http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/d_brown Most recent (7 days) columns en-gb Sat, 25 May 2013 17:22:56 CDT If competition brings out the best in an athlete, the one thing you can absolutely be sure of this season is the local pro football team is going to have one hell of a punter. With only 12 days to go before the vets dust off the pads and take to the pristine field at I.G.F., the Blue and Gold... Wed, 22 May 2013 11:32:01 CDT The more I think about the top two picks in the CFL draft signing with NFL teams, the more I think the CFL clubs that drafted them will be all the better for it. In case you missed it on Sunday, the No. 1 pick in this year's draft joined four of his classmates by signing a contract with an NFL Tue, 14 May 2013 09:02:26 CDT Let's be honest. When it comes to reaping rewards from first-year head coaches, the local football team has been about as successful as their attempts at grooming their own rookie pivots. Not very. Yet, if there was ever a year when both of these things might change, 2013 could be the season Tue, 7 May 2013 09:04:58 CDT With the CFL draft only six days away, and three of the four prospects I previously listed as the "fantastic four" signed or trying out for NFL deals, should the Winnipeg Blue Bombers now make their first selection (second overall) from the scraps of the NFL draft, or simply take the best player Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:10:30 CDT The most accomplished athletes and coaches I've been around don't ignore or gloss over their weaknesses. They identify these imperfections in their arsenals and attack them in such a way that they become strengths. That being said, everybody and their sister knows the weakness of the 2013 Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:01:56 CDT There has been plenty of flak over last week's decision to re-anoint Buck Pierce as the flag-bearing quarterback going into Bombers training camp. What hasn't been as abundant, though, are the suggestions of any possible alternatives that would have been that much better. We all have difficult Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:59:05 CDT The one thing that became apparent last week, watching the shrapnel from the Khalif Mitchell trade fracture relationships across the country, is that lessons learned the hard way are not being handed down from one player to another in the CFL. If 11 years in this league taught me anything, it's Tue, 9 Apr 2013 16:37:38 CDT A day of reckoning can be defined as "a statement of a sum due" or "a settlement of accounts." The 2013 season of Bombers football is fast approaching, and along with it a number of outstanding invoices coming due, to either be paid in full or handed over to the collection agencies at the Tue, 2 Apr 2013 21:26:52 CDT Coming off a football season where the team missed the playoffs for the third time in the last four years, with the second overall pick in the upcoming CFL draft, it is fair to say the Winnipeg Blue Bombers need to get this one right. There are four players Bombers brass should be focused on: Tue, 26 Mar 2013 03:19:44 CDT I don't have much experience coaching, but I have spent a lot of time being coached. If there is one thing I learned while playing for eight different head coaches, it is the idea of keeping a 'consistent coaching environment' is a complete fallacy. While at a speaking event Friday in Brandon, Tue, 19 Mar 2013 03:19:51 CDT