MOBomberFan

I defer to the expert engineers who have inspected and certified the stadium as being safe. Find me a single concrete building that has no cracks.

Saw this and had to share it. Not entirely safe for work (profanity & partial nudity). Now that I've got your attention...

Tried Internet Explorer 8 at work, seems okay here.

Ouch! Sucks for him, and sucks for EDM. I guess we're all going to find out just how good a starter Mike Reilly really is... Last I heard, Adrian McPherson was pretty happy to be where he is at now. Playing in his home state, he's a big fish in a small pond (relatively speaking). Down in the AFL he is one of the top 5 passers (yardage) and the current league leader in both rushing yards and TDs... may be tough to walk away from the spotlight to back up Mike Reilly.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/mack-burke-give-each-other-room-to-do-their-jobs-211939581.html

To be clear, I don't want to start cutting said players for such a minor thing, and I don't really buy all the other 'better' reasons to cut him either. Other players who undoubtedly smoke weed (at the very least) haven't had their names publicly dragged through the mud to the degree Hefney had his; first with Twitter yappiness last year, and again with a pot bust this year. I concede it would be an odd time for Bomber management to start worrying about public opinion now, but I truly feel like this bad press ultimately led to Hefney being released, and we are a worse team because of it. At least now we'll probably get to see a lot more of Demond Washington and Johnny Sears.

Further, I don't think the Bombers EVER had any intention of moving Hefney around or cutting him when he got his bonus. Further strengthening my smoke screen argument. If this whole pot bust never came about, Hefney would still be a Bomber I think.

All of this sounds like a smoke screen to me. Bad press + more bad press + promising rookies = cut Hefney. You can argue that his play dropped off, or he was a 'cancer' in the locker room... whatever the case, I think Hefney is now a bit of a scapegoat so that Burke can say he's sticking to his guns on discipline. I don't buy any of what the Bombers are selling when it comes to Hefneys release. If there is a bright side... you can't unearth the next great starter til the old one moves aside. Still sad to see my favorite (recent) Bomber get shafted like this.

Dance, puppets. Dance....

If I were saying 'ra ra ra Jade Etienne will be a perennial All-Star' and that turned out to be wrong I'd say you have a case. I can only speak for myself, and I was preaching patience in opposition to those writing him of as 'too weak' or 'too frail' as if anyone could possibly know how tough the kid really is from the bleachers. The guy was taken on potential alone. If he lives up to that potential then anyone who would have cut him in the past couple years based on their preconceived notions about how long players should be allowed to develop before being considered a bust... can go suck a lemon.

Personally, I just like it when other people are wrong... especially when they've been complete ass-clowns throughout the whole process. Etienne has been a contentious issue for a couple years, so you'll have to forgive those few of us who have been preaching patience in the face of 'Bust this' and 'Harry Potter that'.

No kidding guys. Jade Etienne is only now at the age that guys like Marco Iannuzzi and Nate Coehoorn were when they were drafted... let's see what he's capable of now that he's had a couple years of coaching, development, and fitness training under his belt. He really is fast and has nice hands... with his size, he could be the legit threat that Mack thought he could be.

I think I'll play those odds. Why the heck not?

This is about as surprising as finding out Hefney puffs the chronic.

Bummer about Cameron, I really would have liked to see him make the cut. Hamilton thought he was worth a look before we signed him, so he may yet show up on someone else's PR, if not ours.

Can't argue with that! My big issue is there's no way to be sure Hall or Goltz can win the games that Buck can. I'm on record saying that if I were Joe Mack, Buck Pierce would be a water boy, but that's contingent on having a viable backup. We may have that already, we may not, but riding Buck til he falls apart is better than throwing either of these guys to the wolves without the need to do so, first.

Guys, it's not like he's saying anything other people aren't already saying. I agree, Buck is an accident waiting to happen, but we simply do not have a better answer at QB, I don't know what you guys expect him to do, short of handing the reins the Hall/Goltz, crossing his fingers, and wishing really really hard for one of them to be a gamer. As for the vets that did play... did they do anything worth cheering about? I sure didn't see it. Burke may have a long way to go when it comes to public speaking, but it's nowhere near the stupidity or volatility of Mike Kelly, and way more interesting to listen to than LoPolices formulaic 'we need to improve, we need to practice hard, we need to stick to the plan' responses. Just my opinion. Tim Burke was our HC-in-waiting since the day we hired him away from MTL, let's try to give him a few weeks of regular season games with his system in place before we start pining for a new HC (not saying that's what you're doing, but that would be the logical next step). Edited to make my responses a little clearer.

Masoli with the nice throw on the run,then gets completely leveled and bounces right back up. Looks like Hamilton has something to work with at QB, anyways.

We're looking at you, Hilton #79. Offside and a drop. Stellar work.

Montreal is making a game of it. We all new Porter was good at running, and nobody handles a fumble better than Porter, all that practice I suppose Hamilton O is looking pretty inept all of a sudden too.

This must be the bus I got on at Ferry, and I didn't even realize we turned people away. Things were worse than I thought. I sure hope it's sorted out by the home opener.

You're right, that happens too... but last year in week 1 we only took Brink, Elliott, and Goltz to Montreal, and Montreal didn't even bother playing Calvillo at home. And I think learning a new system is the only reason Burris came to Winnipeg in week 2, otherwise he probably would have sat, too. As for the rust, the best I can hope is that Burke steps up the pace at practice even further. Actually, the very best I can hope is for either Hall or Goltz to wow us so much in game 2 that one of them is named starter! Wish into one hand...

Thanks for the link! Need.... football...

So what if Buck doesn't play in the second game? Teams very often don't play their projected starter in away games, while the home to get's the privilege and advantage (hahahaha) of playing their starter. Are you guys seriously worried that Buck is incapable of completing a pass? Seriously, you can thank Isaac Anderson for several of those incomplete passes.

That's right. Every team guns for the QB, but teams are going to be that much more aggressive to try and take Pierce out of the picture. We see other teams a little more willing to risk a roughing penalty to get a solid lick in on Buck. Sure, 15 yards and a first down is a costly penalty any time, but not so much when the payoff is getting to face one of our untested backups. Buck is a marked man, above and beyond any other QB in this league.