Mike

This is actually a real kill shot to the sports department for the WFP. Nobody is going to pay anything to read Wiecek columns. You couldn't pay me to read them.

Because I'm slow - help me understand why the PA would not agree to this. The PA has proven in the past that they're fuelled almost exclusively by $$$ and this doesn't really do much damage to someone's earning potential, unless the suggestion is being made that teams would shy away from offer sheets.

Sure does. Sure is. Unfortunately, and I say this with no offense intended, you haven't been around long enough to have gone down the same road a million times before with Iso. When things are going fine, he's more than capable of having a civil conversation. When things are going bad? Heaven forbid you say something that goes against one of his rants. I wasn't kidding before when I said he follows the same schtick over and over again. He gets angry, he goes off on an emotional fueled rant, it gets called out, he plays the victim card, then he apologizes for his out of character behavior. It's an incredibly predictable pattern because many of us have seen it countless times before. Iso is very knowledgeable. Unfortunately, he doesn't tend to draw from his experience and knowledge very often when things aren't going well.

I think it does. I believe Lawless may have touched on this recently (wouldn't know, all I can read are news headlines, not paying for WFP) but either way ... it's about time the CFL considered it. Let me present a situation here. 2011 CFL Draft - Winnipeg spends the 1st overall pick on Henoc Muamba, Montreal spends the 22nd overall pick on Philip Blake. Henoc signs a two year contract, Philip Blake ends up signing with an NFL team. Fast forward to 2015 ... both were on the market - one in a free agency scenario, one in a scenario where Montreal held his rights infinitely until they chose otherwise. Why is this? For Winnipeg's investment, they got a year and a half of a player who contributed to their roster. They developed him into a player who was able to go to the NFL and earn a NFL sized paycheque. They actually invested FAR more than Montreal did on Philip Blake and now 5 years later, Montreal is able to reap the benefits of having held onto those rights at a cost of zero to them. There are other examples ... Ben Heenan and Brett Jones will be free market players when they come back to the CFL (if) just the same as Matt O'Donnell was. Will they come back to their original teams? Maybe. Should they be forced to under terms that aren't beneficial to them? No. But I truly believe that Saskatchewan and Calgary should have the right to match any offers made to Heenan and Jones. They invested in the player. They should get a return or at least have the right to receive one if they want it. Here's why it makes sense - it's far more beneficial for teams to currently draft guys who are beyond CFL development at this point and wait on them to return to the CFL (Cory Greenwood, Philip Blake, etc) than it is to draft guys who you essentially have to risk losing after their first contract is spent on the entire time required for them to mature into a contributing player. My suggestion? Your RFA rights are owned by the team that drafted you (or signed you as a UDFA) until your 5th year in the CFL or the end of your second contract (whichever is longer) Is there any reason to NOT do this at this point?

I'm not sure if you understand the term competitive anymore. You own this site so you have the last word on everything. Yep, you're right. I'm wrong. That's the way it is as you're always right anyway. Let's just end this. You win. Step 1: Something upsets Iso. Step 2: Iso starts ranting and raving. Step 3: Iso gets called on it by another MBB member. Step 4: Iso whines and makes a big stink about how the person who called him on his anger is making it personal. **WE ARE HERE** Step 5: Iso apologizes about making a big deal out of it, says sorry for letting his emotions get the best of him. Rinse, wash, repeat. Let me know when we get to step 1 again, step 5 is worthless at this point.

I'm not sure if you understand the term competitive anymore.

Haha wow, talk about arguing semantics! Okay then you explain... if you can't tell the difference. Let's say we lose to Calgary 28-27 this week... Person 1: well we were at least competitive in that game Person 2: we held up with the class of the league, this team is incredibly competitive... It's all perspective... that's all I'm saying i don't look upon it like that. Incredibly Competitive WERE the Ti Cats before Collaros got hurt coasting to the playoffs at full speed dismantling teams at home. Or the Stamps cruising along, maybe in close games but finding ways to win at the end. Competitive teams are those that win 1 lose 2 or win 2, lose 3 but are 8-10 or 9-9 at seasons end. We were 3-3 when Willy got hurt so we were competive. On any given day we could beat the best or lose to the worst. Willy gave us a chance to win every game but if people think we were good enough to hang with Hamilton or Calgary with Drew Willy before he was injured then they were wrong. ... we DID hang with Calgary. What part of that are you missing?

Actually, going into the game Willy got hurt .. we were in first place .. Weren't we 3-4 or 3-5 when Willy got hurt? 3-3 going into the game. So 2nd place, I believe.

