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lol....

The first of 3 MBB questions noted, although thankfully the “erection” reference replaced by “excitement” (on that note, way too much “hard on” meme-ing going on when discussing player signings. We’re all happy with the off-season, but there are other ways to express it than like being a bunch of 14 year olds in math class getting random woodies and announcing it to the teacher. That’s just weird). Anyway, Zach was looking forward to playing with this group but noted that you forgot to mention Agudosi, Grant, and O’Leary-Orange as well. Kenny Lawler agreed that this was going to be a “light ‘em up” year, called for Zach to throw 50 TDs. Also admitted the Elks signing last year was all about the money, but no regrets and was happy to re-set the bar for receiver salaries league-wide. Basically said no, he doesn’t budget per group, because it is unclear how the market will price itself each year. Only focussing on this year right now because they are in the Grey Cup window, so not thinking about how expensive a Schoen re-signing will be in the future. Admits in past years when the club was re-building he would take a longer term approach. Also says (when asked by DT if receiver is now the 2nd most important position in the CFL) besides the QB, the left tackle and rush ends are the key pieces since it is a throwing league and you need to protect your QB and get after the opposing QB, but acknowledges the importance of receivers and sees why prices are going up for them. Also said when making money decisions on who to re-sign or not, looks at the depth on hand that can step up and replace the more expensive existing veteran players (cited Tui and Kolankowski as examples as to why Couture was not re-signed). Says the cap was spent on keeping the core, when in other years with less depth or talent they would spend more in free agency to bring in new guys. There were other things I might have missed, skimmed through it on the CJOB audio vault.

Listening now to the podcast. @Bubba Zanetti question was asked, although very sfw and a shoutout to MBB. Jeffcoat sounds healthy.

I'd like to know what the plan is at DT after letting Sayles walk. Are they just going to bring in a bunch of Americans and let them battle it out for the starting spot? The two Jeffs were much more dangerous when they had a proven stud in the middle(Stove) eating up blocks.

True but I do miss him working free of the required bias

I dont find it boring at all! I find it hilarious and boner inducing(thats for you TrueBlue4ever).

Neufeld: Tough to see Couture go. They're very close, on and off the field. Roommates on the road. Happy to see him be closer to family and friends, but tough to lose him. Says Kolankowski and Eli are both VERY good and will have quite a battle in camp to determine who gets to start. Walters: Understands why fans are upset about the kicking, and there will be lots of competition in camp, which Liegghio is ready for and welcomes. They will have plenty of legs in camp, trying out for all 3 kicking jobs. Thinks the global draft may be of some help here. Lawler: It's going to be scary for other teams D to try and match up with Bombers O. Too many weapons. Too much depth. DT/Aumell Wrap Up Comments: Think the defense is not good and that they're going to give up a lot of points, but that the offense will be able to score their way out of problems. Think that other than Alexander and Nichols, the secondary is a huge question mark. Also kicking a major weakness. (Noeller wildly disagrees with much of these sentiments, of course)

Now hang on a second... this team did find stove... and before that they brought in Nevis. I think that's an entirely unfair question based on one season of not having that guy.

Two ways to read this article 1) Let's spend a long time talking about 10 years ago so we don't have to think about now 2) Everything is going according to plan, relax

https://www.riderville.com/2023/02/27/remodelled-roughriders-adhering-to-proven-formula/ Well this is amazing... I'm pretty sure this is written 100% unironically... but it's so absurd, it's hard to tell... anyways, if you want a laugh today, give this a read

Miller should call Gainer, who I assume is the president of the Riders, and get clarification of the Riders position. If it's not the Riders position that the Bombers are cheaters, than why does their mouthpiece say they do?

Daily reminder that the Winnipeg Free Press is independently owned and probably the best newspaper left in the country. That being said, I miss Melissa Martin and Ryan Thorpe already.

Wow... Thanks for the funnies. I hate- HATE vanstone's writing style... he writes like a dyslexic 2nd year theater major, using a third-rate thesaurus program to cosplay as Frasier Crane. I ******* HATE his writing style- it literally gets me white knuckled rage texting... My poor phone...

