Barney Shynkaruk\u2019s Behind the Face Mask takes a closer look at your favourite Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n
This week, he chats with long snapper Mike Benson.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Behind the Face Mask this week, we have \u2014 let me check here \u2014 Mike Benson from Winnipeg, Manitoba. The heart and soul of Saskatchewan, Mike Benson. Mike, do you know that (this week), there\u2019s a shuffleboard and friendly meeting at the community hall in Elbow?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Get out of town.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Yeah.<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0They\u2019re having it already. Yeah. You know what? Usually it\u2019s later in September, but that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Pickleball, I looked it up; it starts at 4.\u00a0Do you know where you\u2019re ranked?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson: It\u2019s usually 5:30 with the crew, but\u2026<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Time change, maybe?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Yeah, could be. Could be.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Did you act like this as a kid? Where did that all come from? Like, you put on a good show, man. That was good.<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0I guess I\u2019ve always been pretty witty. At least my wife says that anyway, because she didn\u2019t marry me for my good looks, that\u2019s for sure. No, I\u2019ve always been pretty quick-witted. I\u2019ve done a lot of stuff on other teams before, too, like a lot of media-type things. And yeah, they just gave me free rein. And I blacked out a little bit there because I was just worried about what I was going to say and everything the day before. And then it just happened as it is. It was all just completely impromptu improv.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Very well done. Very well done. OK, you\u2019re from Winnipeg. Favourite three things about Winnipeg?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Favourite three things about Winnipeg? I love the fact that you can get out of Winnipeg within 45 minutes and be at a lake or a beach or something. Unless you\u2019re stuck on Portage. Well, unless you get stuck in construction season, which is like eight months of the year, unfortunately.<\/p>\n
But no, I love how much adventuring is close to the city there. You can get out in what seems like kind of a long summer or something like that.<\/p>\n
The independent restaurant scene there is pretty great. A lot of locally owned restaurants, a lot of entrepreneurs doing their thing there, which is really great.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0I\u2019m a big Silver Heights guy. Just throwing that out there.<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Classic. Absolute classic. Yeah. And then, number three, I want to go up to my family. Everyone there. My wife, all of her family\u2019s from there. My parents are from there. Everyone\u2019s there.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk: So, do you cross paths with Andrew Harris as kids?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Always. Yeah. He started at Grand Park High School. My high school played against him in the city championships in 2004, and we kicked his butt pretty good. It was like 47-7, I think. I\u00a0won\u2019t let him forget about that one. Then he went over to Oak Park, and I played against him in our senior year, too. And then, obviously, we were teammates in B.C. We were teammates in Winnipeg. Now we\u2019ve got the dynamic here, which is pretty great.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0He\u2019s a hockey guy, too. Do you play any hockey?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Yeah. We both randomly subbed on a beer league team together a few years ago. But I know he always plays hockey in the offseason, and I do, too.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0What kind of player are you?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Like a power forward.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Power forward.<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Power forward. You know,<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0OK, the big concert here next week. Are you a Foo Fighters guy at all?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Yeah, I\u2019ve listened to them in the past for sure.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Are you going?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0I\u2019m not, unfortunately.\u00a0We have a bye week right after, so I\u2019m staying in Winnipeg for the week. It\u2019s my kid\u2019s first day of school. He\u2019s going into kindergarten, so it\u2019s a pretty big day for us. I\u2019m just lucky that I\u2019m going to be there.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0OK, so I think you\u2019ve almost played for every CFL team. Is that correct?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0It\u2019s a lot easier to say what teams I didn\u2019t play for.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Yeah, which \u2026<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Sorry. Calgary and Hamilton.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk: Of all the teams you\u2019ve played for, which is the easiest stadium to get to?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0The easiest stadium to get to?<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Traffic-wise.<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Traffic-wise? Probably B.C. Place because you can take the SkyTrain there. You don\u2019t have to drive or anything.<\/p>\n
But I love the commute here. It\u2019s easy. It\u2019s friendly. There\u2019s no traffic. Construction is easy. Everyone knows to walk to the game or park far enough away that there isn\u2019t much congestion over here, which is pretty great.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0OK, so the story goes that you were going to retire and you were working at a car dealership?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Yeah, I was managing a car dealership over in Winnipeg. I did it for about six months it was a very good learning experience, positive experience for sure. And then we just parted ways.<\/p>\n
And then three days later, Saskatchewan called. As I was figuring out my next kind of transition period there, Saskatchewan called and asked if I wanted to play sports again. I said, \u201cSports are pretty fun, so why not?\u201d<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Easiest car to sell?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Easiest car to sell? Toyota RAV4.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Toughest one?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Toughest one? Maserati. That\u2019s where I worked. I worked at Maserati and Alfa Romeo.\u00a0Toyota RAV4s were super easy, but Maseratis are a little bit harder.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk: Now, what are the extras that people don\u2019t need? You\u2019ve got fabric paint protection. You\u2019ve got the extended warranties. Puddy on “Seinfeld” charged a finder\u2019s fee and an overcharge fee. What don\u2019t you need?<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Always cancel the administration fee. If they say they don\u2019t have one, it\u2019s built into the price. So, they\u2019re lying. Don\u2019t take the free oil changes for the life of the car. That\u2019s also a gimmick.<\/p>\n
And what else? Extended warranty on used vehicles. Be very diligent about what you\u2019re paying for price.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:\u00a0Hot tips for automobiles with Mike. You can\u2019t get that anywhere else. Mike, thanks so much for doing this. Mike Benson from Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Behind the Face Mask this week.<\/p>\n
Mike Benson:\u00a0Beautiful. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barney Shynkaruk\u2019s Behind the Face Mask takes a closer look at your favourite Saskatchewan Roughriders. This week, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[224145,224143,49,48,521,522,520,224144,4398,224142,1893,4397,4402,4401,4400,4399,82,4403],"class_list":["post-894159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-100-year-celebration","tag-620-ckrm","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-ckrm","tag-country-music","tag-countrys-greatest-hits","tag-radio","tag-regina-news","tag-reigna-pats","tag-rider-radio","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan-sports","tag-sports","tag-sportscage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}