OH, THAT WACKY CFL: RICKY'S RAMBLING, AND GOPHER BAROQUE IN COWTOWN

Once again, we're a little slow on the uptake here. I saw this Ricky Williams "interview" on Sportsnet.ca in the wee hours and to be honest, it didn't seem too out of the ordinary. Deadspin, however, posted it, and now we're playing catch-up.

What you have to understand with Ricky Williams is that while not all people with depression or social anxiety are the same, that was a fairly characteristic reaction for people who have such conditions. He felt put on the spot in what was really an everyday social situation, and he acted out.

This is coming from someone who, like Williams, has been prescribed meds for depression and/or social anxiety disorder. Speaking from personal experience, you start to take this solace in being ignored. Being withdrawn becomes your solace, your emotional comfort food. Sometimes you're so firmly in your little cocoon that when someone breaches -- in this case, a reporter and camera operator coming up to you for an interview on the practice field -- you lash out. It's like: How dare they try to be my friend right now.

Usually, though, you end up looking like Ricky did here: Like a bit of an ass.

For instance, the other day I was at work and a colleague who works in another department and
asked me something. Like Ricky, instead of giving a polite, straight answer to a honest question, I replied, "Omigod, you know my name." This colleague didn't deserve that, just like the Sportsnet reporter didn't deserve to be mocked for just trying to his job.

That said, it seemed like an odd line of questioning. Williams was injured in 2000, the only year one of his NFL teams made the playoffs. And this matters how? While it seems like Williams' serotonin levels were prompting some of his responses, at least give him credit for being un-jocklike and not giving the typical monotone answers.

Anyhow, you can hear the knee-jerk reactions: Here's Ricky, the guy suspended from the NFL, who's done little in his CFL stint, being a "distraction" as the Argos prepare for Sunday's East Division semifinal against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Oh, please. If anything, this deflected attention away from the Argos' problems, and the coaches and players might have even had a laugh or two.

You're not going to hear that knee-jerk stuff here. What I said back at the start of the season stands: The Argos painted themselves into a corner by making a bad football move and then pretending their motives were entirely pure. It made it way too easy for the cynical conjurers (which all good reporters and columnists should be) to label the Ricky experiment a disaster in the event he failed to put up numbers or the team struggled. There's always more reasons than one guy for that happening, but like I said in May, "those kind of nuances tend to gets lost when the media are sharpening their knives like an actor in a Quizno's commercial."

As for Argos-Bombers game, if Toronto was going to put together four good quarters of football, you'd figure they'd have done it by now, eh? Of course, you could have said that in 2004, when they won the whole schebangabang. I'll take the Argos 27-24 -- one touchdown on special teams, one on defence and Noel Prefontaine'll take care of the rest.

GAINER THE GOPHER

Everyone's had a say on this already, but seeing as I'm already headed for a fairly low rung on the inferno, one cannot not have a comment on the Calgary Stampeders' totally unfair and small-town cheap move to ban the Saskatchewan Roughriders mascot, Gainer the Gopher, from the playing field at McMahon Stadium this weekend.

As usual, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is on the wrong side of an oh-so-right issue. At least this time, Ralph's only being tongue-in-cheek about it.

Anyway, you probably heard this line already -- the Stamps have had trouble selling tickets this year and half the people in Calgary are originally from Saskatchewan, so they were presumably worried the Riders-Stamps contest would almost seem like a home game for the team in green.

Here's hoping the Riders come out of the locker room Sunday afternoon and exclaim, "Doesn't Taylor Field look good today?" No self-respecting citizen of Riderville has ever called it Mozaik Stadium at Taylor Field. Prediction: Saskatchewan 26-25

(Note: This isn't a research prediction. The desire is simply to see a Saskatchewan-Toronto Grey Cup in Winnipeg on Nov. 19, since there's no championship matchup that would hack off most people in the 'Peg worse than their archrival vs. the Argos, the team everyone hates, or would hate if they were good enough to rate contempt. It could be similar to 1991, with Ricky Williams dodging a full beer can as he scoots into the end zone, à la Raghib Ismail.)

Back with more later. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.