TrueBlue4ever

In the conversation for greatest defensive player ever on the Bombers. Where Ty Jones and Willie Jefferson were/are game wreckers, Battle is like Adam Bighill in that both controlled the game when they played and were the glue of the defence, solid and steady, but also would make the game-changing spectacular play with regularity as well. Battle’s 1990 Cup game is one of the best defensive performances ever in the championship.

Two stories about Ty that I recall. First was an interview Bob Irving did with then Argonaut o-lineman Chris Schultz. Chris said preparing to play the Bombers in the mid-1980’s was basically getting ready to put up with “3 hours of noise” from Jones and James West because they would never stop talking on the field all game. Schultz said they ran their mouths on every play non-stop, and the only difference was that where Jones just complained on every play - “he’s holding me again ref, did you see him holding me?” West was a bit funnier and could actually throw out the occasional bit of praise - “OK, you got me good with that block that time,I’ll give you that one….still holding me most times, though, ha, ha”. Irving asked how it was with the non-stop chatter and Schultz said it got to some players, but he just laughed because it was so entertaining with what they came up with and they would never shut up. Second story was the morning of the 1984 Grey Cup. Jones had won the Schenley award that week as the best defensive player in the CFL and had been seen around town but was keeping a lower profile than some of his boisterous teammates, which reporters found odd because of his loud nature and energy on the field. After the morning breakfast on game day, a bunch of players were heading back to their rooms and by-passed a notoriously slow hotel elevator to take the staircase up a few floors - all except Jones who waited for the elevator to come. A reporter saw this and asked Ty if hd was going to walk up the stairs as well rather than wait for what always seemed like an eternity for the elevator. Jones simply said “no, I’m saving all my energy for the game today, not wasting any on climbing stairs”. A record 4 sacks and a forced fumble later and he was Grey Cup defensive MVP.

A trio of running backs for today. William Miller. 1980 rookie of the year. Another who left us too soon. R.I.P. Mike Sellers, the thunder to Charlie Roberts’ lightning. Andrew Harris, the hometown hero who fulfilled his promise to end the drought.

The simple fact that he wasn’t cut when Castillo was signed, and then kept on the roster after the season were two big clues.

That “fair bit of heat” is 6 tweets in the 30 minutes their post has been up. That lack of response may be a big reason why the CFL is in trouble.

Tyrone Jones. There may be better overall defensive players in the history of the Bombers depending on which position you consider, but there were few if any who could just take over a game with their dominance like he could when he turned it on (maybe Willie Jefferson is a comparable now).

The ultimate 5 year-old with his dad’s gun.

Lots of love to go around. David Shaw Mercy Maston Paul Randolph Marcus Sayles

Nice in theory, but many issues persist: Who gets to impose the consequences, and who gets to determine what is a lie? One person’s view of what is “fair and balanced” application of the rules is outrageous to the other side, and there will not be consensus on who gets to be the high moral authority that satisfies everyone. The rich guys will get to make the rules. Is Elon Musk really the voice of reason and arbiter of truth and falsehood that everyone is fine with if he starts censoring what he deems to be “lies”? Also, news is a whole lot of spin, and these modern “journalists” know how to play the game. Look at the issue here: “Ivermectin is a horse de-wormer”. Offence is taken by that characterization because there are human variants, but that phrase is not in and of itself a lie, so really there could be no justifiable consequence on that basis. Now, does the spin lead to some oversimplification and potential for inaccuracy? Of course, but it isn’t a lie so it does it’s job of creating an idea of stupidity for those who use it without actually lying, so mission completely accomplished without presenting a patent falsehood. Also, commentators like Tucker Carlson have mastered the art of provoking without actually saying anything, but just asking questions so they can deny having lied. If I posed the question “Has HardCoreBlue stopped beating his wife yet?” The implication is clear but I haven’t actually told a lie, because hey I’m only asking a question - so I can get away with suggesting pretty much any stupid thing and not be called a liar on a technicality. Third, shaming those who lie really accomplishes nothing. Trump had over 30,000 documented lies in his Presidency, and whenever he got called out for it, it only emboldened his supporters and him to double down. And short attention spans today mean that no one cares enough expend the time and energy to tear down the lie. In the last month, news has been dominated by Roe v Wade, Ginni Thomas’s texts, Cawthorn’s comments, pics and videos, MTG and Depp/Heard trials, SCOTUS leak, Meadows texts - hey, do we even get updates on COVID or an actual war in Ukraine as front page news anymore? And the media has no desire to stop all this noise. They are there to sell papers or ad time, not worry about “the truth and nothing but the truth”. It is big business, and talking heads with loud opinions is what makes business work now. As CBS president Les Moonvees said about Trump’s election run in 2020 “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS”. Fox, Newsmax, CNN, MSNBC et al surely agree. It all boils down to expecting people to have integrity and do the right thing for others. That world seems to be long gone in many ways. I can’t imagine how badly JFK’s “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” speech would play today. People would be screaming about the Government’s responsibility to act for the people and not the other way around and how self-interested he was and what a betrayal to his oath it was, rather than being inspired to devote time to public service as was intended and received at the time.

