NFL Noise:

• According to the NFL’s Chief Medical Doctor, 68% of all players have had at least one dose of COVID vaccine.
  • That outpaces the national rate of 67.1 percent and is well ahead of the national rate of 53 percent for men between 18-39.
  • There are five teams on which 85 percent of players have received at least one shot.
    • Players are not required to get a COVID-19 vaccine, but will face heavy restrictions if they choose not to do so for training camp and preseason games.
      • A fact Sean McDermott brought up during his chat with Cole Beasley.
        • “I trust the players in a our locker room that they’re going to make good decisions and we’re gonna be where we need to be when the season rolls around,” McDermott said.

• Well, the XFL is coming back in 2023, not 2022 as originally planned.
  • This comes after its planned collaboration with the CFL fell through.
    • “Our talks with the XFL, exploring the potential for collaboration and innovation, have been positive and constructive. While we remain open to finding new ways to work together in the future, we and our XFL counterparts have jointly decided to not pursue any formal arrangements at this time,” the CFL said in a statement.
  • Speculation is that it’s because the CFL didn’t want to play in the Spring.
    • The CFL is set to open its 2021 regular season on August 5th and hold the Grey Cup on December 12th in the wintry delight that will be Hamilton, Ontario.
  • Also, to borrow a line from Senor Weaselo, he didn’t want to change his name to The Rouck.

Non-football observances:

• Canadian politics:
  • Oh God – they’re not opening the border, they’re planning an election.
    • Because nothing says “summer of pandemic relief” like 28 days of fucktards handing out brochures & making speeches.
  • By law, it has to be held before October 16, 2023.
    • Since Canada’s constitution only mandates an election be held within a five-year window from the last one, and the Fixed Date law only applies to majority governments, there is wiggle room for JT to make his move.
      • But since it’s a Minority Government, it can be triggered any time, even engineered by a PM who wants to win a majority.
  • Here are the current polling numbers:

• • Some truths you need to know:
    • The Liberals & NDP are the only “true” national numbers, as they have representation across Canada.
    • The Conservatives numbers are skewed because they have limited options in some provinces.
      • They are big in rural Ontario but not the cities, which skews their popularity in the province.
      • They are almost non-existent east of Ontario due to various mismanagements.
      • They have acquired a social conservative vibe in the last 25 years that has driven so-called “red Tories” to the Liberals.
    • The Bloq only runs in Quebec, so multiply their number by four in order to get their Quebec support.
      • They are the real competition for the Liberals in Quebec, as they satisfy for voters the socialism the NDP runs on & the nationalism the Conservatives run on.
    • The Greens are in freefall because they have turned on their current leader, and she’s blaming their racism for that.
  • The main issues, in order of polling priority, will be the economy, the environment, the deficit, health care, and the pandemic.

• The Spelling Bee:
  • The Finals are tonight – there are 11 finalists, out of the 209 that started the competition via Zoom back in June.
    • To help winnow down the field, each preliminary round had a Word Meaning Round, which required the speller to orally select the correct multiple choice answer to a vocabulary question read by the pronouncer.
      • The speller had 30 seconds to view the question and the three answer choices. They had to answer correctly in order to move on.
    • To avoid last year’s eight-way tie, they introduced a “spell off” for the end of the tournament.
      • Each speller remaining in the competition will have 90 seconds to spell as many words as they can from a predetermined spell-off list of words.
      • After all spellers remaining in the competition have competed in the spell-off, the speller who spelled the most words correctly will be declared champion.
  • The winner is gonna get paid!

• • • The runners-up just get cash – $25000 for second, all the way down to $2000 for 7th & lower.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Done until after Canadian Thanksgiving.
• NBA:
  • Bucks at Suns – 9:00pm | ABC / TSN
• MLB:
  • Blue Jays at Orioles – 7:00pm | Sportsnet
  • Phillies vs. Cubs – 8:00pm | ESPN / TSN5
• Wrestling for newly-employed guys named Jake:
  • IMPACT – 7:00pm | AXS / FiteNetwork Canada
• Spelling, not telling:
  • Scripps National Spelling Bee:
    • Finals – 8:00pm | ESPN2 / TSN2
• Futbol:
  • MLS:
    • Nashville vs. Atlanta – 8:30pm | TSN3

I got my second Pfizer dose today. Everything tastes like metal, but at least I’m now a member of the Illuminati. Headache & nausea seem to be the only side effects so far. So, it’s an average Sunday morning, just that there’s no football on.