First and Goal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/07/2010 (5636 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 Nobody asked me, but…

The Saskatchewan Roughriders-Montreal Alouettes thriller on Canada Day might just be the greatest CFL game these eyes have ever seen. Not only did the Riders prevail 54-51 in overtime, the contest provided a swack of highlight-of-the-year material and was a spectacular advertisement for three-down football.

The TSN TV ratings were outstanding — 1.06 million viewers tuned in — making it the most-watched season-opener in the network’s history. As well, the game was telecast in the U.S. on the NFL Network (one of 14 this season) while two of the plays made ESPN Sports Center’s Top 10, with S.J. Green’s catch on a two-point convert finishing in the No. 1 slot.

We’d be interested in what Huddle readers consider their favourite CFL game, but the two others on this man’s Top 3 list include the 1989 Saskatchewan-Hamilton Grey Cup and the 1994 B.C.-Baltimore Grey Cup, both because of what was at stake and — in the case of the ’94 title game that pitted an all-American expansion squad vs. the Lions — a nationalistic backdrop that will be difficult to ever match again.

2 Admittedly this view comes from afar and without access to the inner-workings of Hamilton city council, but doesn’t this squabble over the location of a new stadium in Steeltown look absolutely petty, stupid and is politics at its absolute worst? It says here that the city should be doing everything in its power to keep Ticats owner Bob Young content — after all, he’s already sunk millions into saving one of its most-cherished institutions. Instead, the end-around done this week with Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz that would give him management control of a new Pan Am Games stadium is an unnecessary roughness/unsportsmanlike conduct penalty all rolled into one nasty blindside hit.

3 Memo to Creswin Properties and the good folks who are designing the new digs for the Bombers and Bisons at the University of Manitoba: you’ve got a new standard to meet. Look, it’s one thing for the Bombers and Bisons simply to be able to move out of their current digs — for fans and players it will be like upgrading from a shanty-town to an estate on Wellington Crescent — it’s quite another to match what the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos have done to their facilities.

To see pictures of the new Eskimos locker room, go to: http://www.esks.com/photo_gallery/gallery/id/11223

To take a tour of the Stampeders’ new offices, check out: http://www.stampeders.com/multimedia/video/?tag=all&view=most_recent&page=1&id=1078

The Esks got their first peek at their spiffy new home away from home this week — the locker room has more than 3,000 square feet of space — and the early reviews are all positive.

"It’s unbelievable," Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray told the Edmonton Journal. "We had a great setup before this, so this is just definitely top notch."

4 Two thumbs up — wa-a-a-ay up — for the CFL’s now imminent return to the nation’s capital.

Ottawa city council voted last week to move forward with the $250-million project at Lansdowne Park that will include restaurants, bars, condos, offices and a new 24,000-seat stadium (to check out pics, go to: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/lansdowne/index.html). Most importantly, you get the feel this time — finally — they are doing it right.

There is local ownership, first and foremost, and that should help prevent the two previous failings of a franchise that died in 1996, was resurrected and collapsed again in 2006. The Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group is led by three of the city’s most-respected real-estate developers and is fronted by Ottawa 67’s owner Jeff Hunt. This isn’t a Lonie/Bernie Glieberman ownership, nor is it an absentee caretaker like Horn Chen. They’ve got dough, they’ll have a new building and, if the league plays along, they should be able to field a competitive team in 2013.

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Two things will be interesting to watch now that the deal is done: 1. Will the expansion draft actually give the franchise a fighting chance in Year 1? 2. How long, if it hasn’t started already, before assistant coaches and management types begin politicking for the jobs in what could be one of the league best franchises?

5 And, finally, my compadre at the Montreal Gazette, Herb Zurkowsky, crafted a solid read on former Bombers head coach Doug Berry — who has returned to the CFL as the offensive co-ordinator of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Berry — now 61 — had "retired" to a 1,600-square foot, three-bedroom residence in Port Charlotte, Fla., when Brendan Taman called with a job offer as the offensive co-ordinator after it was clear the Toronto Argonauts were hiring Jim Barker. It turns out Berry missed the game much more than he thought, especially when last September arrived and the CFL, NFL and NCAA seasons were all up and running.

"It was right about then that things started driving me crazy," said Berry. "I was thinking, why am I here when I want to be there? I feel comfortable here, real good. I’m fortunate things worked out."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca