17to85

you're missing the perspective though. A 3rd year guy impressing is different than a jr. player impressing. Jr. guy impressing is done simply by not looking out of place at a professional camp, 3rd year guy impressing means a lot more because it means he's elevating himself above other players who also have pro experience.

basically if the team fails it's because we've had two duds of a coach.. which would be a shame but pretty obvious that while Mack is fantastic at finding players his coacing decisions would have been poor and an insurmountable obstacle necessitating a change at the top.

yeah and we saw that last year too with Johnson volunteering to play SAM even though he was a terrible fit, giving it a try at safety because they needed someone there. Guy is willing to do whatever the team asks him and that's the attitude that every player needs to have.

I think that earns him the label of done as a football player. Last two times he's played he's suffered significant injuries... who wants to give a guy like that a 3rd chance? Feel bad for the kid but that's the harsh reality of pro sports.

I think a bigger part of it is that they just don't want to take that many guys on the road. But I do agree with you on the idea that playing to not get hurt is the worst thing you can do.

He's played SAM at times for this team before and been awesome at it though! Hell the best games of the 2011 season for the defense had Hefney at SAM. It's really a great fit for him,he was better than Kent there.

Suitor is worse than Black in my opinion. Yeah they're different jobs but still I would suffer through a Rod Black game rather than a Suitor game.

I just don't buy that it had anything to do with his release. Burke had been threatening to cut a veteran db from day 1, this is just the natural progression of it.

But the pot thing is really a minor issue. If you want to start cutting CFL players who smoke a little pot you're going to be cutting a lot of people... There's a lot better reasons to cut Hefney than that and that's why I don't believe that it has anything to do with it. Burke has been talking about how unhappy he was with the veteran dbs for a lot longer than that pot thing has been around so who do we think he was talking about when he mentioned that? It's obviously 2 guys, Hefney and Johnson and at least Johnson is a better team player.

if Burkes defense revolved around the nickleback Clint Kent never would have been there. Guy was never a really good db, but he did fit at the position. Let's compromise and say that SAM is more about smarts than physical abilities while a db can quite easily make up for lack of experience or smarts with their physical attributes.

what's unreasonable about giving a player of that status a 2nd chance to earn his spot in the secondary?

If they are wrong then yes, rub it in! There are so many people who show up with this attitude that "It's my opinion and you can't question that because I'm allowed my opinion!" and they need to realize that opinions are usually wrong. You don't like people calling you out for being wrong maybe it's a clue to just tone it down a notch.

Bah too many people worrying about the bonus. I think he earned a chance in camp based on his status with the team, if it costs 35 grand so be it. They gave him a chance to extend his career by switching positions and he didn't take it so be it. that bonus isn't going to make or break the team for one year. Just a lot of people searching for something to complain about. To me the only thing that is a legitimate point of contention is whether or not a trade could have been made to get something out of it, but that's a more complicated issue that just winds up with a lot of speculation.

yeah there were enough people were very adamant that Etienne was a wasted pick and would be cut before he ever did anything for the team, if those people are shown to be wrong, based on the way they acted about it they deserve to have their noses rubbed in it.

It's the place that older dbs who are slowing down have been moved to in order to extend their careers for over a decade! It's harder in the mental sense but doesn't require the same amount of speed, which is why it's a good place for veterans to move to. They lose some speed but make up for it with the veteran experience.

seems pretty straightforward.... Burke tells Hefney he's not good enough to play halfback anymore but he would fit at nickle... Hefney stubbornly refuses to do that and he was cut. Guy really should have played the position... he's good at it! Never understand why a guy won't play what ever position the coaches ask of him.

The one thing that I like about what they're saying regarding Etienne is that he's catching everything. Hands matter more than just about everything else for a receiver and it' sthe #1 thing that's keeping Poblah from being the guy everyone expected him to be when he was draftred. I really hope Etienne grabs a starting role and does well with it because it really would go a long way to vindicating the draft strategy from this team.

Well it could be a coach and GM on different wavelengths or it could indicate a team that wanted to kepe the guy because of his history with the team but said guy kept giving them reasons to dump him... I know Hefney was a real popular Bomber and one of the best on the team for a while, but the guy is also a bad attitude and we saw how that went last season... I see this as giving a guy a 2nd chance and him not recognizing that he needed to change and got released because of it. I just don't see the point in being too upset over this. I don't believe Hefney at this stage is THAT good that it's an insurmountable loss.

You know what, I got no problems giving a guy like that, who was arguably the teams best defensive player for a couple seasons a chance to change his ways even if it costs some cash upfront. Hefney was a damned good player for the bombers. Now whether they should have cut him outright or if they coulda leveraged a token draft pick out of some team or not is a different matter entirely.

you know what, if Hefney isn't willing to do what the team feels is in the teams best interest then you really have to part ways with the guy. Yeah he's got talent.... but me first players need to be replaced with guys all pulling in the same direction.

all you need to know right there.

The amount of times Burke talked about how the secondary needed to pick it up or he didn't like the effort from the veteran dbs you had to expect something like this happening. I really don't think that this had anything to do with the pot bust, I think they were just looking to make a change at db from day one and Hefney was the guy they put on notice and he didn't respond in the way they wanted.

your argument falls flat based on the fact that the blitzing immediately stopped after Buck was pulled. You should just accept the truth of the matter, Jones wanted to hurt Pierce in preseason simple as that.

yeah guys, Jones is the best coach in the CFL!!!!! well except for Milanovich! They don't even need to pay attention to the other teams, they just go out there and be awesome all over the field!

Yeah I don't care how bad the team looked, I mean rider fans are super pumped about that game last night but I saw a couple real sloppy teams that were lucky the other teams kept making mistakes... The things I'm concerned with are things that we talked about a lot in the offseason. Whether Burke is the man, Pierce being back, all that kinda stuff.