Players should decide results

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/09/2009 (6185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Five storylines that jumped out while observing the past week of CFL action:

“ö 1. It’s about the timekeeping/officiating fiasco that ruined last Friday’s Montreal-B.C. tilt…

In case you missed it, the Als were down 19-12 with one minute remaining when they were forced to run a third-down play from the Lions’ eight-yard line three times. Without going into all the details — we could fill up half this page doing so — the Als were ripped off of a game-tying touchdown because a flag was thrown as the replay official in the Toronto-based command centre incorrectly thought the time clock was wrong. The play was wiped out and the Lions stuffed the Als on a subsequent third-down gamble.

Now, the easy thing to do here would be to credit CFL director of officiating Tom Higgins and his crew for taking the blame on this, but the Als have filed a protest — and forked over $5,000 to do so — because of the potentially bigger issue here.

As our colleague Herb Zurkowsky of the Montreal Gazette points out, the protest could cost an East team a potential post-season payoff of $500,000 for playing host to a game if the result helps the Lions become a playoff crossover team. The Als won’t confirm as much, but what they’d like to see happen — if commissioner Mark Cohon rules in their favour — is for the last minute to be played over again in Montreal before this week’s rematch.

Good luck with that, gentlemen.

“This is over and above the Als,” Montreal president Larry Smith told the Gazette. “There was an error made in terms of the rules. It’s most important to stand up to the principle. We’re not trying to attack the officials at all… but we have an obligation to stand up and challenge the ruling that took place.”

“ö 2. Anybody else catch TSN’s interview with Henry Burris during Calgary’s spanking of the Edmonton Eskimos on Labour Day Monday? In case you missed it Burris, the Stamps QB, had a major pout on for not getting enough love.

“I’ve got to the point now where I know people don’t respect me as much as some other guys in this league,” said Burris.

“But if you look at the things I’ve done for my teams I’ve been on and what I’ve helped do for the league… I know I’ve done just as much as any other guy in this league. If media people won’t respect what I do on the field then, hey, I really don’t care because I play for this team and this locker-room. I play for the respect of my team and give my heart to the team and to the city.”

For the record, yours truly voted for Burris last year for the Most Outstanding Player Award — he lost to Montreal’s Anthony Calvillo — and scratched his name onto a ballot as Grey Cup MVP last November. But if we could be so bold as to offer a word of advice to Mr. Burris it would be this: Whining doesn’t earn you respect. Winning does.

“ö 3. Good on former Bomber QB Kevin Glenn and his Hamilton Tiger-Cat teammate Otis Floyd for their act of charity leading up to the Labour Day game against Toronto. Glenn and Floyd, both from Detroit, purchased 750 tickets for members of United Steelworkers Local 1005 that allowed them to take part in a buy-one-get-one-free deal for the game.

More than 800 of the union’s 900 members have been laid off for a good chunk of the last six months, forcing them to use food banks and re-mortgage their homes — all the while dumping some of the entertainment options from their budget, like Ticat games.

A number of Glenn’s family — including his uncle, grandparents, cousin and several friends — all worked for Detroit automakers.

“In Detroit, if you weren’t working for the Big Three you weren’t making money,” Glenn told the Hamilton Spectator. “Where we come from is blue-collar and we know what hard work it is. It’s a good opportunity to give back.”

“ö 4. He looked like he was angry enough to spit rust Monday night, but excuse us for cheering for new Eskimo head coach Richie Hall. He’s always been one of the CFL’s good guys and his ascension from longtime defensive co-ordinator in Saskatchewan to head coach hasn’t changed him a lick.

And Hall remains one of the most polite men roaming the sidelines in the entire league, still referring to his colleagues and contemporaries as ‘Mister.’

“I can’t call Wally Buono, Wally,” Hall told the Calgary Herald. “Mr. Shivers is Mr. Shivers. Cal Murphy will always be coach Murphy.”

Said Shivers, the Lions’ director of player personnel, of Hall: “He does something a lot of other people don’t do. He listens. He just soaks everything up.

He’s so nice that sometimes it p -s me off.”

“ö 5. And, finally, last Friday’s coming-out game for Lions running back Martell Mallett — he set a club record with 213 yards rushing in the win over Montreal — has revealed arguably the most clever new nickname of the season. It seems Mallett’s teammates have taken to calling their teammate ‘Cognac.’

“I’ve been calling him that since training camp,” explains defensive back Dante Marsh. “He’s smooth. He’s laid-back.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca