comedygeek

Drew Edwards Verified account ‏@scratchingpost 57s58 seconds ago BREAKING: K/P Justin Medlock has agreed to terms with the #Bombers. #CFLFA #Ticats

Not a lot of distance. Excellent accuracy.

The New Rouge Radio ‏@RougeRadio 3m3 minutes ago #Bombers inching closer to Justin Medlock #CFLFA

TSN Radio 1150 Verified account ‏@TSN1150 2m2 minutes ago Trevor Harris will not be returning to the #Argos as @TSNScianitti just reported live w/ @jimtatti #CFLFA

Irfaan Gaffar Verified account ‏@sportsnetirf 2m2 minutes ago Breaking - Andrew Harris will sign with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. #CFLFA

250K and you make the deal, absolutely. But it sounds like a number of teams will be willing to pay him that. Who can go higher is the question.

Find a way to get Capicciotti and we won't be worrying about the $300K madness of Laurent anyway. Yes, he's the best, but no non-QB is worth that kind of money, Canadian or not. And Capicciotti's 23 sacks in the last 2 years isn't too shabby.

Hey Negative Nancy!

I don't think anybody is pinning our hopes on 2 guys who we signed PRE-free agency. The article was just pointing out that some teams (including us) got the jump on signings before FA starts. This is a good thing. I really do hope you're better now.

If we can't be at least cautiously optimistic and a tad excited about prospects, what's the point of being a fan of the team at all? No CFL team can be made up of purely experienced and proven players. It's impossible. And even if somehow it were possible, even with "proven" or "experienced" players, nothing is a sure thing year-to-year. We know that first hand over the last couple years with some of our free agent signings that turned out less than stellar. Every experienced player was once a prospect. I know it's a crapshoot, but nothing in sports is guaranteed, even us losing.

They apparently have a TV contract for all 40 games.

I wonder why it wasn't until last year that you were nervous about converts? (Hint: It's due to more than just our kicker. :P)

Winnipeg beats out all of those cities with cost of living. Average rent, for instance, is almost $200 cheaper in Winnipeg than the next closest CFL city. Cost of living index (which factors in all sorts of things) puts Winnipeg as one of the lowest in Canada, and again ahead of every CFL city. When you're an American earning Canadian $$ (or just any CFLer making a reasonable but not great salary), cost of living definitely matters as much as (or more than) "coolness factor". (However, I'd also argue that once someone has played and lived in Winnipeg, they often tend to like the city. So that appeal may keep us players more than it initially brings us players.) The competitiveness of the ball club is obviously a big downside for us, but as Ottawa showed last year, a quick turnaround is possible. So it may not be as big of an issue as some of us think.

The talk of him being a problem in the locker room go back to the early point of his career, and it's one of the things (combined with bouncing around team-to-team) why many weren't interested in him coming to the Bombers. But yes, he never got any kind of bad rap during his time in Saskatchewan, so it's entirely possible he's matured and would be a good asset to have.

I've heard it discussed before, but the most recent thing that popped up that I remembered reading a few days ago, was this tweet. (And I remembered not just because of its topic, but because I found it interesting to see Ray Ferraro post anything about the CFL in any context. Heh.)

I've heard from NHLers that when salaries became public, it greatly benefited the players. Why that is would be speculative, but I think it probably allows players to better use each other's pay as leverage against clubs who want to get away with underpaying and undervaluing talent. I'm sure the same would happen in the CFL, and so the teams and league would prefer to keep them hidden. And since they mostly got their way when the last CBA was signed, that's why public salaries weren't included in the final deal. It may end up being one of the pieces the CFLPA will try to put into the next CBA, though.

Check Hamilton's record during that time. Or Ottawa's for about the same amount of seasons (not including the time they didn't have a team, of course). We're not alone in our recent ineptitude, but we are the only public team who hasn't won a Grey Cup in the last 3 seasons I guess.

Which makes you wonder why he signed an extension. Heh.

And the Bombers let go of Bowman. And the Als let go of Terrence Edwards. It happens all the time.

Good information to learn. As a web developer for nearly 20 years, I've gone through my share of hosts, hosting issues, hosting failures, etc. -- either directly with my own hosts, or dealing with new clients' old hosts. I did some research on Digital Ocean since you posted you were switching there. Still trying to learn how exactly they have everything set up, and if the pricing would be any kind of savings from where I currently host most of my sites (and worth the hassle of moving 20-odd sites, some more major than others). They sure seem to be client-focused, though! (And quality-focused.)

I'm even more curious who the current/glitchy host is!

If you read what I said, you'd see that I said *if* nobody gives him guaranteed starter's money, he'll likely stay in Toronto where he knows the system and has the most likely chance of being their guy long-term (Ray isn't staying forever). Were Saskatchewan to sign him, as iso suggested might be the case, it would certainly be at the expense of Durant. They'd be bringing Harris in to be the starter, and would pay him accordingly, and so they wouldn't keep a salary like Durant's on the books. Which in my opinion would actually be the smart move -- Durant isn't worth the money healthy, but he certainly isn't worth the headache even if the salary isn't counted to the cap because he's injured. Montreal would also be better off with Harris than with Glenn or any of their other QBs. And they certainly aren't paying any of their guys legit franchise QB money. Winnipeg, however, is paying their #1 guy franchise QB money, and so the only thing we could have offered would be a $200k base with incentives -- which is the same as he'd likely get in Toronto, thus why would he considering coming here??

Do you honestly think we can afford to have both Willy's contract and what is likely a fairly large deal Harris is looking for both on the books? Especially when we need to bring in depth (and some starters) in so many other positions? I'd rather spend that money on upgrading OL, DL, and WR. With the lack of quality, experienced QBs in the league, it's nearly impossible to have 2 guys like Willy and Harris on the same roster. The places where you see QBs pushing the starters are when a young guy on his first, tiny contract shows enough to push the experienced guy. Otherwise, you're looking at QBs like Nicholls, Glenn, and Tate (and likely now Lulay) -- guys with some wins under their belt, but aren't likely to be starting anywhere unless the #1 goes down. I'm fairly confident the money Harris is looking for is more than what Nicholls got -- and if he's not going to get starter's cash, he's probably inclined to stay in Toronto where he knows the system and would still be 1B to a guy who's on the tail end of his career.

In some ways, yes. 2001 and 2007 both should have been wins given the make-up of the teams and the seasons we had. Shoulda coulda woulda, of course, but it hasn't all been garbage. We've had some great teams many times in those 25 years (1992-94, 2000-02, 2007), some decent teams (thinking 2003 and 2011, specifically), and yes, many bad teams, too. I'd say your assumption that it's all the BOD would be more accurate if we didn't have record-breaking teams during that run. Yes, we didn't win the Cup, but that's definitely an issue with those individual teams (and in some cases, terribly ill-timed injuries) rather than the make-up of the organization. Also, I'm almost certain these same conversations exist in Edmonton and Saskatchewan, too, even though they've both had a couple Grey Cup wins in that same time span the Bombers haven't won. Inevitably, people will question ownership and management unless you win every year. In our case, ownership is represented by the Board of Directors, so questions will come. But at least with a BOD vs. private ownership, there are opportunities to cycle through and change things if we really do get into bad patterns. Imagine if we had a 25-year Grey Cup drought with private ownership! Haha.