BigBlue

Its already been ststed over and over that it is incentive based .... but the big bonus next spring is what killed retaining him .... you are awfully condescending

Maybe rename them a suburb city like Mississauga or something

I have to laugh when  I hear some of you say I would pay him thus and such and not a nickel more ... I don't think most of you have the slightest clue about negotiations  ... just fan ego flapping its lips in the wind

I like the idea of forbidding slo-mo except for whether a player stepped out of bounds ... otherwise 90 seconds is more thah enough ... bravo

I would not only play the Vanier Cup in the same city, I would bundle the two games up: it would give the excitement hungry fans something to do Saturday afternoon before partying Saturday night ... it would also push some interest into college football and the draft .... but most of all it would make for more of a football extravaganza: Friday night awards and stuff, Saturday amateur championship, Sunday the great climax ... what could we possibly do for an encore?

I don't get all this belief that Franklin is our forthcoming messiah ... he is showing some nice potential as a backup but once he becomes a starter he will become subject to scrutiny & film study and other stuff .... and once his tendencies are known he may not be as fantastic as the 2nd coming of  Mike Reilly ... we have a proven QB in Nichols who is only going to mature and get better ... we have not yet seen the top of his game.
And besides Edmonton has a certain high value on him for this year although they are not beyond grabbing an arm and a leg from a team willing to offer that much ... if we are  going after him lets pay that high price when he is a free agent ... lets test out Nichols this year and see if we might have the real deal. Let Nichols do it this coming season .... he might surprise us.

I don't get all this belief that Franklin is our forthcoming messiah ... he is showing some nice potential as a backup but once he becomes a starter he will become subject to scrutiny & film study and other stuff .... and once his tendencies are known he may not be as fantastic as the 2nd coming of  Mike Reilly ... we have a proven QB in Nichols who is only going to mature and get better ... we have not yet seen the top of his game.
And besides Edmonton has a certain high value on him for this year although they are not beyond grabbing an arm and a leg from a team willing to offer that much ... if we are  going after him lets pay that high price when he is a free agent ... lets test out Nichols this year and see if we might have the real deal. Let Nichols do it this coming season .... he might surprise us.

I would not only play the Vanier Cup in the same city, I would bundle the two games up: it would give the excitement hungry fans something to do Saturday afternoon before partying Saturday night ... it would also push some interest into college football and the draft .... but most of all it would make for more of a football extravaganza: Friday night awards and stuff, Saturday amateur championship, Sunday the great climax ... what could we possibly do for an encore?

Why would you ever want to not correct bad calls .... and as long as you are not making frivoulous protests you will be able to do so

JCon said:  "
I don't have a problem with them imposing the rules. My point is that the refing is very inconsistent from play to play, week to week. The quality of refing is very low in the CFL. The poor refing is not incidentally because it can have, and has had, a direct impacted the result of the games."
I think the league could spend a lot more money on officiating such as :
1] Making the position a full time job
2] Continuous training of said officials and review using the latest technology
3] Imitate how the NFL trains and develops its officials ... hire the same way ... many college refs would love to become full time professionals ... also former Canadian football players would love to extend their time in the game...
Unless and until there is  a significant improvement in the quality and accuracy of the officiating calls, to protect themselves teams need more - - not less - - reviews. THIS IS CRUCIAL to the integrity of the game and the growth of our fan interest/base.
I know good reviews take more time but bad calls are too big a turn off to the marginal fans we need to grow our game. 
Here is what I propose:
1] a slight change in the rules to adjust for slight infractions away from the play  ... slight contact on a receiver, blocking on kick returns, holding and the like ... this means not over turning plays because the officials are using some common sense discretion  and "fairness" ie there are constant small infractions going on all over the field. Teams should not be able to take advantage of this.
2] adjusting for the speed of live play instead of the more accurate slow motion; for example  the Loffler hit on Arcenaux during the BC playoff game ... that call was a game changer ... in other words not over turning normal human judgment calls as a matter of practice ... over turn the egrecious errors in judgment only ... take away the picky technicality in favor of supporting normal judgment and on field pragmatic decisions giving back discretion to the official and NOT deferring decisions to the replay - - make the official make an on the spot decision instead of failing to decide in order to defer to the camera... this puts the burden on the official reviewer who should be the very best, not the very least, officials we have ( and who would be paid the best) meaning we have good discretion supporting the officials but knowing when to draw the line on a bad call.
The head referee may announce "the infraction was away from the play and will not be enforced"... or "the call was within the discretion of the official ruling at game speed and will not be over turned" ... etc.
3] Give teams unlimited reviews as long as they are right on the calls they protest. Teams get to be wrong on their request for reviews only twice ... and when they are wrong they will be charged a ten yard delay of game penalty ... this will deter teams from throwing the yellow flag unless they are sure of their protest ... throwing that flag will occur less just because it could be a game changer or because it is a blatant un-costly attempt to get lucky at a critical time.
I know more reviews slow the game but as long as they correct true officiating errors there is a certain satisfaction in justice being served. Fan frustration comes from the delays resulting from frivolous/marginal protests.
Who believes the extra reviews to get it right is  worth it to the well being of the league and the fans?

Championship clubs are not  built by accident. It takes tough courageous patient decision making. Without wisdom and conviction we end with mediocrity and frustration.
We are not going to win a championship by standing pat.
[1] What bigger fundamental structural changes do we need to make to improve this ball club? 
[2] What small nuanced changes do we need to make to go from good to very good?
[3] Do we have any glaring weaknesses that have to be overcome?
First a championship, then a dynasty ...

I don't like the compromise worked out here ... the refereeing is so frequently wrong ... personally, I would like to see unlimited challenges when you are right and a 10 yard delay of game when you are wrong to a maximum of 2 or 3 ... leave the timeouts alone...

What a delightful game ... amazing defense and lights out offense in the first quarter (again with a similar offensive output to last week's Q1).
So we got it done.
Now maybe defenses "adjust" and eventually take away our initial game plan.
My question, however, is whether Ds really do shut us down later, OR. OR, OR ... do we quit adjusting and go with what is "prudent" (read that as conservative/safe) instead of shifting to take advantage of how the adjusting D is cheating up, leaving us different types of opportunities. In other words do we voluntarily shut ourselves down?
I really don't know, but ...
When we lost our starting tackle, why do we start trying to establish a running game, especially when that had not been working  earlier in the game? That's not "adjusting" to what the D gives. That, as it turns out, is "two and out" territory.
Matt Dunigan was pleading with the Blue to go for the throat, to put the game away. Instead we turtled and had little O in the 2nd half. As good as our D was, we ended up giving up another 300+ yards passing.  Match our play calling to our strengths and the defense's cheats... that's what I want to see.
Now back to celebrating and doing cartwheels....

I, Chicken Little, have decided that indeed the sky is falling. Others in Bomber Land are simply choosing to pick out individual falling stars disintegrating into dust. The INDIVIDUAL EMPHASIS: It's the GM. No,  it's the quarterback. No, it's the coaching. Others are focusing on the offensive line, while we rant and rave about the draft and free agent picks. Some are picking the city itself is the reason the Blue Bombers cannot succeed.
This argument has gone on and on for a quarter-century, literally... really. Our last championship was 26 years ago. What is the common thread, the repeated over and over cause of our failure? Or are we just randomly unlucky as our personality and character trait? Can we even say that there is a single cause?
Isn't it easier to say there is no pattern, no analysable source for the failure?
We used to say that the New York Mets would be a joke forever, until one day they weren't anymore. They were actually championship calibre. So what changed with them?
We love to dump on the Saskatchewan Rough Riders but they went all out to win a Grey Cup and they did it. Then when they realized that the team had developed into stardust, in the aftermath, they went out and did something. They hired the Grey Cup winner's coach, a hated man called Jones. He has talent, he finds talent and he is demanding for the very best a player can put out. We can see how critical football is to the Regina community. Businessmen get involved with their own money; people make sacrifices for the team. The Rough Riders is like the province's National sport and obsession.
By contrast, in Winnipeg, our board of directors is like an old boys club. It's very prestigious to be on the board, a status symbol, not an act of self-sacrifice. And we're a very stingy lot, nicknamed Wholesale City for our cheapness. It was almost like a national emergency when we paid big bucks for Matt Dunigan back in the mid-90s (and we still had a little bit of sense left from the not too far removed Grey Cup days). I for one don't really believe at all that our current Board of Directors cares enough to do what it takes to win it all. There are exceptional individuals on the Board from time to time but for the most part they are a lackadaisical lot were sitting on their personal laurels while a couple of others are accountability types was only ambition is to protect the investment of the City and the Province. No one is ever going to light a fire under that group... never in a million years. We don't have anything resembling true leadership there. Wade Miller was a perfect hire to represent that board.
The fate of the Bombers is not going to change because we are perpetuating the root of the problem. As one sage once said "they heal the wound of my people slightly". They just appease us with the hope that "we are doing the best we can": hoping that we believe our former glory days will somehow return. Those that control our fate have no motivation. 
The sky has fallen; we just haven't accepted it yet.
 
