blueandgoldguy

Even if Burris signed with Edmonton we wouldn't have a chance at getting Reilly. We're too far away from Washington State and there are no direct flights.

No kidding. No other fanbase has been forced to endure the brutality we've seen over the last two+ decades. Other fanbases don't have as much to complain about as we do. Again, we're not hiring the right people if they let fan complaints dictate personnel moves. Get somebody with a good plan and a set of balls who can make a plan & stick to it & maybe the fans will have less to complain about. What stupid things have the fans caused the Bombers to do?? 1. Getting rid of Kevin Glenn - He's been in the playoffs every year since 2006. You can't get to the Grey Cup if you don't make the playoffs. 2. Going back to the west division - Through my lifetime, the rivalvies have been with the East Conference. Why pinball back an forth? Just like with the Jets, I'd rather get home and watch a 6 pm matchup with an east rival than a 9:00 start time against the Lions. I also like the fact of when we got to the Grey Cup, that we were facing the Riders, Stamps and Lions... 1. That was on Kelly moreso than the fans. You actually think Kelly would cave to the fans' demands? 2. Not sure how going back to the west division resulted from fan pressure? Makes sense for the team geographically. Closer to Regina, Calgary, and Edmonton than any East -based teams.

Then you would be wrong. Hamilton let go of Belfeuille in 2011, then let go George Cortez in 2012. All that flipping through the rolodex as you put it didn't seem to deter Austin from signing with Ticats - a very qualified candidate if I may say so.

Nah. Waiting nearly a year after Joe Mack had already shown himself to be an incompetent boob as a team builder is not a knee-jerk reaction. IF anything, they waited too long. Have any of these knee-jerk reactions recently come back to bite the Bombers in the ass that I'm not aware of?

Quoted wrong person..sorry. As for the hours of research, nah. Just a good memory.

Nice to hear about a player wanting to play for the Bombers organization for a change. Good pickup and all indications are he is a good leader in the locker room Wonder who ends up on the chopping block as a result?

I love how people blame the Bombers' woes on the fans. There is no truth to the idea that the fans lack of patience force the BOD to get rid of Mack or force the coaches to get rid Brink and Elliott, but let's say it was true. And let's say the fans did show "patience" as some of you posters like to put it - does that mean Mack and Brink and Elliott would suddenly figure it out after another 2 or 3 years? Incompetence is incompetence and lack of talent and/or poor decision/making is something that cannot just all of a sudden be overcome after 3-4 years. "Patience" as you put it won't allow those characteristics to just sort themselves out over time.

No kidding. No other fanbase has been forced to endure the brutality we've seen over the last two+ decades. Other fanbases don't have as much to complain about as we do. Again, we're not hiring the right people if they let fan complaints dictate personnel moves. Get somebody with a good plan and a set of balls who can make a plan & stick to it & maybe the fans will have less to complain about. Ah yes. Two posters taking opinions out of their butts and presenting them as facts. What evidence do you have that that the fans here are the worst in the league? Do you actually take the time out to look at how other fans treat there teams..and I don't mean watching a game here or there on TSN and looking and listening to the crowd on TSN and basing your judgement on that. I mean really looking - visiting fan forums, reading newspaper articles written in that city about the team, being at that team's games to the get the pulse of the fans. Somehow I doubt it. What stupid things have the fans caused the Bombers to do?? Please tell me. Fire Doug Berry? No, because he had lost the locker room. The players were tuning him and his ridiculous out-of-control sideline rants out. The fact he hasn't been hired as a head coach since and has lost two jobs as OC proves the Bombers made the right decision. Fire Mike Kelly? Ha! Guy who was fired because of his lack of professionalism both on and off the field, his callous disregard for our free agents and draft picks, his poor handling of the QB position. Getting into a fight with his girlfriend was the last straw. Firing Joe Mack? A guy who hadn't been with a CFL organization for nearly 25 years and we were foolishly led to believe would turn this franchise around. A guy whose only saving grace with the Bombers was bringing in decent import talent from the US, and really no better than the average Gm in the CFL at that when you think about it. Our O-line was crap when he came, crap when he was fired; our Canadian content was crap when he came and only slightly less afterwards (still worst in the league) and our Qbs were crap when he came and still crap when he left (Hall is a decent backup who can start the occasional game). Joe Mack was the Ol Gill of the CFL - couldn't sell the good players on the Bomber organization if he tried - see Brendan Labatte, Greg Carr and Mike Reilly. Were the release of Brink or Elliott on the fans' lack of patience? Consider this - no one picked up Brink and kept him on a roster for very long. Joey Elliott had to pay his way to BC for a tryout and was released a few games into the season only to be picked up again because of injuries to two of their QBs. He might be back as a third stringer only due to circumstances. Wally's criticisms of Elliott was pretty damning. So it doesn't seem like any of the managers and coaches in the league think too highly of our ex-Qbs otherwise they would be kept on some CFL teams and groomed to at least be a semi-competent backup. Geez maybe that's the reason these QBs were released by the Bombers - not due to fan pressure to see immediate results, but because their talent level and/or their abilities to take instruction and handle pressure are not at a level needed to be a starting or even backup QB. I would apply this label to Goltz as well. The only reason the media and fans appear harder on this team than other cities (and that's debatable) is due to the 23 year Grey Cup drought. HOw incompetent can a franchise be to not win one Grey Cup in a 23 years in a 8 team league? The last ten years have been especially embarrassing - something like a .350 winning percentage. Those results rest on the BOD making questionable hires over the past decade and a half and in turn, the management they hire making questionable coaching hires themselves. Jeff Reinbold, Mike Kelly, Joe Mack, Tim Burke, Creehan. These guys were truly terrible at their jobs and yet the blame lies at the feet of the fans? More like the blame lies at the feet of the organization, the managers and coaches hired, and the crap talent brought in at most positions to compete. So please provide me with some specific examples as to how our fans have prevented us from going into a true rebuild? Because this is a 9-team league where all the GMs have access to the same pool of players (the majority of CFL teams are American) from down south deemed unsuitable or lacking the talent to make the cut in the NFL. Rebuilding or rather reloading is something that should only take a year or two at most. This isn't the NBA, NHL, MLB or the NFL - rebuilds in the CFL do not require 3 - 5 years..at least they don't if upper management hires a GM and coach who are capable of bringing in adequate talent, something that Joe Mack was unable to do. It certainly is not the fans fault that he couldn't identify and sign the proper talent.

How did Nelson do when he was with Saskatchewan for 2 years in 2009-2010? Maybe that should give us some hope.

hate to say it, but yeah, Burris is better than Khari. Burris' poor playoff games throughout his career with a few exceptions would nix any chance he has as one of the top-10 QBs of all-time though as well as his generally inconsistent regular season play. He is probably hard-pressed to be considered one of the top-20 Qbs of all-time actually. Too bad about Khari's shoulder. If it wasn't for that, I'm sure he could have played at least 5 or more seasons as a QB and probably be held in the same regard as the Bomber greats like Ploen, Brock and Clements.

KJ was good 'n all, but I wouldn't put him in the same category as Allen or Calvillo, while I'm not the biggest fan of either they were consistently good for a long while. Jones maybe got 4 years where he was playing relatively well ? I'm not talking overall career I'm talking peak. That 2002 season was something special I think people have forgotten about it. 46 td passes is an unreal number. The difference of course is that Jones got his shoulder messed up real quick and he didn't last long. Durability is a nice thing for an overall career but if we're just looking at guys in their peak then yes I put Jones up there even if his peak was only a few years. KJ's best season Team Comp Att % Yards Long TD % Ints % Rating WPG 382 620 61.6 5,334 83 46 7.4 29 4.7 94.5 vs. Cavlillo's best seasons 2004 MTL 431 690 62.5 6,041 81 31 4.5 15 2.2 96.6 2008 MTL 472 682 69.2 5,633 81 43 6.3 13 1.9 107.2 I still respectfully disagree with the notion that Jones at any point was better than Calvillo. are you going to take into account differences in team make up? Cause you can quite easily argue that those numbers aren't all that different and that Jones never once had an offensive line as good as the ones Calvillo had when he put up his best years. Yes Jones had Milt Stegall, but Calvillo wasn't throwing to useless receivers either and arguably had more depth to use than Jones ever did. You also had Charles Roberts being used quite extensively in that time as well. Is it any coincidence that Calvillo didn't see a real drastic increase in his passing numbers until after Mike Pringle retired? All these things matter, and I did say that in my mind Jones did more with less so when we have numbers that are very much comparable then we start to see how the more with less argument trumps some slight variations in the numbers. Have to disagree. Khari had Stegall, Bruce, Robert Gordon, Roberts and Sellers in 2002. That trumps anything Calvillo had in terms of receiving and rushing talent. Calvillo's peak is higher than that of Khari's. Receivers like Richardson were nothing prior to playing with Calvillo whereas guys like Stegall, Gordon and Bruce had great seasons both prior to and after Khari. Khari was a good QB, but Calvillo is one of the all-time greats.

I think within a few years no one will really remember Calvillo's attitude regarding Hawkins. Didn't Clements have a similar "bad attitude" in Regina when he played for the Roughriders in 80 or 81. Didn't he force them to trade him to Hamilton halfway through the season?

KJ was good 'n all, but I wouldn't put him in the same category as Allen or Calvillo, while I'm not the biggest fan of either they were consistently good for a long while. Jones maybe got 4 years where he was playing relatively well ? KJ's peak as good as Calvillo.ha. Now I've heard everything. Calvillo had several seasons that were better than KJ's best so that argument doesn't hold water. Flip Calvillo's 3-5 Grey Cup record around to 5-3 with improved performances in the dreadful 2006 (was at this game and Calvillo was mediocre) and 2008 games and he has a shot at the top-3 all-time 1. Flutie - 6 MVPs in 8 seasons and 3 Grey Cup victories and 5 trips to the big game. 2. Parker - 3 MVPs and 3 Grey Cups. Excellent scrambler on top of being a good passing QB for the time. 3. Moon - I was actually thinking of dropping him down the list, even with the 5 Grey Cups and 1 MVP. Seem to remember reading stories or some box scores that suggest he wasn't all that great in the playoffs. Think there was one game where he was relieved by Wilkinson in a playoff game (GreyCup?) because he was playing for poorly. Wilkinson helped the team win that Grey Cup, not sure what year though. Someone can correct me if that's wrong. Small sample size and he was only the starter for half his time in the CFL. Still, he was so dominant in the regular season that it's had to rank him any lower 4. Jackson - tempted to put him at 3. 3-time MVP and 3-time Grey Cup winner. 3-1 in the Grey Cup. 9-5 as a starter in the playoffs. Only a full-time starter for 7 seasons once Lancaster left for Sask yet he accomplished all this. 91 QB rating which is absolutely incredible for the 60s. Excellent runner with over 5,000 yeards rushing. I'd rank Calvillo just behind these guys at 5. Dunigan - doesn't belong in the conversation. Never won an MVP award. 3-time CFL all-star which is good though. Put up some good regular season numbers but he was pretty average in the playoffs and below average in Grey Cup games (1-2 record). Played like crap in 87 Grey Cup before injury, played decent in 88' Grey Cup and played OK in 91 Grey Cup in brutal conditions and played like crap for the Bombers in 92 Grey Cup. Injuries played a role in his career, but the playoff resume and lack of MVPs means he should not be a top-5 QB of all-time. Garcia while putting up some very respectable numbers certainly doesn't stand out as much as Moon did in a similar shortened CFL career. 1 Grey Cup. 1 CFL all-star. The fact that the Stamps had the same record in 1999 upon Garcia's departure and still made it to the Grey Cup suggests that the team surrounding him was quite good and may have very well enhanced his stats. Bottom line - not quite a large enough resume and didn't stand out enough during his brief tenure. IF we were to include him as a top-5, we would have to consider Dave Dickenson as well. Lancaster - accumulater with a decent but hardly outstanding QB rating. 13-13 playoff record which is actually quite good but the 1-4 Grey Cup record would have to be held against him especially when you consider some of those performances. 2 MVPs and a runner-up. CFL all-star 4 or 5 times. Great career, but the lack of MVPs and truly oustanding seasons precludes him from the top-5 conversation. Clements - 1 MVP, 2 CFl all-stars, top- 10 in several QB categories, several divisional all-stars. He was very good, but when you compare his stats to some of his peers at the time, he rarely comes out on top. Also, while he was 2-0 in Grey Cups (assistance on the first one with Holloway) his playoff record is pretty unimpressive (sub .500 with several disappointing performances). I remember as a kid, watching his last game at Winnipeg Stadium in the 1987 Eastern Finals. Scored a grand total of 2 points on offense. Brutal way to end your CFL career. Same with Reeves as well. Good argument for top-10, but regular season stats combined with middling playoff performances aren't worthy of top-5. Allen - another accumulator, more so than Lancaster though. Many OK to good seasons. Few great seasons. Only 1 MVP and 1 CFL all-star in a career that spans over 2 decades. Impressive longevity and arguably the best scrambler and running QB in CFL history - over 10,000 yards rushing. That and his 3-0 record and 3 Grey Cup MVPs puts him in the conversation for top-5 but ultimately the lack of regular season success pushes him down the list. I mean really, other than one season, 2005, can anyone say he was the best player in the CFL? Answer that question and you will know why he would not be considered top-5. Ray could be in the running in the future. Needs a few MVPs, a few more oustanding seasons and some more CFL all-star nods.

