Jack Todd: The Big Debt Crash is a fraud on Quebec taxpayers

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These are the things I believe to be true:

Vlad Guerrero Sr. was the greatest natural hitter since Ted Williams.

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One game for all the marbles, I'll take Patrick Roy.

The only Super Bowl halftime show worth seeing is the marching band show.

Here's what I don't believe:

The real disaster that was Big O would cost $2 billion to fix.

We're on fire – if someone doesn't hit the brakes, we're going to have a billion dollar roof over an empty stadium. As much as we sincerely wish it would, the Expos aren't coming back, and even if they did, it would be because of a real ballpark in a much better location.

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Worse, the planned new roof will not be the end of the costs. This stadium is almost 50 years old. In ten years, maybe less, they will tell us that they will have to spend another billion to renovate the stadium, but there is still no tenant inside.

I know. A large debt seems to be designed to make it impossible to break. Prestressed concrete, so you can't just drink the concrete because it might crack. Due to the subway line underneath and the adjacent biodome, it cannot be exploded.

I still don't believe that New York City can tear down the old Yankee Stadium for $25 million, and it would cost 80 times that to tear down Big O Stadium, including $80 million (more than triple the cost of tearing down Yankee Stadium). rebuild the roads around the Big Debt after all the trucks have passed.

New York has committed another $25 million to rehabilitating Yankee Stadium, while the “minimum site rehabilitation” at Olympic Stadium is $168 million. There is an additional $158 million for “inflation” and it will continue.

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Ever since the stadium flashed in the eyes of megalomaniac Mayor Jean Drapeau, the city, province, generations of construction magnates and bureaucrats have long battled with taxpayers. It's the Vietnam War of municipal government: “We can't stop now because we've lost too many people” “we can't stop now because we've spent too much money.”

Before we spend nearly a billion dollars to build a new roof over nothing, there needs to be a full and open account of the true cost of demolishing this monstrosity. Then bring in the faucets if the taxpayers will.

Dumb Deadpool: There are times when Hockey rolls around the drain above Dumb Deadpool and almost sinks forever.

The last black eye of the game was Dale Hunter again on Pierre Turgeon, which George Parros and Co. It was a perfect time to bring down the boom and serve a 20-game suspension to Morgan Rielly.

Rielly's head check on Ridley Greig was one of those dumb Deadpools, and Sheldon Keefe's attempt to justify the attack was another.

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“I thought it was appropriate,” Keefe said after Greig's Senators beat him to the punch. “Our players have a right to answer.”

What exactly do you answer? Didn't the big babies like Greig putting the puck in the net? Apparently, a slap in the face doesn't work. You have to gently push the puck into the net, then turn around and apologize for beating the greatest team in the world.

Don't you want an empty goal, Rielly? Good. Play better.

Weekends lost: Not for the first time, Super Bowl weekend was a black hole for your Montreal Canadiens. Back-to-back losses to a pair of big, tough Central Division bullies have been great for Team Tank, not so much for anything but the rising stock of captain Nick Suzuki and young talent Juraj Slafkowski.

If you like tanks, this is mission accomplished. With the losses, the Canadiens are in a good position to overtake the Buffalo Sabers and even the improving Ottawa Senators, who trail by six points with four games to play.

Only the Blue Jackets, Blackbirds, Ducks and Sharks are too far to “catch,” meaning the Habs have a path to the bottom five and a strong lottery position. Not the season we envisioned, but perhaps another building block for the future.

In more Guerrero family news: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. beat the Blue Jays, and now they have to pay him a record $19.5 million arbitration deal. Barring that, the young and under-motivated Guerrero should be able to hold on and really cruise.

Heroes: Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkowski, Marc-Andre Fleury, Mariel Thompson, Summer McIntosh, Nick Taylor, and last but not least, the NFL's toughest player of the season, Taylor Swift.

Zeros: Morgan Rielly, Sheldon Keefe, John Tavares, Sammy Blaise, Francois Legault, Bell Media, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Drake, Tony Romo, Jusuf Nurkic, Phoenix Open, Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& lastly, Jeffrey Loria.

Now and forever.

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