Well... this thread aged like fine wine... A year ago:

I think an injured Kyrie Wilson and Brandon Alexander made the D look much worse than it was for a big chunk of the season. If those two play a full season, I think things look much different and all of a sudden everyone's talking about what a bounce back season _______ is having in the secondary/LB corps...... we weren't that bad on D last year...just missing too many key pieces.

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/many-manitobans-think-provinces-are-intentionally-ruining-public-health-care-poll-1.6291371

Dickie saying the majority of the province believes in the Riders has the same weight as a MAGAer saying Trump won in 2020.

Ummmm low brow humor is not reserved for 14 year olds dear sir. For generations, it's been open to all to help us not take ourselves too seriously.

Ed Tait as a Bomber staffer is still less biased than those too.

It's a darn good think that DT and Aumell are probably looking at last year's stats to justify their positions on this, and an over reliance on stats is a fool's game. Heart, work ethic, scheme, and health are all big factors that don't show up in the stats. That's always been my one knock on DT is that he relies on stats to formulate his opinion on stuff, and that is only one part of the equation.

Makes me think of Friesen or Wiecek a little differently. They harped on about every real or perceived flaw the team had, but at least they weren't blowing smoke up our asses. I still don't like them though haha

I dunno, I'm happy to let a professional interviewer talk about whatever he thinks should be talked about with the usual suspects. As far as the players, I'm mildly curious about off-season training and what all that encompasses. But I would say it's Walters that I'm always most interested to hear from. I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that the only really glaring hole is at DT, and would be at least mildly interested in knowing how he feels about the DT position and how easy/difficult it is to find another Nevis or Stove... if they feel they have someone on the roster ready to step in, or if they'll be recruiting heavily for that position, and is it possible that there's decent CIS pick who might be able to do it? But, again, DT's a professional.... I'm sure the conversations will be just fine.

Chevy is waiting for Saturday to make his move.

I'm not sure if you know this or not. Melissa is in Ukraine/Poland - she's a good follow on Instagram

We have like 2 of them, don't we? The kid we got from Montreal last year for a song was great in the reps he had, and then I thought we had another that we drafted but sent back to college last year and is expected back in camp this year.... NI NT isn't an issue.... *edit* Cole Adamson and Cameron Lawson are very much the heir apparents to Fatboi....

"Idiocracy" certainly comes to mind: Joe: For the last time, I'm pretty sure what's killing the crops is this Brawndo stuff. Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes. Attorney General: So wait a minute. What you're saying is that you want us to put water on the crops. Joe: Yes. Attorney General: Water. Like out the toilet? Joe: Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be out of the toilet, but, yeah, that's the idea. Secretary of State: But Brawndo's got what plants crave. Attorney General: It's got electrolytes. Joe: Okay, look. The plants aren't growing, so I'm pretty sure that the Brawndo's not working. Now, I'm no botanist, but I do know that if you put water on plants, they grow. Secretary of Energy: Well, I've never seen no plants grow out of no toilet. Secretary of State: Hey, that's good. You sure you ain't the smartest guy in the world? Joe: Okay, look. You wanna solve this problem. I wanna get my pardon. So why don't we just try it, okay, and not worry about what plants crave? Attorney General: Brawndo's got what plants crave. Secretary of Energy: Yeah, it's got electrolytes. Joe: What are electrolytes? Do you even know? Secretary of State: It's what they use to make Brawndo. Joe: Yeah, but why do they use them to make Brawndo? Secretary of Defense: 'Cause Brawndo's got electrolytes.

that's an EXTREMELY cynical viewpoint, IMO. I'll admit that I'm biased.... Ed's writing (and he knows this) is a big part of why I got into media. I initially wanted to be a sports writer because of Ed and, to a degree, Gary Lawless. I started as an undergrad at BU with hopes of transferring for post-grad Journalism school at U of R, but ended up into what was then known as "electronic media" at ACC and, along with lots of other stuff, ended up in sports broadcasting rather than sports writing, per se. So I'm definitely a known biased-fan of Ed's work going back 30 years now, but still..... I think calling his BB.com pieces "advertorials" is extremely cynical if not wholly inaccurate.