Bombers had a similar fee at CanadInns. Went towards stadium maintenance. I'm sure it's the same for Mosaic. Can't wait to see the first renders of that new stadium in the coming months. Should be a beaut.

Hamilton stadium is two weeks behind construction due to ice storm and problems with contractor. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/ice-storm-delays-hamilton-pan-am-stadium-construction-by-2-weeks-1.2505133 Sounds familar with regards to weather delays. Looking at the construction site - they still haven't even placed the prefab concrete for the upper deck on the one grandstand and haven't even begun installing seats - I'm betting a September opening at the earliest. Good thing they kept those temp seats up in Guelph

Anything less than the playoffs in unacceptable - so 8 or 9 wins. In a league where the teams pick the leftovers from colleges down south that are either not talented enough or are perceived to not have the physical skillsets suitable to the NFL, this serves as way to level the playing field. All CFL teams have access to the same pool of players. That means turnarounds can happen quickly and often do - see Toronto, Calgary and Hamilton in recent years. Also, the 6 of 9 teams make the playoffs and one of those is an expansion team so in reality the Bombers only need to beat out 2 other teams to make it in. If we get improvements in coaching, improvements in QBing and the O-line through free agency and trades (something Mack failed to do), improvement in our young Canadians (meaning some of our recent draft picks like Pencer, Etienne and Swiston play to the level expected) and improvement in our imports (particularly the secondary) then this team should make it in. Those should all be achievable for 2014. Anything less than 8 wins and a playoff spot is unacceptable.

Seems there is a few Calgary chest-thumpers over on Skyscraper forum who make it seem like it's fait accompli that Calgary will be getting a new stadium and a new arena and an announcement will be made sometime this year. Based on what I read here, it sounds like those projects are nothing more than rumours with little chance of happening (at least not an announcement in the near future that those posters insist on).

Happy about the extension for Turner..takes away some of the sting from losing out on Stubler. Hope this is just the begining of an exciting offseason full of surprise free agent signings. Weston Dressler please! What the hell happened to Sandro. Kickers should be in their prime until their late 30s, yet this guy appears to be done in his early 30s. Weird.

Not a very good hire. Marcel has never had an offense ranked in the top-4 wherever he has coached so I guess we can expect more of the same in 2014. We're used to it though - Bombers haven't had a top-4 offense since 2007. In fact only 1 top-4 offense in the last decade. Question: If it came down to Marcel or Chapdelaine who would the posters here rather have as OC?

Sucks to lose Kolhert. Etienne and Poblah aren't good enough to deserve a full time spot at receiver. Assuming Muamba catches on down south as a special teamer or isn't back until September of next season (assuming he gets cut by an NFL team), is it safe to say Ottawa's top 7 non-imports are better than the Bombers non-imports? If so, that says something about previous management.

Is it possible he could have improved after going to Hamilton? I didn't pay attention to him myself so I'm honestly not that sure.

I'd be happy with this hire although JuranBoldenRules comments give me a little cause for concern. Still, would rather have an experienced coordinator with the Bombers to help a neophyte like O'Shea.

Struggled as a Head Coach & GM? Uh, don't think so... A former CFL COTY. Check his won loss record & what he accomplished in Edmonton & Calgary & get back to us. We would kill here to have a coach who struggled like he did. Spudsy would probably have us believe Joe Mack was a better Gm than HIggins!

Some nice revisionist history going on here. Check his record as a coach, Gm and asst. Gm and get back to me. Also note the 3 Grey Cup appearances. As for director of officiating no one's going to fix that unless the league puts a significant increase in their investment in officials. And if Higgins struggled, I'd love to see how you would describe Joe Mack's tenure as GM.

The majority of people in Morris aren't racist, that we can be certain of. But is a greater percentage of the community racist and homophobic compared to most other towns/cities in southern Manitoba? It's starting to look that way. This is the second incident that has occurred in Morris and with the same restaurant no less. Where there's smoke, there's fire.