comedygeek

I was curious about this dude's other writing. He had an article on CFL starting QBs:

I enjoy reading Holly MacKenzie's pieces for Raptors.com (essentially for NBA.com). She does write-ups summarizing and previewing all games and big stories. Plus the human interest stories to fill in the gaps. Same thing as Tait (minus the Hall of Fame status of course) -- working for Sportsnet and transitioning that into a deal with the team itself. But the recaps are better than on any other media site, she doesn't sugarcoat things too much (there's a slight positive spin/bias, but doesn't try to celebrate the good when things are bad), and brings a professionalism to what probably used to be point-form intern work. I'm excited to read Bomber news and updates through BlueBombers.com first, and the Freep/Sun/TSN/CJOB (and obviously here) after that, for the critical analysis that can't ever happen to that level on their own website.

To be fair, most of the day-to-day gear (polos, t-shirts, hats) are kind of ugly by design standards. So the baby-blue sheer polo looking bad doesn't surprise me at all! Heh. Thank God the new jerseys will likely look awesome! And a few of the new-coloured merch is actually pretty decent, especially the classic logo-with-gold-stripe ballcap. But I just wish "sports" clothing designs in 2016 used classic but modern design themes overall. Authentic merch from the 80s still looks pretty awesome today, for the most part. (MLB and the NBA have a bit better track record with this over the last few years.)

You act like Kyle Walters hasn't talked about the need to continue to improve the Oline this offseason. He has. Just because in one interview he didn't answer a question about Drew Willy with a detour into where he thinks the Oline has improved, doesn't mean he isn't thinking about it and doesn't even mean he hasn't talked about it. He has. It's clearly a concern.

I had no problem with your criticism of his criticism -- I just thought it was a weak shot that, as someone who has a similar post count to his (even though I was a regular for years on OB and was one of the first members to sign up on MBB) but feels just as part of this site and the discussions and the fandom as anyone else. Discussion is important, but why should I post more if I have nothing constructive to add? I try to only post when I feel something that hasn't yet been said needs to be said -- otherwise I'll just like posts that express what I would've said already. There's a lot of people here that I agree with much of the time, who often get to things before I do, so there's no sense in repeating things. Plus, even lurkers and infrequent posters still bring pageviews and ad views, keeping the site running. Of course, there'd be no pages to view without good posts and replies to begin with, but we're all important cogs in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan community and Morning Big Blue! (I didn't purposefully mean to catch it our out you before you deleted/edited it -- I just happened to see it and felt I needed to add my 2 cents.)

No needs to talk down to someone because of their "inferior post count". I don't post that often, but I'm on here almost day and consider myself a pretty knowledgeable fan. Many others are in the same category as me. Lots of people read but don't post, lots of people can't be here every day but still know what they're talking about, and lots of knowledgeable fans also post frequently -- which is cool, too! Unless of course post count is all that matters around here?

I never said it made him a "real" #1. But when he is your team's #1 target and leads your team in yardage, he's your #1 receiver. Whether he should've been doesn't change that. And I can't seem to find any specific Denmark salary info right now to corroborate my $180,000 total that I remember hearing, but I did find this Sun article from when he signed his extension: http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/09/13/denmark-gets-small-raise-determined-to-earn-it

Yeah, he was a #1 by default when no other options existed for the Bombers, but as 17 said, he definitely played better when all the attention wasn't solely on him. Basically, way too big a salary for the role he would've had with the Blue this season.

Denmark had to be about the money more than the skill and numbers. The guy has been consistent as a #2 (and occasionally #1) threat, but with them signing similar-style players in Smith and Dressler (small, fast, good hands, good effort), Denmark's $180,000 or so salary was too much. He always seemed like a good guy and a team-first player, so I hope he catches on somewhere else and plays well in every game except against us! With Turner, we'll always have the Superhuman Bryant Turner legend -- decades from now I'll still remember all those hilarious memes.

You got some inside info???

Yeah, as has been said above, the player may not say, "I should take a pay cut," but the teams often do -- "take a pay cut or we'll release you". As long as teams can break contracts with no repercussions, then in certain obvious situations (this being one of them -- a projected CFL starter earning far lower than any rostered QB in the CFL) it seems perfectly reasonable.

He's also still on the Als' neg list, isn't he?

Main Street near Portage is totally fine. I'm half a block away from it right now. There are a lot of problem areas in Winnipeg, but Main is much lower down the list, I'd say.

The NHL plays all its players in American dollars. Even the 7 NHL teams. So that's not an issue. NFL USA failed in the 90s because (besides Baltimore) it was crappy markets and owners who were begged to be a part of the league. We needed it to survive as a league, and bent over backwards to give into their awful demands, just to get an influx of cash to the CFL. In the end, the whole thing was rubbish because the owners didn't care, thus the fans didn't care. If an owner and fan base want a team, the CFL is the power position. 2 non-negotiables: must find a way for the ratio to exist for *all* teams; and no rule changes are made to accommodate any new teams. In theory, it could work. In actuality, very unlikely, of course.

I love Thursday night games, or maybe Sunday afternoon. Friday and Saturday nights there's just so much going on that I'd rather not have to make the choice!

How many times have you worn your jersey(s) without washing them?? I'll remember this in the future. Haha. I don't wash them every time, depending on wear, but on a hot summer day, even with a shirt underneath, hell yeah that jersey will need to be washed!

This bothers me, because good designers will make the websites look ideal for both. It's really lazy coding. As someone who does responsive design, you have to make them work really well for several key sizes, not a "catch-all" that will technically work with them all but not look ideal in some.

I don't think anyone is saying that the team's uniform is more important than winning, or even that anything is more important than winning. However, that doesn't thus mean that winning is the only thing. Of course winning is #1, but the way the players act in the community, the entertainment value of their play (independent of wins), the amount of fun they have, the level of respect the players have for fans, the uniforms and other merch-related decisions ALL are part of a team's value. If the Bombers were filled with players of questionable character who didn't give a **** about Winnipeg or its fans, while wearing hideous uniforms to boot, I wouldn't really care how much they won. I wouldn't be a fan of the team, no matter where I lived or what team I grew up cheering for.

A lifetime 87% kicker will win us a lot more games than either (a) a top Canadian LT out of position in place of a decent Import RT; or (b) a top Canadian LT in place of a top Import LT. The fact that we have much stronger potential Canadian starters this season, means that there's no need to put Bourke in place of Bryant, even if their skillset is a wash. Plus, their salaries sure as heck wouldn't be a wash!

12-6 then?

Yes

Ha!

We'll have to. Don't we only have 3 Canadian OL under contract (one being always-injured Neufeld)?

So we're thinking Day 1 is likely Medlock, Harris, Smith, Shologan, and Lochard? Not a bad first day haul if it all works out. Some key additions in key areas. Need some depth at the very least on the OL though, don't we?

Guessing it's a case of not being able to work on more than a few deals at once. So if the DL was lower on our list with all the potential players available, other teams could beat us to the top guys while we're trying to sign our #1 (and #2 and #3) targets. If we get Medlock, Harris, and Smith signed and Capicotti is still available, I hope we have an offer waiting! (I assume Laing is still expecting NFL interest.)