About Doug Brown:

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.

• For some players, more than a playoff spot on the line

  Five days from now, your Winnipeg Blue Bombers will either begin the process of hosting the first round of the Eastern division playoffs, or they will be handing out Glad garbage bags to one another as they clean out their lockers to signify the end of the 2009 season. As much pressure as a win-or-go-home scenario presents to a football club, players are playing for much more than just a playoff berth and the continuation of the 2009 year when the regular season wraps up at home this Sunday afternoon against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

  View Full Column | 3/11/2009 1:00 AM | 7

• It can't taste sweet unless you've tasted sour

  They say in life the sweet moments are only so noticeable because of their contrast to all of the sour experiences we go through. Which is maybe why, in the final stretch of the 2009 season, a win over the league-leading Montreal Alouettes at home -- Calvillo-less or not -- feels about as satisfying as discovering that the government decided to bail out all of our RRSPs too, instead of just the corporations hit by the recession. The truth of the matter is, sure we are only a 7-9 football team with two games to go, but after all we have been through these last 17 weeks, to finally have an opportunity in front of us to effect a positive change in this rabid football community feels like a small miracle before us -- along the lines of the birth of our Lord and saviour.

  View Full Column | 27/10/2009 1:00 AM | 25

• OK, bring on Montreal -- they have problems, too

  With a 6-9 record for the 2009 season, the reality of the remaining schedule is no longer something that is escapable or deniable. And the truth of the situation we are facing is that the best we can hope to accomplish in the most optimal of all conditions is to win as many games as we have lost.

  The worst-case scenario, of course, is to finish with a record that this organization has not seen since 2005, when we went 5-13 under the tutelage of Jim Daley. But we will only cross that bridge if we have to.

  View Full Column | 20/10/2009 1:00 AM | 11

• Thanks for the best birthday ever, Winnipeg

  I've had a lot of birthdays in a lot of different places and done a lot of different things, but I take my hat off to my friends and the people in Winnipeg for making my 35th the most memorable one yet.

  In Vancouver I had a surprise birthday party once where one of my friends gave me a can of wrapped Alphagetti. In Buffalo I once had a birthday dinner with an Italian family that I still haven't properly digested, and in D.C. I once did the high-society thing complete with the stretch limo, the politicians and a roasted suckling pig with an apple jutting out of its mouth. But not only did this year's celebration in Winnipeg exceed all of these evenings, it was not a birthday in the strictest of senses; it was a birthweek and it began on Monday eight days ago.

  View Full Column | 6/10/2009 1:00 AM | 6

• It's a reverse! Just one win and Winnipeg is your oyster

  There are currently 35 players on the 2009 Winnipeg Blue Bombers' roster that had never played for the team prior to this season. Many of these players came on board in the off-season, and others have been signed as the season has unfolded. What all 35 should now begin to understand is how radically different an environment it is in Manitoba when you are winning and when you are losing.

  Even I have to admit, because we hadn't won since before the bye week, that I was starting to forget how dramatically the landscape changes when you are successful over the course of three hours, one night a week.

  View Full Column | 29/09/2009 1:00 AM | 22

• Do we blame the players or planners? ... It's a moot point

  Anytime a football team is losing much more than it is winning, there is bound to be an argument over whether it is because of the systems or because of the personnel. Well, allow me to weigh in on this for the first time in my career by saying it doesn't matter which one it is.

  The player will always blame the scheme for his failures, otherwise he is forced to examine his own inadequacies as a player.

  View Full Column | 22/09/2009 1:00 AM | 19

• Bus journey to Saskatchewan the usual bummer

  The Labour Day Classic is never an easy game on the schedule of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and even with the many changes in personnel and on the trip itinerary this season, the result was unfortunately the same, as the local squad lost their fifth straight interprovincial grudge match.

  Over the years we have bused to some of these Classics and flown to a number of them, but it was back to the Greyhounds last Friday for the 51/2-hour trek that began at three in the afternoon.

  View Full Column | 8/09/2009 1:00 AM | 9

• Bye week a chance to recharge batteries

  The challenges for CFL athletes during the bye week are numerous. Not only do most of us want to go see our families for a respite, but we need the time to recover physically from the first eight games of the season without taking away from our fitness and strength levels. For as long as I've been involved in pro football the gridiron seasons have transpired during the summer months, which makes the bye week our one and only summer vacation. So just like the assignment in English class during the first week of the school year in September, this is what I did on my summer vacation. Having grown up in British Columbia, and with my first ever nephew approaching his first birthday, it was a natural that I stayed out in Vancouver for a few extra days after the team bus departed the hotel early Saturday morning after the game.

  View Full Column | 1/09/2009 1:00 AM | 2

• Lions gave us 'frontal moon' before game

  It always feels like the last game before the bye week should be worth an extra point just because of how much impact it can have on your days off.

  Had we lost to the Lions in B.C. and gone to 2-6 for the season, it would have felt like a number of players would be saying "bye" to Winnipeg in a much more permanent fashion.

  View Full Column | 25/08/2009 1:00 AM | 8

• Eagles' McNabb playing with fire

  Amidst all the uproar and headlines about Michael Vick signing with the Philadelphia Eagles, like "Hide Your Dogs," and "What Were They Thinking," I would like to ask the incumbent quarterback in Philadelphia, Donovan McNabb, who apparently was instrumental in bringing Vick to Philadelphia, 'What were YOU thinking?!" Now everybody knows that Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb are longstanding friends, and it goes without saying that when your buddy is looking for work, it is your duty as a friend to go talk to the boss and see if you can find him a spot. But in McNabb's case, nobody would have faulted him for simply telling his old pal that he would write him an excellent letter of recommendation instead of talking to the people upstairs. Why is that you wonder? It is one thing to help a friend gain employment, and quite another to put your own employment at risk by helping your friend out.

  View Full Column | 18/08/2009 1:00 AM | 1

• Calgary writer's piffle undeserving of our ire

  One of the first things you are warned about as a player on a pro football team is to minimize the number of headlines you generate that the opposition can stew about and smoulder over leading up to a game.

  It is practically a commandment that 'thou shall not provide the opposition with additional motivation to beat you down' because professional football games are hard enough to win as it is without stacking the deck against yourself.

  View Full Column | 12/08/2009 3:20 AM | 10

• Armstrong, Bruce let egos overpower brains

  Less than a third of the way through the season, but having already seen two episodes of Wideouts Gone Wild, I can't help but wonder at what point in a player's career does success and talent start to impact decision-making skills.

  After several all-star calibre and episode-free seasons in Winnipeg, Derick Armstrong ran afoul of the team in Week One when, yours truly, came down with a last-minute brain infection and the designations of players had to be changed just before kickoff. Informed that he would not be starting in the receiving corps for Winnipeg, but entering the game as one of the designated imports, Derick decided to dress, but withhold his services in protest of his perceived slight. Shortly thereafter, the head coach of the Argonauts, Bart Andrus, reportedly decided to leave Arland Bruce at home for a game in Winnipeg because he was not conducting himself like a professional -- being late for meetings, forgetting his playbook, speaking out of turn, on-field theatrics, etc, etc, etc. Arland did not respond well to his in-house suspension, called out his coach and his quarterback, and is now playing football for the much improved Hamilton Tiger-Cats, all over the course of about seven days.

  View Full Column | 4/08/2009 1:00 AM | 7

• TD celebrations should be a team effort

  In light of the fines the last couple of weeks for excessive celebrations to two more CFLers -- this time Brandon Browner and Paris Jackson in addition to Arland Bruce -- it is time to review our league's policy on touchdown exuberance and the two schools of thought that oppose and embrace it. When it comes to touchdown performances in the CFL, the league "encourages players to enjoy the touchdown moment and celebrate, but excessive celebrations that include the removal of equipment, the use of foreign objects or delay of game will not be tolerated."

  The rules sound clear enough, but when it comes to their presence in the fabric of the game, the interpretations can be muddied.

  View Full Column | 28/07/2009 1:00 AM | 8

• Blue vs. Ticats might actually be decent game

  It's been a while since the Winnipeg Blue Bombers or Hamilton Tiger-Cats were a game over .500 in the standings, but I promise you it is about to happen.

  After victories over the Calgary Stampeders and B.C. Lions this past week, the two teams will meet in Hamilton on Saturday to decide who will have twice as many wins as losses thus far in the 2009 campaign, something neither team has had the luxury of for quite some time.

  View Full Column | 14/07/2009 1:00 AM | 4

• So very much to be said for the art of saying nothing

  You can learn all the right moves so to speak, and drill the fundamentals at your position until your craft on the gridiron is a thing of beauty and precision. Unfortunately, nobody drills professional athletes on the skills required at the podium where you have to be just as precise and even more calculating when it comes to what you say off of the field.

  I was lucky. I learned about missteps and potential pitfalls interacting with the media my first year in professional football in Buffalo in 1997 courtesy of an unintentional teacher.

  View Full Column | 7/07/2009 1:00 AM | 10

• Bombers of '93 likely the best to not hoist Cup

  One of the approaches utilized this pre-season by coach Mike Kelly has been to unmask the history of this football club and to reveal how, back in the day, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were seemingly always in contention for the Grey Cup.

  Players have been brought in from the championship runs of this franchise to speak to us about how things used to be when they played for this storied club that has won 10 league championships since its inception.

  View Full Column | 30/06/2009 1:00 AM | 2

• CFL camps get job done

  They say there are too many limitations to training camp in the CFL -- not enough time to evaluate quarterbacks and players, not enough pre-season games to properly prepare, and so on and so forth.