Haha wow, talk about arguing semantics! Okay then you explain... if you can't tell the difference. When Drew Willy finished the game this year, the only game we lost, we lost by 1 point to the defending Grey Cup champs and it came down to the final possession of the game to be decided. If that's not "incredibly competitive", what is?

As for getting rid of O'Shea or keeping him ... I think O'Shea takes a lot of heat for all of the wrong reasons. Which, to me, is funny because there's a very obvious reason he SHOULD be taking a lot of heat that anyone rarely questions him on. His roster management is absolutely atrocious. The makeup of our 44 man gameday roster has been awful all year and a lot of it seems to be because MOS isn't able to make roster moves on his own - his hand has to be forced by injury to do anything. In the 2 years that he has been head coach, I'd like to see anyone name one player that has been benched because of their performance. There hasn't been. The little things that he's failed to do all year have been atrocious. Brendan Morgan, in the earlier part of the year, was taking ST penalty after ST penalty and not once did he find his way off the gameday roster because of it. The revolving door of defensive ends has been incredibly frustrating as well - only once we found Justin Cole did they sort that out and that was only because Thad Gibson got nicked. Tim Cronk having any role on our roster boggles my mind. The fact that he's a backup long snapper pales in comparison to the fact that we have him out there taking a considerable amount of snaps on offense despite being useless as anything other than a minor speedbump. With the return of Ian Wild, there's absolutely no reason you couldn't have Chris Normand fill that role and actually be versatile enough to provide some offensive upside as well. If Cronk stays on this week? Horrible decision. Letting Bryant Turner play while Nate Collins wastes away on the sidelines is a total shame too. Turner has been better of late but him and Anderson have taken turns this year doing absolutely nothing but Collins for some reason stays stapled to the bench unless there's an injury. Chevon Walker. Enough said. Dominic Picard. You can't tell me it's to keep continuity with the QB handling the same snaps, so what's the deal? Give Goossen a chance already, Picard has been atrocious all year. Justin Veltung is the best returner on our team but Troy Stoudermire is allowed to keep fumbling his way through games because he's the defacto man at that position. Nevermind the ball security issues. He was our guy last year, he's our guy this year. Why? Because loyalty I suppose. The roster management MOS employs is downright insulting. The fact that nobody gets benched for ANY level of poor performance is unacceptable, in my opinion. It's the same **** we went through with Kuale last year. Realistically ... with the personnel we have right now available to us, this should be our roster QB - Nichols, Davis, Brohm RB - Marshall, Normand FB - Pontbriand REC - Moore, Adams, Denmark, Veltung, Willie, Bastien, Kohlert OL - Bryant, Neufeld, Picard, Goossen, Chungh, Capers DL - Westerman, Cole, Peach, Turner, Collins, Thomas, Brown LB - Wild, Bass, Hurl, Leggett, Briggs, Waggoner, Newman DB - Bucknor, Johnson, Washington, Adams, Jones, Morgan S - Shell, Sherman K - Hajrullahu P - Castillo LS - Rempel

The reality is that the injury that took Willy out of the lineup for multiple games was going to happen sooner or later. So the idea of Willy staying healthy and keeping the Bombers competitive for an entire year is just a fantasy. This, I agree with. With the protection we were providing him? No way was a full year in the cards. Sadly. And I agree with you both there. It is sad. As much as I'd like to agree with you Mike as we all want the Bombers to win, we just have too many holes on our roster to be really competitive. ... then why were we incredibly competitive while Drew Willy was healthy? I mean really ... name these holes on our roster. Running back? I'll give you that one. Receiver? Debatable ... we could use another game breaker but Adams/Moore/Denmark seemed just fine while Drew was healthy. OL? Yeah ... probably why Willy is on the sidelines to begin with. But the talent itself is nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be. Scheme wise? Terrible. Defense? I don't see a lot of personnel holes. Especially as the year has gone on. I see one glaring issue with our team - the offensive game plan. Our talent isn't elite level but it's easily sufficient to maintain a competitive level of football with the proper gameplan. There aren't a LOT of holes on this team. There is one major one. And it's killing us.

The reality is that the injury that took Willy out of the lineup for multiple games was going to happen sooner or later. So the idea of Willy staying healthy and keeping the Bombers competitive for an entire year is just a fantasy. This, I agree with. With the protection we were providing him? No way was a full year in the cards. Sadly.

