bigg jay

So when attendance was terrible at the old stadium, what was the excuse then? If you look at the numbers from the late 90's, the attendance sucked worse than they do now and they didn't have to compete with the NHL either.

You mean like their hockey team?

Calgary & Toronto have both won 5 of the last 25 cups. BC, Montreal & Edmonton each have 4 (Montreal's number includes the year Baltimore won).

I have no doubt that's what they would say. Milanovich may have pushed for it but ultimately Barker still holds the final word. If Osh was to leave and take the Argos job, it would be ironic that he would be the coach to inherit that situation.

Given the price they paid, I almost think they are stuck with Willy (at a reduced amount or not). Can you imagine the reaction here if we traded away the 1st overall pick and then cut the guy we got in return after a couple games? Then again, Toronto doesn't have any fans, so who would actually care?

This is what I have done for every game save the first couple while we were figuring things out. Very easy to get in and out. Walking gives you time to polish off a couple beers too!

Yes, but the part you bolded was in reference to Drew Willy not Ray.

Not a good comparison. Injury-free back-up looking for a chance to start versus a former starter with injury/performance issues trying to resurrect his career. How would Barker know that a 37 year old QB would be more susceptible to injury? Common sense might tell him that or the fact he missed 36 games over 5 seasons would be another indicator that he should probably be planning for the future. He let 2 guys walk in a 3 year span where Ray was already having health issues. The fact that he got absolutely nothing for either guy and then completely over-pays for Willy just makes it all so much worse.

Barker all day. Walters, in hindsight, may have made a mistake but he not only corrected it but he added the 1st overall pick. Barker paid a high price for a broken QB and now he's stuck with him and that contract.

He signed Harris but I wouldn't go as far as to say he found him. I can't find the specifics at the moment, but I remember hearing that he had been on a few different neg lists before he finally landed on Toronto's.

I'll give him some credit for what he's done. The Ray trade (along with Drew Tate getting injured) got him the 100th Grey Cup. One year of success doesn't erase the rest of his career though. QB's: Full marks for Collaros. Barker put him on the neg list and brought him in. When healthy, Collaros is a great QB. The book is still out on Harris. He had a shot to replace Burris and failed... we'll see how he does over the next couple seasons. His decision to cut those guys loose & stick with Ray has to lose points though. Same with the decision to over pay for a broken Drew Willy. 2 positives cancelled out by 2 negatives. He never had a winning record in any of his 4 seasons as a head coach... finishing with a 9-9 record (twice) was a close as he came. The other 2 seasons he was a combined 11-25. Milanovich won the Grey Cup as HC, so if he deserves the blame, he also deserves the praise. He didn't know enough not to trade for Drew Willy... every other GM did.

Alright, I'll bite. Define a lot. Outside the Ray trade, what has he actually done as a GM? Any points he earned on that fleecing may have been negated by the Willy trade. Walters bent him over so bad, he probably still can't sit down. His career record as GM is under .500 in nine seasons with Toronto & Calgary (77-84-1). In Calgary, his team got worse every season until he was replaced by Huff. Under his watch in Toronto, they stuck with a broken, aging QB and lost 2 potential replacements as they left for chances to start elsewhere. Tight purse strings had nothing to do with the fact that they couldn't control their players and had to release the majority of their receiving core. And you want to bring that here?

I would take that 20 year record and the choker label every day of the week over what we have done. Even the years they don't win, they at least have a realistic expectation of being in the hunt for the cup... we can't say the same.

Plenty of LW's make that big cut, not just 2 like you claim. If you want examples of muscular guys, look at Dos Anjos (195) or Paul Felder (185-190), to go with the other names I've already mentioned. If he was dieting down before cutting weight, he would be changing his physique. Judging by a picture he tweeted yesterday, he looks noticeably thinner than when he was fighting (still very much in shape though) so he may already be doing that. Hendricks cuts from much higher than 190-195 so I wouldn't be so quick to compare him to GSP. When he was getting ready to fight Lawler, Johny was 218. Johny said he wants to stay around 195 but it hasn't happened because he can't stick to his diet (just one reason why Mike Dolce no longer works with him). GSP himself said he's around 187 so I would say that trumps whatever sources you have read. That also means that he would not be considered a large ww, that weight puts him about middle of the pack. This isn't anything new though, his camp has talked about going to 155 for at least 5 years.

It's just as easy to say it from Winnipeg. A lot of people didn't like the old location either, you're never going to please everyone

I'd say it's some risk/some reward. Other teams were in the market for his services last year too & we still landed him. If the Bombers weren't very confident they'd be able to re-sign these guys, I doubt they would have made those moves.

It's not weird, it helped both sides. It helped the team avoid cap penalties this year & it helps him get paid more next year.

That could be Danny Vandervoort out of McMaster. He was ranked 4th overall in the initial draft rankings (3rd now I guess since the guy ahead of him has retired due to concussions). He's 6'4, 205lbs, and has been compared to Andy Fantuz.

That rule only applies to cutting weight the week of the fight. That's why I said he would have to diet down first and then cut . It's a 8% limit, meaning the Tuesday before the fight he couldn't weigh more than 167.5. Lightweights walk around in the 180's quite a bit. Eddie Alvarez was in that range only 6 weeks before his fight with Conor so it's not as rare as you think.

My point is that it's not inconceivable. We don't know if he'does be a Tibau or a Hendricks because he's never tried to make that weight. All we know is that other guys with similar size have made that weight on a regular basis so it's possible that GSP could too. One huge difference between him and a guy like Hendricks is their discipline. Johny's biggest problem is that he loves to eat ( I can relate! ?) and needs help keeping his weight down in between fights... GSP doesn't have that problem . He definitely has the mentality to do it, if he was serious about it.

I would argue that if Tibau, who is also very muscular, can cut from 190 then so can GSP. GSP also believes that he can easily make 155 (by dieting down and then cutting).

A couple months ago GSP said he walks around at about 187lbs so if that's true, 155 isn't out of the question. There are definitely lightweights that are around that weight or higher (Gleison Tibau & Dustin Poirier to name a couple).

This. If it means winning games, I don't care if we have 5 international OL. Every team in the East had at least 3 Canadians on the o-line and the only thing that got them was a losing record.

Yep, he's going to test the NFL waters but I think I read the Bombers have another signed contract ready to be filed, should he not land a job down south.