TrueBlue4ever

Replace “white man” with “Republican” and “coloured man” with “Democrat” and you have the same sentiment today as you did 60 years ago with this quote: “If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” Lyndon B. Johnson Point being, it’s all about feeling superior to someone to give your ego a boost and wipe away your feelings of self-failure and isolation by giving you a like-minded group to identify with.

This guy seems ready to make a comeback too (maybe saw the Bowman and Arceneaux signings), although by the way he is huffing and puffing I’m a little worried about his conditioning.

The timing is equally unbelievable. Today is actually International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I kid you not.

Blame the owners. They run the league.

Freedom is something you fight for, because that kind of power must be earned and respected. Entitlement is something you expect to be handed to you because you believe it is your automatic right above all others. Way too many people today seem to falsely equate the two as the same thing.

So I asked myself this very question about how the committee can get around someone pleading the 5th, and this video does a decent job explaining some of the options. Bottom line, if the committee really needs testimony they will offer immunity. And then they need to be picky about who it is offered to. It needs to be someone who (a) is not such a big fish that giving them a break will feel like a deal with the devil that perverts justice (b) has important enough information to pin down the real targets (c) someone whose testimony can be found reliable and credible, or can be proven to be a lie thus opening them up for perjury if they try to lie (d) has a side benefit that the damage to their reputation offsets the loss of criminal prosecution and hurts them anyway (e) someone who has legitimate fear of worse criminal consequences if they refuse to take an immunity deal, so they are motivated to cut a deal to save their skin and will give up the good dirt. So who fits that orbit?

Updated list: 14 days left until free agency. As far as I can tell from the roster on blue bombers.com and the free agent list on cfl.ca, here is where we are at: Bold = confirmed signed Plain = pending free agent Italics = on roster, presumably signed but contract status not reported (any help to clarify would be appreciated) Underlined = released QB - D. Brown, Collaros, McGuire RB - Augustine, Borsa, Harris, M. Miller, Oliveira WR - Adams, Bailey, Demski, Grant, Jackson, Lawler, McKnight, O’Leary-Orange, Wolitarsky OL - Bryant, Burks, Couture, Desjarlais, Eli, Gray, Hardrick, Kolankowski, Neufeld, Richmond DL - Antigua, Jeffcoat, Jefferson, Kongbo, Richardson, E. Rose, Sayles, Thomas, Walker, Wicker, Wilcots II LB - Bighill, Briggs, K. Brown, Cadwaller, Gauthier, Hansen, Lowes, Maruo, Wilson DB - Alexander, Alford, Darby, Ni. Hallett, No. Hallett, Hampton, Houston, Johnson, Jones, Kramdi, Matson, J. Miller, Nichols, W. Rose, Taylor, Thompson K - Castillo, Crapigna, Liegghio, Mourtada LS - Benson

Or his mother’s death weighing on him.

Here is an article on the statistics surrounding NFL vs NCAA overtime. FYI the CFL overtime is like NCAA (they start on the 25, is the 35, so field goals are the same length) except they are not required to go for a 2 point convert on a TD until the second OT, and from the 3rd OT and beyond, each team basically tries a 2 point convert (alternating one play drives). Suffice to say the stats bear out that the NCAA rules provide a “fairer” outcome. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/08/sport/football-overtime-rules-college-vs-nfl/index.html

In the end neither defence was making any plays. CFL/NCAA OT rules are much better.

Well, have we seen enough games to determine that Maurice wasn’t the problem holding this team back?

Booch, just curious. What is your current role within the club?

So reports coming out that Meat Loaf died of COVID weeks after railing against vaccine mandates. “If I die, I die, but I’m not going to be controlled”. Well, you sure showed all us sheep. Enjoy death. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10426153/Bat-Hell-singer-Meat-Loaf-dies-74.html?ito=social-facebook&fbclid=IwAR2Vrh6bRs_leHkjzZIs-PXXrhSUQ5zQkLTwAvGjZlGJ1YUdbz0pdXlJ4Gc

And an already brutal month just keeps piling on. The original playoff beard. https://www.nhl.com/news/islanders-great-clark-gillies-dies-at-67/c-330041618

Updated list: 18 days left until free agency. As far as I can tell from the roster on blue bombers.com and the free agent list on cfl.ca, here is where we are at: Bold = confirmed signed Plain = pending free agent Italics = on roster, presumably signed but contract status not reported (any help to clarify would be appreciated) Underlined = released QB - D. Brown, Collaros, McGuire RB - Augustine, Borsa, Harris, M. Miller, Oliveira WR - Adams, Bailey, Demski, Grant, Jackson, Lawler, McKnight, O’Leary-Orange, Wolitarsky OL - Bryant, Burks, Couture, Desjarlais, Eli, Gray, Hardrick, Kolankowski, Neufeld, Richmond DL - Antigua, Jeffcoat, Jefferson, Kongbo, Richardson, E. Rose, Sayles, Thomas, Walker, Wicker, Wilcots II LB - Bighill, Briggs, K. Brown, Cadwaller, Gauthier, Hansen, Lowes, Maruo, Wilson DB - Alexander, Alford, Darby, Ni. Hallett, No. Hallett, Hampton, Houston, Johnson, Jones, Kramdi, Matson, J. Miller, Nichols, W. Rose, Taylor, Thompson K - Castillo, Crapigna, Liegghio, Mourtada LS - Benson

Receivers and DBs next.

