Milt Stegall breaks down CFL storylines on the Green Zone

As the Saskatchewan Roughriders get ready to take on the Edmonton Elks on Friday, there are a lot of storylines happening around the CFL.

Milt Stegall, a Hall-of-Fame receiver and analyst for TSN, joined Jamie Nye and Locker on the Green Zone this week to weigh in on some of the hottest topics around the league, including Kenny Lawler’s efforts to break Stegall’s single-season touchdown record.

Read more:

• Riders look to keep momentum going for Friday’s game against Elks
• Trevor Harris solid as Roughriders bounce back to tame Lions
• Saskatoon Berries squashing competition in team’s second season

Listen to the full interview here, or read the transcript below:

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

NYE: It is great to welcome Milt. Stegall back to the Green Zone. It was great to see Milt Stegall welcomed back to the CFL and his CFL family that embraced him and his family over the last few months. Milt, great to have you back. Thanks for doing this today.

STEGALL: It’s great to be back. Great to be talking to you guys. So I’m excited that I’m back and it’s it’s going to be a great time. I’m enjoying every moment of it.

NYE: So let’s get right into a story we were just talking about on the Green Zone. Bob Dyce thought it should have been an ejection for DaShaun Amos on the hit on Dru Brown. What did Milt Stegall think of that? Should that be an automatic ejection now in the Canadian Football League?

STEGALL: I don’t know, and I couldn’t answer – we talked about it – because I don’t know exactly what should be automatic rejection. I don’t know what that looks like, and I don’t know if they’ve clarified that in the rule book. I’ll start off by saying that DaShaun Amos, he’s not that guy. Anybody who (he’s) played, anybody who’s been around, you know he’s not that guy. Now, wasn’t a legal hit, without a doubt. Should he have been ejected? Like I say, I don’t know what the rule book says, so they need to clarify that so players know, and coaches know, and everyone knows that if you make a hit like that, these are going to be the consequences. So I don’t know, because I don’t know exactly what a legal hit that’s going to force a player to get ejected, I just don’t know what that what that looks like.

LOCKER: You actually bring up a really good point, because when we started to look at it, the rule is a little bit convoluted.

NYE: Well, there’s a spearing rule. That’s 25 yards and no ejection. But then there’s the roughing the passer. On that, if they find it an egregious action, then it can be an ejection. So where does that one fall? Yeah, they need to clean it up.

LOCKER: Good news, though, for Winnipeg, was Zach (Collaros) practicing today, Milt, so that’s good news for them.

STEGALL: Good news, but he has to play better than he’s played. Yeah, it’s good news because, like I said, I love (Chris) Streveler. I think he’s a great change up, but he’s not going to take him to where they need to be. It has to be Zach, but it has to be a better Zach. And what we’ve seen in the last two outings, I mean, what is it, six minutes? Three of them returned to the house? You’re better off having Streveler if that’s what he’s going to do on a consistent basis. So it’s good to have him back. We know what he’s capable of when he’s on his game, but he has to get back on his game because what we’ve seen lately the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, I promise you, they’re not going to win many games if their star quarterback is playing the way he’s played the last couple of weeks.

NYE: With the Bombers play against the Stamps, Milt, who saw the Stamps coming? Is there anybody at TSN who’s jumping up and down and saying, “I told you,” because I can’t find anybody that predicted a Calgary Stampeder team would be five and one with all the changes that happened this offseason.

STEGALL: I wasn’t able to get on the preview show for obvious reasons, but if I could show everyone my notes, I said Vernon Adams alone will win them an extra four or five games. So I won’t say I thought they would be this good, but I knew they would be a lot better than what they’ve been last year and the year before that. I thought they would get to nine or 10 victories, just because Vernon Adams alone. The way they’re playing, they may get to 13, 14, easy. No one saw this, but Dave Dickenson knew he needed to overhaul that team, especially that defense. You look at that defense there, it’s really no one left from last year, because those guys, they just weren’t that good, evident by the fact that majority of them aren’t even in the league anymore. So I don’t think anyone saw this coming. I knew they would be better, just because they added Vernon Adams. I can honestly say that, but I can honestly also say I didn’t think they would be this good. The way they’re beating teams where it’s not even close is crazy ,and I know Ottawa beat them and people are going to say it was because in the rain, but that just to let you know, anyone is capable of beating anyone on any given day, because Ottawa, right now, may suck. They’re a bad team, but the fact that they beat what most folks are saying is the best team in the CFL lets you know that you have to show up for each and every game and play. But the way these Stampeders are playing, it’s going to be hard for anyone to beat them if they’re not on their A-plus game.

NYE: So that kind of leads us nicely into a conversation about the Riders and Elks on Friday, you got a very desperate Elks team. Should the Riders make sure that they don’t take this team lightly leading into Friday?

STEGALL: The thing you have to do at this level is, you approach every single game like you’re playing the best team in the world. And mentally, that’s hard to do, especially when you’re Riders, you’re five and one, (and) you’re playing against the Elks. Their quarterback situation is horrible. Not only their offense, but their defense is bad. They have so many things going in their favor. As far as the Roughriders are concerned, they think they can just walk on the field, and I know Corey Mace is not going to let that set in, but when you’re playing as well as they are and playing against a team like that, it’s hard for it not to set in. The thing you can’t do, you can’t allow the Elks to come out and think they have any hope. If you go out there early and you crush them, they’ll settle in and say, “Hey, this is what everyone expecting of us. Hey, this is no big deal.” But you can’t allow them to come out there and get some momentum, because then they think they can play with them. You look at these two teams on paper, there’s no way the elk should be close in this game, but you allow this team to come out there and and have a glimmer of hope, and anything can happen. So the Roughriders are definitely favored. I think they’re probably about six or seven points favored, but they better go out there and play, because they’re playing against a team that’s really desperate right now.

