johnzo

back in the day the Ottawa Rough Riders had a fan group called the SouthSiders named after the rowdier "south side" stands. they were a hoot, good fans to hang out with, and they had some swag. they really embraced the South thing, with Confederate battle flags, pins that looked like Confederate cavalry badges, "south will rise again" t-shirts and stuff like that. This was a decade after the Dukes of Hazzard aired so that stuff seemed like just harmless fun. then I traveled the world a bit and figured out it's pretty ******* serious business to a lot of people. always wondered what southern US football players thought when they looked up in the stands and saw the stars and bars waving to celebrate a big defensive play. If they cared I hope they just thought we were clueless.

We got a good season from Dressler in 2016, he was a thousand yard guy and led us is catches and yardage. Was always a Dressler fan so enjoyed see him playing for the good guys. but yeah when the Bombers don't get good results from signing veteran receivers. I'd add Nick Moore and Chris Matthews to your list of vets who haven't worked out.

I'm surprised the salary cap jumped like that -- is the league healthy enough to spend $3.6MM more on salaries?

After ten years of development, Blue Origin's New Glenn flew for the first time early this morning. It put its second stage smoothly into orbit. We didn't hit our stretch goal of landing the first stage on the recovery barge, but getting into orbit on our first try has us all grinning. (I work for Blue Origin)

speaking of being old, this is where my brain went with that:

Vivian Smith-Smythe-Smith was in the Guards ... this year's Damian Jackson?

So much of this varies by situation that it's really tough to talk in general about a living wage (read the wikipedia page on Poverty in Canada for an overview about why poverty and income studies are so complicated) A Blue Bomber who has no obligations beyond his monthly xbox live payment is gonna have a lot easier time living on C$70K than a guy who's supporting his spouse and two kids in Vancouver on that wage, or god forbid sending money back to the USA. The exchange rate is murder these days.

correct. I made it an annual income in order to compare it with Canada's poverty line. The math doesn't change, though. Think about it in terms of month expenses -- Canada's poverty line divided by 12 is $2700-$3300 a month, and the minimum-wage PR player is only making $3000 a month (plus housing expenses) before taxes so they're in the poverty neighborhood during the football season ... unless they get a good housing stipend, PR money over the minimum, or unless they can burn offseason savings during football season.

answering my own question. Practice roster players make $750/week (before taxes) + housing allowance. Housing allowance does not count against the salary cap. As an annual wage that's $39K before taxes. Canada computes the poverty line differently for different regions because cost of living differs between downtown Vancouver and rural Quebec. It varies between $32K and $40K annually as of 2020. So right away you've got 13 guys per team making wages that are right around the Canadian poverty line (without counting housing allowances, which I've got no insight into.)

do practice roster guys still make $500 / week? Were practice roster guys even surveyed by the PA?

Fajardo now an Elk and MBT is an Alouette. Wonder if the Elks will pay Cody's big offseason bonus? Can the Als pay both MBT and Alexander? Per cfl.ca, MBT is a free agent in February.

What bucket does facilities fall into?

I think Maas did a great job rolling out Davis Alexander too. So glad that Maas beat out Mace for COTY. once upon a time the dude was just a jug-eared gatorade destroyer, but now he's the guy who beat us in the Grey Cup with Cody freakin Fajardo. Bragging rights earned.

Dunigan at his best was fantastic, but I don't think you'd ever call him clutch. He laid a lot of playoff / Grey Cup eggs. The one I remember best is the Grey Cup in 1992. Our D was awesome, it held Flutie & Co to just 24 points, but it got zero support from the O. Dunigan only mustered 46 yards of passing in 3+ quarters before he got pulled for Danny Mac. He was worse than numb-thumb Collaros.

speaking of running QBs, Tracy Ham was one of the most complete guys I've ever seen play. He could kill you with his legs or his arm and he was way more consistent than guys like Dunigan and Allen were. Basically a QB designed for the CFL, not a glorified running back. I think Ham is a guy we don't talk about enough when talking about the all-time greats -- he's not a Flutie or Moon but fits real nice in the tier underneath those guys.

The dude's game has changed a bunch in his time as a starter tho -- he used to be at his best running around, scrambling, making DLs look silly with that spin move and making big hay on broken plays. nowadays he's not nearly as zippy as he once was, he plays much more controlled with quick throws from the pocket. Looks like mileage and maturity (and the Maas coaching) has been accumulating.

yup. I don't get why MBT gets no respect around here. Dude delivers.

dude, if I remember right, you ragequit the game broadcast and thread during the @Montreal regular season finale. You cursed the 2024 team as surefire semifinal losers. Maybe it was you who provoked the shenanigans of the wind god? The gods hate a false prophet. I made it thru 1987, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2009, 2010, and 2013. I saw Tom Clements put up three points in 60 minutes at a home Western Final. I've eaten playoff 65-burgers, I've watched internally handled circuses and kneeldown shitshows and Jason Boltus. I was there when Travis Lulay painted Swaggerville orange and when Marcus Crandell won his Grey Cup MOP award. I tuned in for every game of the almost-good-enough Lapo squad that lost ten games by a combined thirty points. We were a potential 14-4 team that played down to 4-14 that year. I'm pretty sure I'm a lifer at this point too.

Dinwiddie right now is Mike Riley. Young HC with two unlikely Grey Cups in three years.

you'd seriously take two-game wonder Crum over legit CFL starter MBT? Like say we got Dinwiddied and had to play a Grey Cup with no QB1 -- you'd really rather trot out Crum as a starter than MBT? I do not get the hate. Everyone on MBB is always clowning the dude but I've never seen a legit reason to write him off. Did those ancestors punch everyone's grandad in the junk or something? Crum is actually the only guy on that list who's a hard no from me. We've seen his ceiling and it ain't very high. Not real keen on Fajardo either. I have some empathy for that guy because Alexander's rise means he's out his $200K roster bonus and that's really gotta sting in a life-altering way ... but still I think you have to suck it up when you're talking publicly about your teammates.

Lapo postmortem on the Winnipeg O vs. Argo D in the Grey Cup, if you can stand to watch it. He specifically praises Wynton McManus and Benjy Frankin, who read their plays so well that they could be in two places at once.

I don't get that. Maas was injured and in and out of the lineup in both 2002 and 2003, was the undisputed starter in 2004 when Ray was in the NFL, was the backup to Ray for all of 2005, and then he peaced out to the TiCats in 2006. After flaming out as the TiCat starter, he bounced around the league after that, even refusing to report to Montreal were he would've been Calvillo's backup. Maybe you're thinking of Drew Tate, who seemed extremely content to be the #2 in Calgary?

Hell yeah bring back the football W. I wouldn't be mind seeing a Khari-era retro at some point. Those are definitely my favorite outfits of the navy era. Love that chonky nameplate font.

exactly. who gives a **** how many passing yards Collaros had? We've won plenty of games we had no business winning.

Drew Willy, but that was a million years ago and Osh was on real thin ice at the time.