TrueBlue4ever

An interesting debate to be had on that one, for sure. Covered this ground a bit in a past thread: Not sure where I would rank the Wilson pick at the moment in my list. Don’t think I would put it at #1 right now, but it may age well and be in contention for sure. But one thing is for sure, to be a truly all-time great play, it needs a nickname that defines it without further elaboration. And “the immaculate interception” is already taken, so no go there. Maybe “the tip drill”?

Nah, it would always be falling down off the tree.

Sonovabitch so did I. And I’m going to have this stupid tune stuck in my head all day now.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Or enjoy the gift of a football in Kerwin “Santa” Bell’s sack.

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a safe and especially a healthy holiday season, and all the best for the New Year. May it be a damn sight better than than the last one, and may we all be living normally and celebrating yet another Cup win before it’s over.

The first model of the Ford Edsel - the Saskatchewan Roughrider of cars - was introduced in 1958.

The odds are better for you to be wearing a fur coat and earmuffs next to Satan than seeing them churn out that mea culpa article.

And “with Chris Jones’ Elks on the rise, Saskatchewan going all in on hosting the Grey Cup , and the perennial Stampeder playoff appearance, will the aging Bombers be on the outside looking in this coming November?” By guest writer Jamie Nye, on loan from cfl.ca

“Hey Nick, any comment on your age making you a liability?”

I would not know about getting worked up……😉

Riders’ 112 year history - 4 Cups total Bombers 92 year history - 4 decades with multiple Cup wins

But certainly could have said it just as well but more briefly, lol. 😁 Thanks.

Very astute point on Matson and his ability to fill a hole. Had forgotten about him as an in-house option. Provided he can return from injury fully repaired. Then again, it feels like 90% of the league is at free agent status this year, so pretty much anyone is up for grabs right now if a hole needs filling. (Yes an exaggeration but boy lots of unsigned people).

Maybe ask Speedflex that question. He’s the one that wanted citations for my work. Lol, I joke……

That’s quite the bar they have set for themselves. Oops. Too soon, Rider nation?

Yeah, but we lost Sayles and Rose in 2019 and Walters found Alford and Nichols to more than adequately replace them. We have stockpiled Grey and Tui on our o-line as back-ups who could slide in. And if Lawler goes, maybe that frees up cash to take a run at bringing Lucky Whitehead back (his West Final appearance in the stands has me hopeful he is pining to come back). All in all, my faith in Walters’ and our scouting staff’s track records have me less concerned than I might otherwise be.

Well done.