Watching House hearings with Gaetz and Jim Jordan, almost comes off as satire....

Tait writes stories now. He used to write news articles.

Ok boomer.

It’s easy to say this but you HAVE to bake in an expectation that we’re going to be missing key guys this year because our key guys have proven they miss games. Wilson, Jeffcoat, Alexander, Bighill … it’d be out of the ordinary if they DIDN’T miss time at this point. Nichols, Houston, Alexander are all super capable. I’m apprehensive about Rose, excited to see Parker take the next step. Not sure what the overall doubt on our secondary is stemming from.

For sure. Comparing Godber, who is barely CFL starter capable and Grandpa Blake to Picard and Labatte is an absolutely insane reach. Godber and Blake are barely an improvement over Clark/(any of the 45 OTs that Riders used last year). Godber got dumped the second Couture became available....and Couture was kind of off his game the last year and a half. That ought to tell the gappers something. Blake, if he was going in at OG, would be a minor improvement but Dickie says he is going to OT where he had one of the worst records among OTs in the CFL last year. Same pylons....different names on the back of their jerseys. Harris is gonna be flatter than a big mac patty by the end of the first third of the season. I am not wishing an injury on him.....but logic is telling me he will not get past game 4-5.

The Comment about the defense surprises me. I dont think we have a top tier D, but i still feel that we have a good/decent defense. I agree that the secondary is a work in progress, and Rose needs to step it up and have a bounce back season.

So on Vanstone and his article, Picard was coming off an Eastern All Star season and Labatte was coming off three Eastern All Star nods and an All CFL nod. Godber and Blake are not really at the same level.

Everybody trashes the CBC but if it wasn't for them we'd probably not know who Gordon Pinsent was. The CBC gave Canadian actors work back in those days. I know Lorne Greene, John Vernon & others got their first tv exposure with the CBC.

it's rare that the 22 Mins Twitter feed says anything funny, but this made me at least chuckle....

Which was utterly frustrating, maddening that the 'Justice system' made that ruling while they hide behind judicial independence.

Disagree on the secondary. In addition to Alexander and Nichols being strengths, Houston looked very good at hb before his injury, Parker looked good at both hb and cb and Lawrence looked good at db. Rose sure is a question mark but may get beat out or rebound.

"We are so full of ****, no one should ever take what we say seriously." Is quite the defence for fox- this is their entire legal defence for subverting democracy. ******* unreal....

Meanwhile, at Costco.....

More clownish lip service from the league.

Also Brandon Bryant

Weekend Fox host Howard Kurtz said he would like to report on the Dominion story but the network has stopped him from commentating.

Anything I would want to ask they aren’t going to answer in any real way - and everything more general can only be asked so many ways. For example : is Collaros going to tell everyone how hurt he was in the Cup? No. He won’t want it to sound like an excuse. Is Jeffcoat going to go into detail about why he thinks this new off season training will help him stay on the field? I doubt it. I mean, I guess I would like to hear from Neufield as to why experienced guys that have been playing together for years were have rough patches (including the Grey Cup). Some of them appeared to be lack of execution or understanding of what the defence was doing (for example : Hardrick had some complete controller disconnect moments where guys blew past him with no reaction). Declining physical ability and increasing injuries across the line are a bit of worry. The secondary was pretty solid by the end of the year and outside of asking Alexander how he is doing physically I’m not sure there is much to ask. Walters already talked pre/post FA so I’m set there and he won’t say much about the draft or his contract. I am just glad Lawler is back and he just had a press conference. As Cory said, @DTonOB will carry water on it like a pro.

Question: Does the home score total on the stadium scoreboard go past 99?

For Zach Collaros: After realizing your receiving corps this season is going to be Lawler/Schoen/Bailey/Demski/Wolitarsky, how long did it take for your erection to subside?