First and goal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/07/2010 (5874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Five things that jumped out while consuming this past week of Canadian Football League parity:

1 The happiest man at Canad Inns Stadium Friday night had to be Argos head coach Jim Barker. Not only did he stick it to the organization that passed on him for the general manager’s chair (the gig went to Joe Mack) by guiding a fledgling Toronto club to an important first win over an East Division brother, but Barker found some validation for his quarterback choice before the start of the year. At the pre-game press conference Thursday, the Argos head man was on the hot seat for his decision to sign NFL cast-off Cleo Lemon this season — and was taken to task for not gambling on the unknown health of Buck Pierce. It was only one game, and hindsight requires a longer look, but the 30-year-old Lemon looked every bit the strong and mobile pivot Barker has been telling people about for the last two months. Pierce put up better numbers Friday and may come out on top at the end of the season, but it was Lemon who picked up the win (his first in the CFL). More importantly, it gave Barker a little breathing room from the second-guess society.

2 Not to squeeze more out of this Lemon guy, but Argos radio colour man Pete Martin made an excellent point on the CJOB pre-game show regarding the club’s attempt to shoehorn an older NFL pivot into the CFL game. Traditionally, this course of QB development never works, but Martin feels the Argos had little choice but to go with the ripe Lemon for two reasons: a) Outside of Stephen Jyles (and no one knows if he can be a legit CFL starter), there are no young CFL pivots out there, and b) none of the top prospects coming out of U.S. college are interested in coming to Canada to start their careers anymore. They’d rather remain buried on an NFL depth chart, in hopes of one day getting a big break. The CFL experience is lost on them, which is too bad and a little short-sighted. Think Warren Moon, Doug Flutie, or Jeff Garcia didn’t learn a thing or two up in Canada?

3 Made a point to stay in Saturday night (sorry Folk Fest friends) to watch B.C. and Saskatchewan christen modern-day Empire Field. The Lions, displaced outdoors while B.C. Place undergoes a massive half-billion-dollar facelift, haven’t played in natural sunlight at home since the 1982 season. They had a good crowd (25,528) and it looked like a great time (despite the Riders win). As the TSN talking heads went out of their way to promote the atmosphere, there was a great point made by play-by-play man Chris Cuthbert: If the Lions can put that kind of environment together on a temporary basis for $15 million, why can’t places like Toronto, or even a location in Atlantic Canada, do the same permanently?

4 Some curious words from quarterback Casey Printers following that B.C. loss to Saskatchewan.

Printers, if you didn’t see it, went down with a hamstring injury late in the first half and did not return. Said the Lions pivot: "I could’ve played but I couldn’t risk making it worse. It was a precautionary thing to sit back. It’s a long season."

It was a three-point game against a division rival when he went out. Far be it for me to question the severity of the injury, but if he could have played, then he should have played. Not only would it have given the Lions a better chance to win in front of an enthusiastic crowd, it also would have sent a message to his teammates that the Casey Printers they might have heard about — the one who flamed out so badly in Hamilton — was no longer with us.

5 On the subject of the bizarre, can someone provide some insight on how the 2010 CFL schedule was put together?

The guess here is a blindfold, a calendar and a dartboard, but that might be giving the league too much credit. People around these parts know about the absurd grudge matches between Winnipeg and Hamilton (the teams play four times in the first seven weeks of the season), but what about the turnaround for Toronto and Calgary this week?

The Stamps, who beat the Tiger-Cats Saturday, have just 72 hours to prepare for the Argos on Wednesday — with one of those a walk-through on Tuesday.

It’s ludicrous — dangerous, even — to ask professional football players, who need a least a day or two of rest to recharge between games, to work with that short timetable.

THE HUDDLE RANKINGS

Week 2 is in the books, people. One man’s totally subjective rankings of the eight CFL teams:

1. SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS (2-0) — Not to be an early evaluator here, but they look pretty good out of the gate.

2. MONTREAL ALOUETTES (1-1) — Nice bounce-back effort this week.

3. CALGARY STAMPEDERS (2-0) – Two wins against the East; let’s see how they fare against a Western rival.

4. B.C. LIONS (1-1) — Hung with the Riders for 21/2 quarters; still some work to be done.

5. TORONTO ARGONAUTS (1-1) — Save your hate mail. They beat the Bombers, so they get the edge.

6. WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (1-1) — Probably too low here, but they couldn’t beat the Argos and the West looks stronger than the East.

7. EDMONTON ESKIMOS (0-2) — More trouble. They play in Saskatchewan next week.

8. HAMILTON TIGER-CATS (0-2) — Is it time to panic?

JUICY NUMBER

5

The number of touchdown passes Winnipeg Blue Bombers QB Buck Pierce has thrown in two games this season. In 2009, the club didn’t record its fifth TD through the air until Week 9. Memories are made of this.

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Am I the only one who likes the ‘Flag Men’ the Bombers feature in their game day experience? One change I would make: Lose the traditional-shape flags with the Bombers logo and go with tall, narrow blue and gold ones that spell ‘B-O-M-B-E-R-S.’ And when they pass by the non-alcohol section they can reconfigure themselves to spell ‘SOBER MB’ … Find it hard to believe, but there are some whispers in B.C. that this could be Wally Buono’s last season as head coach. Buono, who is now 60 years old, on how he’ll know it’s time to walk: "You know. Believe me, you know. You’re not reaching the coaches. You’re not reaching the players. You’re not reaching anyone. At that point, you have to step aside. I know my time is coming to an end. I’m not saying it’s today or tomorrow. But I know my best years are way behind me." … Hamilton kicker Sandro DeAngelis after going a miserable 2-for-5 in the FG department in the Ticats 23-22 loss to Calgary Saturday: "Nobody expects you to be perfect, you just got to be Steady Eddie and today I wasn’t Steady Eddie." … Montreal doesn’t usually make too many roster mistakes, but they may regret dumping return man Chad Owens to Toronto before the season. Owens has a 90-yard punt run-back and a 117-yard missed FG return through the first two weeks of the season… Now for a new Hamilton stadium update: There isn’t one, except to say that the city and football team have agreed to extend the deadline for a location decision until mid-August… How’s this for a cool idea? The Roughriders are celebrating their centennial this season, and among the tributes the team has put together are four highway signs heading into Regina. The four signs feature all-time Riders greats George Reed, Ron Lancaster, Ray Elgaard and Dave Ridgway, and each of the signs mark the distance (in rushing, passing, receiving, and kicking yards) back to Mosaic Stadium. For example, Lancaster’s sign is 46,701 yards away from the football stadium… Finally, can someone please check the time? Pretty sure the beer cup snake in Section S has officially exhausted its 15 minutes of fame.

SAY WHAT?!

"I don’t have the money, I have a wife and four kids to feed."

— A less-than pleased Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach Marcel Bellefeuille, trying his best to keep his comments about the officiating in check (so that he wouldn’t have to write a cheque to the league), following a crushing loss to Calgary on Saturday.