First & Goal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2009 (5811 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Five storylines that jumped out while observing the past week of Canadian Football League action:

1 A personal pet peeve yours truly needs to spit out here…

Over the next few weeks leading up to the Grey Cup, the CFL will announce the team and divisional nominees for the Most Outstanding Player Awards. They are important, obviously, for the honour they bring to the individuals and may also put some more coin in their jeans if they have bonuses for such awards included in their contracts.

But what frosts our backside is how so much of the history of this grand league is forgotten at this time of year instead of trumpeted. And here’s what we mean:

Does anybody, including media hacks like myself, know that the winner of the top defensive player award in the West Division is awarded the Norm Fieldgate Trophy? Or that former Bomber Jeff Nicklin, who died in action in the Second World War, has a trophy named after him?

It’s up to the league to pay tribute to the past players who have these awards named in their honour because, as has been repeated often in this space, if the CFL doesn’t honour its history, who will? To that end, let’s starting hyping these awards and the people after which they are named. Namely…

"ö Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy: West Division most outstanding player;

"ö Terry Evanshen Trophy: East Division most outstanding player;

"ö Norm Fieldgate Trophy: top defensive player in West;

"ö James P. McCaffrey Trophy: top defensive player in East;

"ö Jackie Parker Trophy: West top rookie;

"ö Frank M. Gibson Trophy: top rookie in East;

"ö DeMarco-Becket Memorial Trophy: top O-lineman, West;

"ö Leo Dandurand Trophy: top O-lineman, East;

"ö Dr. Beattie Martin Trophy: top Canadian, West;

"ö Lew Hayman Trophy: top Canadian, East;

"ö Dave Dryburgh Memorial Trophy: West top scorer;

"ö Eddie James Memorial Trophy: top rusher in West.

2 AND while we’re on the topic, further to the above…

Love the idea TSN’s Chris Cuthbert and Glen Suitor were tossing around the other night about instituting more trophies — leading passer, receiver, quarterback-sack leader, etc. — and naming them after the legends of the game. The Ron Lancaster Award, George Reid Trophy and Milt Stegall Shield all have a cool ring to them, don’t you think?

3 FAVOURITE moment from last week was watching the hilarious TD celebration of Calgary receiver Nik Lewis after he found the end zone for the first time in Vancouver. Lewis, the gregarious Stampeder slotback, stared at the ball in his hands as if he didn’t know what it was and how it got there (check out the clip at: http://watch.tsn.ca/cfl-news-and-highlights/clip230659#clip230054).

Lewis also suggested on the sideline that TSN do a special on his first TD of the year and bake him a cake. Priceless.

Lewis was on pace to setting an unofficial record for the most receiving yards by a player in a single season without scoring a touchdown. Saskatchewan’s Chris DeFrance had 696 yards and no TDs in 1985. Lewis has 64 catches for 948 yards and now one TD.

4 NOT sure how this will play out, but we’d kill to be able to sit in on CFL governors’ meetings this winter as Argo owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski pitch their idea of revenue-sharing to the seven other teams. The two businessmen have run the Argos with a great deal of class, even though the on-field product sucks. And now with the Buffalo Bills already muscling into their territory — the CFL’s biggest and most important — their fight in that market becomes even tougher.

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"It’s not getting any easier," Cynamon told Citytv in Toronto. "One day there might be an NFL team full-time in Toronto and if that happens we’d better be prepared for it. That’s what Howard and I are saying, that we need the league to help us be prepared for that."

The CFL’s gate-equalization plan was dumped in 1993 and, understandably, teams that have fought to build their business in their own markets are reluctant to give up a chunk of that to the Argos.

5 AND, finally, an idea that could help compensate the Argos in their effort to remain relevant in southern Ontario: Why not use all the money raised from the fines of Mike Kelly as part of the subsidization? And, just for the record, Kelly said Tuesday he has received $203.69 from fans wanting to help him cover the $2,000 fine he was hit with earlier in the week for his "continued pattern of disrespectful behaviour toward the media."

Go figure.