NYE: Well, the Elks bit them last year at Mosaic stadium. I remember that one – fans weren’t too impressed with that effort by the Riders. Can’t have a repeat of that. Tre Ford is the starting quarterback of the Edmonton Elks, Milt. Is it too early to bail on Tre, or is it prudent now to go to Cody (Fajardo) to get some wins?

STEGALL: You gotta go to Cody. You’re not bailing on Tre; you’re just saying “You’re not getting it done right now. You may still be our future, but you’re not getting it done.” And I think the one thing where they messed up with the Elks, they didn’t make it a competition, and I know you wanted to let everyone know that this is our guy, because that’s what everyone been screaming for. Give this guy an opportunity to be the man, and he’ll show you. But I think that’s the worst thing you can do for somebody who hasn’t won much in this league, telling them that they’re the guy, especially when you’ve got a guy coming in who has been the guy, who has won a Grey Cup, who was a Grey Cup MVP. You’re not allowing him to compete. Well, that was a problem. Now they want to compete, so we’ll see what happens. But if I was a betting man, if I had liquidate everything I had and put it on who was going to start? I would say Cody Fajardo was going to start this game.

LOCKER: Milt, you renamed the podcast Paper Plates. You had your first show last week under the new name, and Luke Willson was the guest, and love Luke or hate Luke, we had him on last week. He’s an interesting duck, and he’s doing a fantastic job of creating a conversation around the CFL. And not that you and Davis haven’t been critical of the CFL, but what’s your take on what what Luke is doing, especially on the social media side of things?

STEGALL: I love it. As you mentioned, it has people talking. Some people don’t like it, some people do, but people are talking. He’s rattling some cages, some of the some of the gatekeepers as they call them – the old heads, as I would call them, because they’re a lot older than me – they don’t like what he’s talking about, but we’re talking about it, and regardless if you think he’s wrong or right, there are some changes that need to be made in this league, one way or another. Some things need to be changed. Because you look at some of what’s going on in some of these stadiums, there are changes that need to be made. You look at some of these games, and people will say all the time, “Well they’re boring games or bad games in the NFL, the NFL don’t have the problems we have.” We only have nine games, and if you have four or five bad games, that’s a problem. And every single game is on national TV, so you have to try to make each and every game as exciting as possible. So, like I say, regardless if you like him or not, people are talking and he’s letting people know that changes need to be made. I think changes are going to eventually be made, but changes need to be made to make sure this league will live on for 100 or more years to come. So I like that folks are talking about it. And even if it took for him to talk about it, it’s being talked about, I think, which is a good thing.

NYE: Milt Stegall, 2002, 23 touchdown receptions, most touchdowns not only receiving, but most touchdowns in a single season, all time. Kenny Lawler is on pace today for 24. How hard will it be for Kenny? From your experience in 2002, you’re probably starting to get triple teamed. I tried to look back, I think he probably only scored about 21 of those against the Roughriders that season, it felt like. But what’s Kenny Lawler about to experience, trying to chase a Milt Stegall record?

STEGALL: What’s going to happen is, he’s going to start getting so much attention that other guys are going to get open. And then when those guys start making plays, he’ll get an opportunity to make his plays. And that’s what happened with me. I was fortunate enough where I had a Hall of Fame running back in Charles Roberts, and also another guy who should be in the Hall of Fame, but he won’t because of political reasons, Arland Bruce, so those guys, they were keying on me, and then those guys started getting loose and that’s when I had more opportunities. But for him to break it, it’s going to take a couple of games where he gets three and maybe four touchdowns, because I had those. You think you’re going to just nickel and dime it. It’s too difficult. The CFL, the game, there’s too many things going on. So if he can stay healthy and he has two or three games where he knocks out two or three touchdowns, maybe four touchdowns, he’ll get close, and you never know what can happen. It’s not an easy task, because as you mentioned you’re going to start getting some double team and triple team, and hopefully those other guys come through, Tim White and (Kiondré) Smith and the running game kicks in, which has been horrible. But if those things happen, it’ll open back up for him and he’ll have an opportunity to break it.

LOCKER: Milt, you’re on the road this week. Where are you? What’s your schedule like?

STEGALL: It’s easy this week compared to what I did this past week. Wednesday night, I flew up to Toronto. Thursday night, we did a game in Toronto. Friday morning, I flew to Winnipeg. We did a game Friday night in Winnipeg. Saturday morning, I flew back to Toronto. We did a game in Toronto Saturday and Sunday. I flew back home yesterday, Monday. I fly back up to Toronto Wednesday night. We do all the games in Toronto Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Now fly back home Monday. So this week is easy. All I’ll do is go to Toronto tomorrow. We do all the games there, so it’s easy this week.

NYE: Will you have a trip to Saskatchewan this year?

STEGALL: No, they already did it. We’re still trying to figure out if we can come there Labor Day, because I tell people all the time I don’t miss playing football, but I’ve missed that atmosphere. The Labor Day Classic I’ve never I experienced. It’s the Banjo Bowl, but it’s not like it is now when I was there. It was almost like a regular game, but that Labor Day Classic, there’s nothing else in sports, in my opinion, like that Labor Day Classic, so I would love if we can get there for that.

NYE: And I know you felt the love from Saskatchewan over the last few months, Milty. Thanks for doing this. We’ll talk again soon down the road.

STEGALL: All right, sounds great. You guys take care and we’ll talk soon.