johnzo

The BC white road jerseys look fantastic, that reddy orange is an awesome trim colour. It's the home ones that look like jack o'lanterns without candles.

I'm not the youtube hero, just searched for it last night and was surprised to find it.

Full game on youtube for your armchair coaching pleasure:

okay, in retrospect "Mr. June" is less praise than I intended. It just seems like the guy is always in midseason form at the start of the season. Look at how burning hot he was in the first month last year for Saskatchewan. New team, new offense, new receivers, no big deal, he just slings the ball and puts up the numbers wherever he goes.

So pumped at how decent Davis and Bennett looked. Sure they were playing against backups, but the rookie pivots we've rolled through here in the past didn't look like they could even execute the game plan, let alone execute it against opposition. Liked to see them standing in the pocket, delivering balls, scrambling when needed. They looked like CFL quarterbacks. Really curious to see how our import RBs stack up against actual CFL linebackers, Montreal was playing all backups the whole game at LB. Kevin Glenn is Mr. June, that guy always rolls out hot when the weather's nice. He's gonna do some damage with that stacked receiving corps that Montreal has. Hope a young QB emerges on the Alouettes, though -- gotta keep the fresh supply of young QBs coming into the league.

Pretty amazing preseason game where it doesn't look like anyone played themselves straight off the team. With all those promising receivers in camp, is there any way that Darvin Adams might get beat out?

I'm just lucky I didn't type his name as McGahee or McGarrity. Too many former Bomber names rattling around in my #oldmanbrain.

He's gotta catch the ball, though. Wasn't impressed with the pick that McGuffie caused -- nicely thrown ball clanks off his hands at the five yard line and boom its intercepted and the drive is snuffed out. That's a terrible mistake to make in the red zone in your first pre-season game. (That was McGuffie, right? I don't have a replay handy)

Oh yeah, if I'm at a hockey or a football game, I'm not there to socialize, I'm there for the game. Baseball and soccer have a different vibe for me tho.

Watching soccer live is like watching baseball live, it's a social game, you go to hang out with people and have a blast and maybe something exciting happens occasionally. Baseball is better tho because it's played during the nice weather season here.

He might have a rough time in school, but he'll have a bright future as a CFL player agent.

**** it, I'm leaving work early to watch this.

It's weird how Popp just suddenly fell apart as soon as Trestman left. He wasn't just coasting on Calvillo, he recruited and built some genuinely great teams for a decade. Those teams were loaded with talent everywhere. Kinda sad, I like seeing Montreal lose after all the miseries they've put us through but I don't want any team in the CFL to be a complete gong show.

Damn, I haven't listened to Isaac Hayes in forever, thanks for the prompt iso. Taynted's Highway Star got me thinking about this album, the only Black Sabbath with Ian Gillen on vocals. A lotta people bag on this record, but I think it's fantastic and that cover is perfect ugly.

Hey, don't get me wrong, I think the NFL's great (even though it's tiresome to watch it jerk itself off) and I love watching Hawks games with my friends here, it's just that I grew up on Clements, Reaves, Murphy, Jones, Battle, etc, in royal blue and so that's where my heart is. I'd gladly trade the Hawks super bowl win for a Bombers grey cup win. (And also I know nothing about locker-room culture in any league, so I got no inside information on how Pete Carroll manages his stars.)

You're right. Popp would never do anything that made absolutely no sense.

I'm not really sure, I'm a pretty casual seahawks fan. Don't even watch the NFL until the Grey Cup's over, unless I get gifted tickets.

I bet if Henoc announced he'd switched sides to play QB, he'd get a ludicrous contract offer from Popp within an hour.

Dominique Davis has rocked #6 for his entire time with us, was surprised to see it on the sidelines during a game last year.

Man we gotta get those guys playing a Grey Cup before Neil can't play drums at all.

I've been told by my immigration attorney that a green card is way way weaker than actual citizenship. You can't vote, it can be revoked for a variety of reasons, etc. I've gotta keep my nose clean in this country or I'm kicked out. I have heard of cases where green cards holders are seriously hassled at the border and threatened with loss of their green cards unless they cooperate. And some of those are white Canadians. Presumably it's harder for brown Somalis -- especially in a world where millions of Muslims are named (for instance) "Saladin Mohammed." I asked my new friend why he didn't get his citizenship, he said he is working on it, because he wants to vote in this election. Now losing one's green card at the border might not be a realistic anxiety. But more generally, you have this climate where a demagogue guy can make serious hay politically by pointing the finger at Muslims as the problem in the world. Even if Trump isn't elected, it has got to be seriously frightening to see giant crowds eating up that kind of hate. You know how you've got those progressives who believe that white people (men specifically) are the whole problem with whole world, what with their sexism, colonalism, neoliberal capitalism, slavery, pretend meritocracy and so forth. When I hear that kind of stuff, I get angry, I can't help but take it personally because I'm a good guy and I've worked hard for my ****. Now imagine that it's not just some loudmouthed tumblr activist or low-level politico talking about how white men are The Problem, but instead it's a serious candidate for the President of the USA who is running his mouth while tens of thousands of people roar their approval. This is the guy who would control Homeland Security, the various immigration services, the FBI, a number of creepy espionage services, and the military. The right wing press in this country constantly harps about how Obama is out of control, how he is an imperial president who operates unconstitutionally and without regard for the will of Congress. Now you take that, and you wonder, who is going to be the checks and balances on President Trump if he goes nuts? That's when my anger would turn to fear. (For as much as I didn't like President Bush Jr., I always admired the way he refused to paint the entire Muslim population as the enemy, especially right after 9/11 when the USA was clamoring to carpet nuke everything from Indonesia to Istanbul )

I don't know if they are illegals. I didn't ask to see their papers. I did talk to one guy at length about his story. He came to America as a child. He was a refugee legally admitted during the Somali civil war of the 1990s. He arrived here alone, his family and parents had disappeared in the chaos. A few years ago, after growing up in the USA, he made contact again with his family via the Internet. Now he sends them money regularly and hopes to someday bring them here, at least for a visit. He's worried that Trump is going to seize those renumerations, as he's vowed to do to Mexicans. He's also worried his family will never get to come to visit him, and that if he goes to visit them he will not be allowed back in, even though he holds a U.S. green card.

Yup. Build up in public, tear down in private. Best way to do it.

My wife and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant in the neighborhood the other day. There were tons of Somalis in there and they all wanted to talk to us about Donald Trump. They're scared of him.

Preseason's gonna be pretty vanilla in terms of schemes, though, right? Aren't they holding back the special sauce for the regular season?