I don't agree with that. Maybe a couple wins more than now. They're 6-12 or 7-11 with Willy. Still nowhere near good enough. That doesn't even make any sense. When Drew Willy finished a game this year, they were 3-1 ... even when you count the one he left late, we're 3-2 So you think he stays healthy the rest of the year and only manages at best 4-9? Yep. You seem to forget that we were 5-1 last season & then went 2-11 the rest of the way with Willy as the starter. I don't see much of a difference between last year's team & this year's on offense. We don't have the offensive line to make a difference like last year. We don't have good coaching on the offensive side of the football like last year. Thanks to Ritchie Hall, our defense is average to slightly above maybe but it's improving. However, the defense can't hold us in every game when the offense can't move the football. Our Special teams coverage is horrible & has been all season. We don't have the talent & the Bombers are not a very good team.I like Drew Willy but he wouldn't make that much of a difference, I believe. If you didn't see the difference between Drew Willy this year and Drew Willy last year, I don't know what to tell you. The guy clearly took steps as a QB. I think saying we could have been hovering around .500 is a very fair, cautious estimate. Like I said, we were a competitive football team. Maybe you've forgotten what Drew Willy was like earlier this year because we've been forced to watch absolute garbage ever since then, but he was operating at a very high level and it was pretty clear he had taken the next step in his development. Was he a finished product, a complete QB? No. But the strides he had made were obvious and we weren't going to be a 3-10 team the rest of the way with him.

People just LOVE the hyperbole. Whether it's with win/loss records or salaries, they throw around numbers like "6-12" or "250k" like they have any clue what it means. Here's the reality: with Drew Willy, we were a COMPETITIVE football team. With him in the lineup starting and finishing a game, we were 3-1 ... could've been 4-0, could've been 2-2. But we competed every game and had a shot. Logical thinking suggests that doesn't balance out at 6-12 unless we REALLY had things not going our way.

I don't agree with that. Maybe a couple wins more than now. They're 6-12 or 7-11 with Willy. Still nowhere near good enough. That doesn't even make any sense. When Drew Willy finished a game this year, they were 3-1 ... even when you count the one he left late, we're 3-2 So you think he stays healthy the rest of the year and only manages at best 4-9?

I am.

It was efficient at moving the ball, but I wouldn't say it looked really good. We weren't exactly lighting up the scoreboard.

Pole Morris.

Tom Higgins is still desirable around here?

Love it.

Not sure what Wild will do for us here. Also really wonder if this means Simmons is a goner. Doubt this means we're out of the Henoc race.

PPV yesterday seemed like it was just a really average version of Raw. Nothing that got me fired up. Having Kane close out a PPV? LOL. Come on.

I heard the Lawless interview this morning & what he said really makes no sense. I don't even know what that even means? I've heard Murphy on the radio here in Calgary being interviewed plenty in the past on the Stamps flagship station 770 CHQR AM. The guy doesn't sound rough around the edges at all. He can be direct & to the point. He knows football plain & simple & knows how to build a winner. Interesting that when the media here in Calgary want to get the scoop du jour on player personnel matters they don't ask Huff.They ask Murphy. The Lawless comment about Murphy not being refined just smacks like the reason we passed on Lemar Durant & took Addision Richards instead because Durant is a quiet guy & didn't "interview well". Guys like Walters were so busy trying to find fault with his personality that they totally ignored his talent & he passed right by them to the Stamps who gleefully snapped him up. If the Bombers could get Murphy then passed because he wasn't "refined" then how stupid are they? Wait, don't answer that. I mean, if you want to take this a bit further & discuss Lawless then, how does he get a gig on the radio & is seen on tv as he has a demeanor & a voice better suited to work anywhere but the broadcast media. How refined does an overweight, wrinkled, middle aged man in a brushcut look? But hey, I ain't prejudging... I did like how Lawless laughed off the Chris Walby comments that Danny McManus should take over as GM as he's "just a scout". No management experience at all. Lawless' comments are accurate. Murphy IS rough around the edges. It's been the knock on him for a very long time and it's a big reason why he hasn't already been given a GM opportunity. That being said, I don't even care. Hire him anyways.

Stayed healthy and employed a competent offensive coordinator. Seriously. Ottawa has stayed healthier than probably every team in the league this year. They wouldn't be as good as they are if Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, BC, Montreal and Edmonton didn't have to contend with a ridiculous amount of injuries.

I don't think we're regressing or going backwards. Realistically, I'd like to see what we could do next year with a healthy Drew Willy coupled with a competent OC. That being said, Walters is probably gone which could mean a whole new hierarchy. Still going to hope for a healthy Drew Willy and a competent OC. It will be interesting to see what direction we go in if Walters leaves.