Onyenegecha

Who says it isn't? Free Agency is 5 hours old. Contrary to popular belief, the Bombers don't have a list of names that they go through one by one from the top down. And NIs know their worth. Any desirable FA NI with an agent worth his salt who is truly testing the market doesn't sign in 5 hours.

This is very encouraging to read about.

Well this certainly makes me feel better. Crisis averted.

...starting to get worried that we're hearing nothing out of Chancellor Matheson Boulevard? No DC news, no other staffing hires? Am I missing an important contract deadline or something? Why is there nothing coming out? Not even rumours or innuendo. For a franchise notorious for media leakage, there's been nothing since Bellefail, other than the Etcheverry stuff. Is it time to press the panic button yet? IS IT TIME TO PRESS THE PANIC BUTTON ALREADY???

Lee rum has shrew hula who kicks off.

I think Willy understands his best shot at being a starter is here in Winnipeg, even with Collaros here. But the other question for him is this: if he's not a starter, is getting the #2 job easier in Sasktachewan, where he already has it, or in Winnipeg, over Max Hall? Or is it somewhere else?

Are you sure they don't hate it? Very limited options. You're absolutely right. And I HATE this hire. First big misstep with this new regime IMO. We'll be looking for a new OC this time next year. Bank on it.

I absolutely hate this hire. The words "offensive juggernaut" and "Marcel Bellefeuille" have never been said together unless it was sarcastically. I've said it before and I'll say it again: within 5 minutes of hearing about a hire, the best argument to support that hire should NOT be "we could have done worse".

Ugh. This is awful if true. If the best thing you can say about him is "we could do worse" you know he's a bad hire.

Anyone else have this feeling Ottawa trades us DeMarco? And then we try and sign Collaros come Feb 15?

The problem with that is the new CBA likely won't be ratified until May or June. There's not going to be a lot of guys willing to wait that long. Solid point.

Do their agents have an idea as to how the new tv contract will affect the cap? Cause if they don't, that's absolutely crazy to recommend your clients sign an extension before knowing that.

Would you be okay with white hair?

I would love to have Worman back. That 2001 offence was definitely fun to watch. Although I don't know how fun it'll be without Milt, Charlie, and Bobby Gorgeous flying around. I would be happy to see Bellefeuille here as anything other than OC. With a rookie head coach, it can't hurt to have a guy who's been there before to help him along. As we've seen the last 18 months, there are intricacies to being an HC that you don't necessarily see until you're in the big chair. But with the amount of openings around the league, it wouldn't shock me to see him get an OC offer somewhere.

My mistake - I meant Taman with the Bombers, circa 2001-2008. But definitely a valid point.

Except that the "Mack sucks at drafting" is only true if you ignore the fact he nailed a grand slam home run with Henoc, who was, contrary to popular belief, NOT the consensus #1 pick. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but Taman drafted only one franchise-altering player in his tenure as well.

Walters nailed which actor should play him in a movie.

Reinebold for DC?

What substance do you think is lacking from their broadcasts? What do you want to see that they aren't doing? It's more what they're doing that bothers me than what they aren't doing. Too much time devoted to sensationalising everything. They seem to care more about dissecting at length any little thing trying to make it into a controversy or talking about anything in the league other than the game they are broadcasting. Too much focus on the panel being entertainment rather than a supplement to the game that they are showing. But that's sort of everything now, thanks to the 24 hour news cycle. PJ Stock and Glenn Healy are just as guilty of that, and Kypreos is the worst. I like Tim and Sid, but they are so far over on the "entertainment vs substance" scale that anything TSN does pales in comparison.

Watch MacLean & Kypreos go back and forth for 15 minutes and you'll be begging for the TSN panel again. I could run a show out of my basement with better production value than Sportsnet has. Terrible news. I'm actually honestly upset about this. I love TSN's coverage. They're the absolute worst.

Here's a thought: with TSN having no NHL broadcast rights, what are the chances they become the official North American broadcaster for all things KHL?

If O'Shea gets the HC job, what are the chances Steinauer leaves Hamilton to be our DC? And if he does, is that a good thing? (Admittedly, I don't know much about Hamilton's D. I know they were better this year than last. I also know last year some insane percentage of OPOTW awards went to guys playing Hamilton, so improvement was inevitable)

I LOVE the CFL. Absolutely love it. Different strokes for different folks, but for me, I enjoy the CFL more than the NFL, and it isn't even close. Having said that, and understanding that this is the championship game, after everything else this week if Rod Black is anywhere near that announce booth I will not watch one second of this game. That'll be too much. Although, if Black is calling the game, there is the slight possiblility that the Riders lose because of a "false start", which would be glorious. To lose because you can't count is bad enough, but to lose a championship because of a penalty that isn't even in your league's rulebook would be so, so good.

Noeller had a room mate back then who was a diehard rider fan and I remember quite clearly one night while we were all drunk this guy says with a straight face and in all seriousness that Nealon Greene is just as good as Khari Jones... The level of delusion amongst that fanbase, I also recall rider fans at some point trying to claim that Szarka was as good a FB as Mike Sellers. I am not looking forward to the week long circle jerk that's going to happen for "Canada's team" I hate Burris very much but I have no doubts that I'll be cheering hard for him by the weekend just because I'll be so sick of everything green. I remember those days, and as stupid as the Khari vs Nealon and Szarka vs Sellers ones were, they did not hold a candle to the "Dominguez is way better than Stegall" arguments when it came to levels of stupidity. At least you could argue passport and relative importance of position for Szarka/Sellers. Arguing that Dominguez was better than Stegall was pure insanity. I'm staying far, far away from TSN for the next 5 days. I wonder what the over/under will be on how many times they mention who held the ball for the winning field goal in the 1989 Grey Cup will be. Cause I'm guessing 9.5, and I'm taking the over.

This Grey Cup is going to be all kinds of awful. It's going to be one giant circle jerk to the shrine of Rider Nation and it's already making me sick. Burris and Austin aren't Ti-Cats, they're still former Rider QBs, and two of the top three that I've hated more than any other (Nealon Greene being the third, only because I was younger and the internet was relatively new and Nealon vs Khari was an actual argument Rider fans tried to make at the time). The only way I can possibly enjoy this game is for Smilin' Bank to be horrendous, for Austin to be badly outcoached and for the Riders to still somehow lose, preferably via a really, really stupid penalty. I don't really have a point, I just needed to vent. 2013 was just the year from hell for Bomber fans, and this Sunday all of us in this handbasket shaped like IGF might just see the seventh level of it.