Here are the articles I looked at. You can parse them for whatever specific quotes you would like: On his Ottawa signing: https://www.google.com/amp/s/ottawasun.com/sports/football/cfl/ottawa-redblacks/two-year-deal-with-nick-arbuckle-gives-ottawa-redblacks-a-no-1-qb/wcm/95e123b4-84a4-41cb-8bae-516ca8b7c462/amp/ On how contract re-negotiations broke down: https://3downnation.com/2021/01/18/redblacks-quarterback-nick-arbuckle-involved-in-contract-staredown/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/ottawasun.com/sports/football/cfl/ottawa-redblacks/qb-or-not-qb-if-redblacks-dont-reach-deal-with-nick-arbuckle-before-midnight-sunday-hes-likely-gone/wcm/3b736b7a-6e4e-4e05-8986-f432a80959ba/amp/ Santino Filoso’s timeline from LaPo and Arbuckle hirings, contract stalemate, trade, Desjardins firing, and post mortem where the narrative moves from “cut for contract reasons which puts into question the GMs competency” to “LaPo forced his GMs hand to get ‘his’ guy and made the GM the scapegoat” and certainly feels one-sided in favour of propping up Marcel (also one could read the post game reports he filed to see a shift in his attitude to LaPo and the increasing blame laid at his feet from “he has bad players” to “he is making his players bad”, rightfully or wrongfully): https://3downnation.com/2019/12/10/what-paul-lapolice-brings-to-the-redblacks/ https://3downnation.com/2020/02/03/bold-move-by-general-manager-marcel-desjardins-pays-off-for-redblacks/ https://3downnation.com/2021/01/19/redblacks-gm-marcel-desjardins-not-panicked-about-contract-restructure-discussions-with-qb-nick-arbuckle/ https://3downnation.com/2021/02/02/following-quarterback-switch-redblacks-fans-are-questioning-gm-marcel-desjardins/ https://3downnation.com/2021/10/26/during-his-time-in-ottawa-lazy-narratives-emerged-about-former-redblacks-gm-marcel-desjardins/ https://3downnation.com/2021/12/19/the-ottawa-redblacks-2021-post-mortem/ And here is Filoso’s byline on 3 Down showing his residency: Santino Filoso 364 POSTS 0 COMMENTS Santino Filoso is originally from Ottawa and has written about the Redblacks since 2013. He is the only CFL writer currently living in Brazil (as far as we know). Why that may or may not be relevant: If he is quoting other writers or papers to get hard numbers, easy enough, but when he veers into opinion pieces to support Desjardins or blame LaPo for the internal moves the club made, one would imagine he would have inner access to the club to verify these viewpoints that it was LaPo truly guiding the ship and not Desjardins who controlled the roster, therefore making the Arbuckle move a personality firing and not a money move, especially after the story changes halfway through. And if he was just a random blogger on a fan site, then his opinion, although entitled to it, would not be worth much more or less than anyone else’s. But if written as an accredited writer for a national CFL website purporting to be a beat writer for the team, one can fairly ask how a guy apparently writing from 7,000km away can be considered an unassailable source of credibility if he has no physical contact with the inner sanctum of the RedBlacks. Now it is possible he is in Ottawa and only lives in Brazil in the off-season, but his byline is then very misleading to me. And maybe he uses Justin Dunk as his inside source if he is out-of-country, but he has made a point to quote his source in some stories but not in his opinion pieces. Guys like Tait or even Friesen who many do not care for at least can say that have access to the locker room and can directly see the day-to-day workings of the team,and can then opine on club issues with some more credibility as an “insider” than someone blogging from the southern hemisphere, IMO. Toronto trade to Edmonton and the money issue there with John Murphy and assessment by Dinwiddie: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6225603 Edmonton’s Arbuckle contract signing: https://www.google.com/amp/s/edmontonsun.com/sports/football/cfl/edmonton-elks/edmonton-elks-ink-quarterback-nick-arbuckle-through-2022-season/wcm/5c5b303b-e8d8-4e78-a0b1-f7079695b00b/amp/ There you go.

The answer to that is probably somewhere between “the riddle of the sphinx” and something these guys could solve:

My head hurt researching it. Amalgamated from about a dozen newspaper stories from the last 2 years. Short version, teams would not agree to his contract demands and moved him for what assets they could.

The news reports out of Ottawa said it came down to money. Arbuckle got a huge signing bonus ($210,000) in 2020, collected salary for a year when the league did not play (although he did take a pay cut), and then would not renegotiate his deal for 2021. Was going to make almost $500,000 and was due a $150,000 bonus three days before he got cut. When Nichols (who was due his own bonus and was cut by Toronto in a cost-cutting measure), Ottawa had an out and jumped to sign him and cut Arbuckle. Toronto, now short a QB, grabbed Arbuckle since all other teams were settled at pivot. It was also mentioned that Nichols veteran status at QB was more roster-beneficial according to CFL rules for Ottawa. The “LaPo forced Marcel’s hand” angle was overblown (he certainly had input and probably ID’d Nichols as a solution once the Arbuckle contract talks broke down) but became the new narrative for some (especially 3Down Ottawa writer and not-so-subtle Desjardins backer Santino Filoso - who apparently writes out of Brazil, by the way) once the move went sour after Nichols showed his injury was more permanent then anyone knew and Marcel was being thrown to the wolves by the fan base. In Toronto, Arbuckle had 2 hamstring injuries that slowed his progress. Again, he was getting starter money, including his $150,000 signing bonus with the Argos, but once MBT emerged as a guy who could win some games, John Murphy was quoted as saying they could not afford to pay two starting QBs and fill the other holes that needed filling,and Ryan Dinwiddie said MBT won the starter’s role. So off to Edmonton he goes. Now, despite not playing a single down in Edmonton, the club has re-upped him for 2022 at a cost of $340,000 but only a $5,000 signing bonus this time), so it would appear they consider him a starter for that kind of dough (if that means anything given the non-guaranteed contracts of the CFL). At least this is what I gleaned from the various newspaper reports of Arbuckle’s last couple of seasons. He may still be very good, but he has been given some pretty big salaries for a guy with 11 career starts, and those salaries seemed to play a role in teams abandoning him, especially with COVID wreaking havoc on CFL finances.

Don’t need to. Hellebuyck had COVID in the summer before training camp.