Or not and not face repercussions *cough* Toronto *cough*.

Is anyone familiar with how bonuses work against the salary cap? If a contract is $160,000 (just a random number I’m picking here 😁) with say &50,000 in bonuses, is it a registered $210,000 contract against the cap, or $160,000, or are the bonuses added to the tally at the end and if you then go over you get dinged? Because if the club knows it could be going over the cap if bonuses kick in, then they wouldn’t likely spend up to the cap on hard money, would they? And does the league approve every salary and not worry about cap violations until they happen? I know other leagues reject contracts if they violate the cap from the outset, and bonuses count against the cap from the outset, whether ultimately earned or not, to my understanding.

I’m glad Bighill is happy with his contract, but given that he and Collaros share the same agent, I am astounded he came in so low. Took a massive pay cut for 2021 to help out the team, bet on himself on the restructured 1 year deal and produced with an MOP season. Could easily have earned the right to demand to be the highest paid defensive player in the league like Collaros on offence and return to $250,000 range (would have been an overpay but certainly the going rate). $200,000-225,000 seemed like a fair offer for what he brought and what the league precedent is. Maybe the incentives in the deal are worth a ton extra. I am not him, but if I was I might be looking at my agent and saying “wait, you got Zach a $125,000 raise and this is the best you could do for me?” Anyway, whatever the reason, thrilled he is back and proud to have chosen his number for my jersey.

If they have the same agent, then maybe we got Collaros for an equally ridiculously low amount. That 160K for Bighill is honestly about 65K below what he could have commanded. Awaiting the cries of “money under the table to cheat the salary cap” from other teams.

I put Benson in because he is our only option there, no idea who if anyone would be our back up if he left. That alone makes him more valuable. And a quality long snapper is an underrated but important piece to the special teams puzzle. Any ideas who is out there? Is it an easy job to learn?

Alexander is a big keeper for sure, but I wonder if we have the pieces in the secondary to replace him more so than other positions? The cupboard behind Collaros is pretty bare in-house right now. Bryant is definitely superior to Couture player to player, but age, nationality, and ability to replace one spot in five factored in. But good points all around.

So open question for the board - Still some big pieces out there. Assuming we can’t afford all of them, which of these big ticket items (likely the most expensive option at their position) do we walk away from: QB - Collaros RB - Harris WR - Lawler OL - Bryant or Couture DL - Richardson DB - Alexander or W. Rose K - Castillo LS - Benson Is Harris the obvious choice here, given the cost, age, and who is already in-house behind him. Emotions and loyalty aside, is this the smartest business decision, or do we owe it to him to allow loyalty and emotion as well as his skill set to factor into this decision? And who are your top 3 “must sign” players, either on this list or the entire Bomber free agent list? Mine are 1. Collaros 2. Couture (younger Canadian at centre slightly over Bryant and all his talent, mainly because of age) 3. Lawler (if he goes to the NFL it will hurt, but losing him to another CFL team would be worse)

Your need to slag LaPo as a cancer for offensive players is starting to border on the pathological. As a starter with full access to the LaPo playbook in 2018 and 2019 Streveler went 4-7. Nichols in that same offensive system went 38-17 from 2016-19. In 2019, Streveler as a starter threw 6 TDs and 12 INTs with a passer rating of 72.0. Nichols on the same offence had 15 TDs and 5 INTs with a rating of 107.2. Teams figured out that if you contained Streveler’s running and forced him to throw, he was much less likely to to beat you. Kyle Walters saw that too and knew Streveler was not good enough, so he got Collaros who had a rating of 109.4 in his one regular season start and went 3-0 in the playoffs. 3 QBs, same system, same OC. Two successes, one with less than adequate results when put in the starting role. Frankly, LaPo was the best thing to happen to Streveler. LaPo did not make him a gimmick QB. Streveler showed the limitations in his passing game and LaPo was required to adapt a streamlined playbook for his skill set, tailoring a game plan around his strengths and not allowing other teams to spy him as easily with the RPO schemes. The success of this limited playbook for Chris helped the Bombers win again and landed him a look in the NFL with a $1.5 million payday, more than any CFLer over that same time. Streveler was not getting a NFL opportunity based on his passing game. Having said all that, maybe 2 years in the NFL with some scout team reps and maturity as a player has helped develop his passing game. Hopefully he has used his NFL time to become a Henry Burris, and not a Casey Printers.