Captain Blue

In most labour arguments I side with the owners, since the players make quite a lot of money and as employees, are required to either play for what the employers are giving you or find a different job. Since the CFL has grown substantially in the past decade or so and the players still don't make a lot, I side with them on this one. Told some of them at camp I was rooting for them.

Interested to see how the QBs look in a game. The one big practice I saw, Willy was good but the others were poor.

I can't stand Westwood so I doubt this changes my radio plans, but CJOB definitely has fallen since it's Irving and whoever they pair him with on the road. Overall I rarely listen to pre game stuff. I'll listen to post game if I'm driving or at home with time.

Guy, next to you... That would be me. The Linemen were pretty appreciative of the fans coming out and supporting them. Ha, you know I'm always wondering if I'm sitting right by another MBB member when I come on here during camp.

Met and/or briefly talked with January, Greaves, Saulsberry and Kowalczuk. Kowalczuk said the he loves O'Shea, that as a former player he really understands them. Raved about Bob Wylie, said he's showing them clips of guys he coached in the 80s. Thinks they've got the right people in place in all the right areas. Also January said he appreciated the support from the fans. Him and the guy next to me were chatting about the labour stuff I think.

January brought the linemen up into the stands today after practice. Will type up a little more on that when I get home.

Willy throws an end zone pick anticipating his WR to curl out earlier.

Unamba picks off Brohm and takes it to the house. Brohm lost sight of the backer and Unamba elevated for the nice catch.

Osh and Pierce sprint after the players once each throw or run has occurred screaming at them to run and sprint.

Renaud is not punting in the rotation. Hat on. Probably already noted but I guess he's sitting this practice out.

O'Shea and who I believe to be Tracey teaching ST blockers how to identify who to block now.

Wild was there initially. Eisho now as they swapped to a new group.

Banks, Wild and Dunn are the backers. Leggett at safety so far.

Bucknor and Randall at corner going against what I'm presuming is the offensive ones.

In today's most important breaking news, Etch always reminds me of a garden gnome.

I think every person on defense should just have the position "Def". There is going to be players shifting all over. Watching some blitzes now as they match up against the offense.

I feel overall camp is louder this year actually. Players and coaches more vocal.

I'm watching Howell teach receivers right now. Pretty energetic. I swear Cory Watson is just perma-hurt. Feel bad for the guy but I really hope we are not counting on him too much this year.

Just heading out to go see camp now, will report back.

Random thoughts: There's just something about O'Shea that'll make players want to run through a wall for the guy. Listening to him I think he could get me to, as well. Season enders in TC (and really, ever) is the absolute worst. Feel bad for Lucas. Managing the ratio is going to be a helluva challenge this year.

Did anyone get lost 2-3 sentences into this? It was like trying to read a tolkien novel for the first time.. Well a lot of effort had to go into the nicknames. I mean, turning "Jim" to "Jimbozo"? Brilliant!

So I showed up for the second camp today and it was exclusively special teams. Wonder there will be a heavy emphasis on that as camp continues too. My guess is yes. The kicking battle is fun to watch. These guys have huge legs. Liram was just booming them today. I wish I had kept track of their attempts and makes but it was hard. I kept getting him and Maher confused since they are numbers 78 and 79. I am hoping Liram sticks somehow on this roster. I didn't see much punting but over the years I've found Renaud always looks like the best punter in camp and then sucks during the season.

So to flip this around a bit... O'Shea is being (wrongfully, in my opinion) blamed for this move but why shouldn't we look at it like the media is at fault for their own mess? He's always honest and open with them and yet it took all of three days for them to turn on him. So maybe the fault should lie with the likes of Friesen and crew, who had the opportunity to start a new relationship with the coach and squandered it already? Maybe, just maybe, they should see that there are consequences to their actions?

I"ll be there a little later in practice.

Why is it that you ALWAYS side with the media? If a coach does something the media doesn't like, he's picking a fight? Why couldn't it just once be that the media is behaving inappropriately? I didn't like it when Kelly tried to control the media. I could see what was coming back then and we all know how that turned out. I don't like it now any more now and I expect the same results. That's called being consistent, not being on the side of the media. O'Shea wasn't in Winnipeg when Kelly made the mistake, but someone who was around then should tell him how it will probably work out. Here's a hint: If you want to control the message, then make sure everyone's on the same page, help the media spread your message and everyone wins. Don't say "I'm going to control the message and everything comes through me". That's not going to help the situation. In fact it's going to hurt it. BTW: It's not inappropriate for the media to want to talk to more than one person on the team. It's done almost everywhere there is a pro team. Or, and I'm just spitballing here, Kelly failed because his actual football schemes were downright awful... and whether or not a coordinator could answer questions from such luminaries as Gary Lawless and Paul Friesen is actually irrelevant to the success of the football team? The only thing I actually liked about Kelly was that he realized Winnipeg's media was comprised mostly of buffoons. He didn't exactly do it the right way, and that's where O'Shea seems to be different. BTW: It's not inappropriate for the team to reduce media availability. It's done almost everywhere there is a pro team. They have mandated CFL media obligations to fulfill - that's it.