  I disagree.

  View Full Column | 23/06/2009 1:00 AM | 1

• Dinwiddie decision made by those who know best

  Have you ever seen 40-plus players hold their breath and live a precarious existence for an entire season? Come down to 1465 Maroons Rd. some time this season and you just might get the opportunity.

  Fresh off the heels of the axe falling on another Bomber familiar, Ryan Dinwiddie, my immediate thoughts were that this coach and these player personnel directors are definitely not messing around when it comes to moulding the roster to their liking -- probably a good three months after this same realization had dawned on a number of Bomber fans and supporters.

  View Full Column | 9/06/2009 1:00 AM | 5

• Two-a-days are brutal, but bearable

  This time of the year you can always count on an ageless thirtysomething veteran of professional football to burst everyone's bubble and make his opinions known as to how he feels about buckling down and setting up shop for the necessary evil that is training camp.

  Less than a week away from the opening of two-a-day practices for veterans, Ben Cahoon of the Alouettes (36), Gene Makowsky of the Roughriders (36), and Davis Sanchez of the Alouettes (34), all griped to the press (in a story publicized on TSN.ca) about regardless of how things have evolved over the years in terms of player preparations in the off-season, training camp remains an archaic monster that has been rearing its ugly head in the same fashion for as long as any of us have been playing.

  View Full Column | 2/06/2009 1:00 AM | 0

• Irvin's made-for-TV barf-athon can't hold jockstrap to real camp

  In case you have missed the latest thing in reality television, Spike TV has come up with the first real world football program of its kind called Fourth and Long: it takes a legend to find a star.

  While that remains to be seen, it certainly offers a sensationalistic twist on the rigours of professional football training camp, and I wonder if its participants realize what they have signed up for.

  View Full Column | 26/05/2009 1:00 AM | 0

• Press clippings, Purex have only one function

  Last year, it was very evident that the 2007 Grey Cup runners-up, who were favoured in the off-season to win the 2008 championship, fell far short of expectations and underachieved all season long. As we stumbled out of the gate to an 0-4 start, many wondered how a team that could have easily won the 2007 title game were it not for the broken arm of a quarterback, fall so far short of expectations with such a talented roster the following season.

  While I'm not going to be the one to draw any parallels from our 07/08 team to the 2008 Grey Cup champions, the Calgary Stampeders -- mainly because they won the big game and we lost it -- I can tell you from experience that when you start talking about championships to come in the off-season and opportunities to become "the best team that's ever been in the CFL," as exclaimed last week by who else -- Nik Lewis -- to Allen Cameron and the Calgary Herald, you are getting way, way, ahead of yourself this early in the game.

  View Full Column | 19/05/2009 1:00 AM | 3

• Getting top NFL draft pick can be a curse

  Last year around this time I lamented about how absurd it is to give players who have never played a single down in the NFL salary guarantees of $30 million, $22 million, and $34 million respectively, for the first three picks. This year, with the 2009 NFL draft taking place in New York Saturday and Sunday and without a consensus No. 1 pick, it seems several teams are no longer overly excited about their top tier positioning on draft day, and rightfully so.

  In fact, look no further than the 2008 winless Detroit Lions to see how being presented with the top pick may prove to be more of a curse than a blessing after the flash bulbs go off.

  View Full Column | 21/04/2009 1:00 AM | 0

• When NFL shows you the money, better be careful with it

  In an article penned by Pablo S. Torre for Sports Illustrated a few weeks ago entitled How and Why Athletes Go Broke, Mr. Torre divulged some statistics and figures that were so eye-popping they surfaced at our CFL Players Association meetings in Las Vegas. The one statistic that collectively made the CFL union representatives' jaws drop was the fact that "by the time they have been retired for two years, 78 per cent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce."

  View Full Column | 14/04/2009 1:00 AM | 3

• In the little CFL, a full recycle bin means more drama

  This past Friday night, Obi Khan and I were doing a paid appearance at the Home Expressions show signing 2008 team posters and talking shop with interested passersby at the Spaworks hot-tub exhibition.

  View Full Column | 24/03/2009 1:00 AM | 0

• Sure, T.O. is a numbskull, but the guy still produces

  With Terrell Owens signing with Buffalo only four days after his release from the Dallas Cowboys, it just goes to show you that when it comes to the opinions of many speculative shock jocks that inundate us with their thoughts about professional football players, you can't always believe everything you read and hear. From the moment I heard that Owens had been released from the Cowboys, word was that this might be it for the troubled receiver. He had reportedly burned so many bridges and been so well documented as a cancerous personality that his reputation had finally exceeded his capabilities. Word came from the hired guns on practically every plausible sporting authority out there that of the 32 NFL teams, there would be maybe two or three that would be even remotely interested in acquiring his services.

  View Full Column | 10/03/2009 1:00 AM | 0

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