 

I, Chicken Little, have decided that indeed the sky is falling. Others in Bomber Land are simply choosing to pick out individual falling stars disintegrating into dust. The INDIVIDUAL EMPHASIS: It's the GM. No,  it's the quarterback. No, it's the coaching. Others are focusing on the offensive line, while we rant and rave about the draft and free agent picks. Some are picking the city itself is the reason the Blue Bombers cannot succeed.
This argument has gone on and on for a quarter-century, literally... really. Our last championship was 26 years ago. What is the common thread, the repeated over and over cause of our failure? Or are we just randomly unlucky as our personality and character trait? Can we even say that there is a single cause?
Isn't it easier to say there is no pattern, no analysable source for the failure?
We used to say that the New York Mets would be a joke forever, until one day they weren't anymore. They were actually championship calibre. So what changed with them?
We love to dump on the Saskatchewan Rough Riders but they went all out to win a Grey Cup and they did it. Then when they realized that the team had developed into stardust, in the aftermath, they went out and did something. They hired the Grey Cup winner's coach, a hated man called Jones. He has talent, he finds talent and he is demanding for the very best a player can put out. We can see how critical football is to the Regina community. Businessmen get involved with their own money; people make sacrifices for the team. The Rough Riders is like the province's National sport and obsession.
By contrast, in Winnipeg, our board of directors is like an old boys club. It's very prestigious to be on the board, a status symbol, not an act of self-sacrifice. And we're a very stingy lot, nicknamed Wholesale City for our cheapness. It was almost like a national emergency when we paid big bucks for Matt Dunigan back in the mid-90s (and we still had a little bit of sense left from the not too far removed Grey Cup days). I for one don't really believe at all that our current Board of Directors cares enough to do what it takes to win it all. There are exceptional individuals on the Board from time to time but for the most part they are a lackadaisical lot were sitting on their personal laurels while a couple of others are accountability types was only ambition is to protect the investment of the City and the Province. No one is ever going to light a fire under that group... never in a million years. We don't have anything resembling true leadership there. Wade Miller was a perfect hire to represent that board.
The fate of the Bombers is not going to change because we are perpetuating the root of the problem. As one sage once said "they heal the wound of my people slightly". They just appease us with the hope that "we are doing the best we can": hoping that we believe our former glory days will somehow return. Those that control our fate have no motivation. 
The sky has fallen; we just haven't accepted it yet.
 
 

Green played like garbage ... so did Johnson .... If you have a promising player on the bench to replace them, don't you make the move?
When will MOS learn to play players based on merit & performance? This idea that never changing unless forced to is very demotivating for not only the second tier players but even more so for the starters
Not having a merit based system doesn't build consistency but instead brings fatalistic thinking
 

I am surprised at the low level of activity on this forum compared to earlier years. Normally we have a steady stream of comments during the season from 6 am to 1 am. I am not seeing that right now; in fact its real easy to catch up with all the new posts. I remember I used to check in every 2 or 3 hours. Now, not so much...
Is thus resignation and bitter disappointment, the loss of real hope.... or is something else?

I am surprised at the low level of activity on this forum compared to earlier years. Normally we have a steady stream of comments during the season from 6 am to 1 am. I am not seeing that right now; in fact its real easy to catch up with all the new posts. I remember I used to check in every 2 or 3 hours. Now, not so much...
Is thus resignation and bitter disappointment, the loss of real hope.... or is something else?

Harris  is the best back we have had since Charles Roberts.

It's been a long time since we had a home grown Winnipeg star to cheer for. For me, AH makes the season.
Further, Harris is one of the few players in this league who can put the whole team on his back and carry them.
We have just added 4 victories to this season.
Won't it be great to have his family in the stands?

It's been a long time since we had a home grown Winnipeg star to cheer for. For me, AH makes the season.
Further, Harris is one of the few players in this league who can put the whole team on his back and carry them.
We have just added 4 victories to this season.
Won't it be great to have his family in the stands?

not in this oil economy

Yeah, this is way more fun than the dueling over the Rough Rider's logo

Why is Wiecek focusing on MOS's family issues? Is he Ted Cruz or Donal Trump? Is "crying" a real football issue? Or is this just more headline grubbing by the incompetent, as Trump might say?
I am not sure about MOS's leadership .... he had one of the best examples of a coach anywhere in Pinball Clemons .... He has witnessed some of the best in football .... but why isn't it translating? Is he too authoritarian or its opposite? Was the team divided or cohesive last tear? I really can't tell.
Has the whole problem been (1) a lack of talent at the critical positions and (2) player leadership?
Is it (3) the lack of support from above?
Who has the diagnostic tools to actually nail down what the problems have truly been?
Yes how our BELOVED BLUE perform in the first 6 games in a very challenging early schedule is going to be the measure of MOS's  manhood, in the football sense. By game 8 we will know whether he has the right stuff.
But what his family life has to do with BOMBER-MANIA I can not fathom.

I loved Swaggerville .... and it got us to the Grey Cup