BTW the tackler got stomped out pretty badly by security. Video of him after on a stretcher had his arm bent in a way that is not normally found in nature (unless you are like an ostrich whose knees bend the opposite way). As someone on Twitter said “Millionaire Will Smith assaults a guy an gets an Oscar a few minutes later. Random dude does it and loses an arm. If you want to get away with stuff like the rich do, be sure you make your money before doing that stuff”.

Exactly the joke Chris Rock told on stage right after it happened (he was touring with Chappelle).

His teams went 7-9 in 1963 and 1-14-1 in 1964, so at some point even he did in some way.

The hardest hitting safety in the CFL. No, the original one, not the current one. The Hit Man. Bennie Thompson.

This guy agrees with you.

Me too please. Hear lots of vague stories but it often seems like random fans just stirring stuff up on the scapegoat of the day, or something taken out of context.

Is it just me or is the CFL Draft not worth really caring about given current contract rules? There are rarely “game breakers”, the best players are frequently not taken because they are going to get snapped up in the NFL, and there are few “instant starters” selected. And with one year contracts creating instant free agency every year, it seems easy to grab a player you missed out on in the draft pretty quickly by signing them after one year. Is there really any length of time a team gets to keep a player’s rights? Best I could find was that as long as they stay in college they are the team’s property, but no real mention of a form of restricted free agency once they play with the team that selected them. Is there a mandatory length of rookie contract that keeps a player with a team or is it one year?

Speedflex for the win theses last 2 days! Maybe the greatest trade in Bomber history getting Kehoe and Reaves from Edmonton for a draft pick.

All the noisemakers on Twitter who have been begging for Scheifele to be dumped all year are now upset that he is hinting at leaving, claiming he’s disloyal.

Fritz Hansen

Best opening round series could be Toronto—Tampa and Minnesota-St. Louis. Not sure I have much of a rooting interest, but if I was to rank teams from who I would like the most to least to win: WEST 1. Minnesota - great fan base, have never won before, close to here and a smaller market team 2. Calgary - Although I don’t like Tkachuk, if there is a Canadian team to root for I’d take them first. 3. Nashville - again never won before and a good non-traditional market 4. Colorado - they are the best team out there and have been for a while, might as well get rewarded for it Would not cheer for any of the others really. Edmonton the only team I would strongly root against. EAST 1. Florida - excellent team that has never tasted success, so why not now? 2. Tampa - three in a row has not been done in so long, would be a neat feat to see 3. New York - if only to land the Jets another first round pick 4. Toronto - the media would be insufferable, but after 55 years and Harold Ballard the fans do deserve some good luck. Then they can go back to sucking for 55 more years. Could care less about the rest, Boston would be the worst.

Just a guess, but maybe a COVID illness required someone else to cover work, and they got injured in some capacity.

Meant to be a pilot’s wings.