fan have confidence in the current regime? Club President Mark Shapiro has been running baseball teams for 24 seasons. He hasn’t won a playoff game in the last 17 years. Shapiro hasn’t won a post-season game since coming to Toronto. Don’t count the 2016 post-season. That team was put together by Alex Anthopoulos. In two wildcard playoff series, the Jays are 0-6 and have been outscored 30-13. And you want to stick with this guy? Shapiro ran Anthopoulos out of town. Since joining the Atlanta Braves in 2018, the Braves have won 34 playoff games and have appeared in the World Series. Who would YOU rather have running the team?

In this season of disappointment, the best story for the Blue Jays has been the emergence of Bowden Francis as a legitimate starting pitcher. He spent most of a decade in the minors. Francis suddenly figured it out this season, twice flirting with no-hitters. A rotation next season of Francis, Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt and Yariel Rodriguez would be pretty formidable. Add a decent leftie (how about bringing back Yusei Kikuchi?) and you have a very solid starting staff. Now, all you have to do is fix baseball’s worst bullpen.

Boy, did the Blue Jays ever make a mistake with Teoscar Hernandez. After a so-so season in Seattle, Teo has been lights out in Los Angeles. He’s slugged 29 home runs and put up 90 RBI’s with the Dodgers.  His numbers are almost identical to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in a year when everyone is talking about how Vladdy is back to an MVP level. The Jays should be looking to bring Teo back to Toronto next season. He’s on a one-year contract in L.A. and will be a free agent again this off-season.

Golf Notebook – Mike Weir will be looking for a home crowd boost when the Presidents Cup gets underway on September 26 at Royal Montreal Golf Club. No doubt Weir had that in mind when he added three Canadians to the squad as International team captain. Weir selected Corey Conners, Mac Hughes and Taylor Pendrith among his six captain’s picks. He also added South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout, South Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Australia’s Min Woo Lee. They’ll be joined by Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, Korea’s Sungjae Im, Tom Kim and Byeong Hun An, as well as Australia’s Adam Scott and Jason Day.

Will it be enough to upset the heavily favoured U.S. team? Probably not. Jim Furyk will captain the United States. Furyk added Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Brian Harman, Russell Henley and Max Homa as his six captain’s picks. They will be joined by Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Sahith Theegala.

Pendrith emerged this season as the top Canadian on the PGA Tour. He’s one of the longest hitters in golf, finishing 7th in driving distance. He’s also solid on the greens. Pendrith finished 10th in strokes gained putting. It’s a deadly combination and a sure-fire path to success on the PGA Tour. Let’s hope Pendrith can come up big in Montreal.

Scheffler put together one of the greatest seasons in golf history. Scheffler won seven times this season including the Masters, Players Championship and Tour Championship. He also found time to win a gold medal at the Olympics. How dominant was he? Scheffler led the Tour in 26 different statistical categories including scoring average with an all-time PGA Tour record of 68.13.

All together, Scheffler took home $62,228,357 in total earnings including a whopping $25 million for winning the FedEx title. Somebody calculated that it equates to $3.3 million per tournament, $830,000 per round, $12,000 per shot and $3,000 per minute on the course based on four and a half our rounds. Nice way to make a living.

Random Leftovers – The bribe-taking low-life’s that run the Olympics are always open to new sports. Forget about break-dancing, it’s time to bring in eating sports. Why let Nathan’s Hotdogs own the hotdog-eating championship? The Olympics cannot be outdone. They could introduce a whole new world of eating contests that would put Nathan’s to shame. Think of the opportunity. Hey, half of the world is obese. It’s time fat slobs had their chance to shine.

Why limit it to hotdog eating? The Germans would be over-the-moon if you introduced a Bratwurst-eating context. Poland would dominate kielbasa-eating. British would be favourites in blood sausage eating. Canada would be up for a poutine eating competition. For the Latin American countries, you would have to have a taco-eating championship. In fact, I would personally enter a pie-eating contest.

C’mon, IOC. Get off your fat ass and introduce some new events that we will actually want to watch.

The U.S. men’s soccer program is in complete disarray. There is zero justification for the U.S. to be ranked 16th in the current FIFA world rankings. Canada is ranked 40th and fresh off a 2-1 victory over the U.S. in a game where the score was flattering to the Americans. It was Canada’s first win on American soil since 1957. The U.S. defeat ended a 23-game winning streak against Team Canada. Jesse Marsch put the needle in by saying he would much rather coach the Canadian team. Marsch, who’s American born, says the Canadians are a much tighter group and much easier to coach.

Sign that the apocalypse is upon on. The University of Tennessee has announced they have increased ticket prices by ten percent to offset paying athletes. The cheapest seat for 2025 at Neyland Stadium will be $435 in the family section. What family can afford to attend? Folks, we are talking about college football here. Students are supposed to be able to go to the games. What student can afford those ticket prices? All sanity has gone out the window.

Night Music – By popular demand, we will continue posting links to the late 80’s TV show Night Music. The list of guests who appeared on the show is phenomenal. Here’s a show that featured Taj Mahal and Pat Metheny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKo1iWiLP_0&ab_channel=BetaGemsLostMedia

Feature Artist – Eric Burdon is a long-forgotten artist who never really got his due. Burdon is now 83 and pretty much off the radar. He’s remembered as the lead singer of the Animals and for his work with the band War.

Burdon released several solo albums late in his career. We recommend “Soul of a Man” which was released in 2006. Check out the title track and ‘Don’t Ever Let Nobody Drag You Down.’

In 2012, Burdon put together a fine group of musicians for an outdoor session at Joshua Tree in California to film Dylan’s epic ‘Gotta Serve Somebody.’ Burdon’s chops were still in good form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC4o7vHw1Fo&list=RDpC4o7vHw1Fo&start_radio=1

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