Bleeding Tricolour: Star treatment! Oil Thigh yay Brannagan!

Talk about fuel for the fire. The Toronto Star's Chris Young has added to the roaring debate about the Canadian quarterback with a feature on Queen's record-setting passer Danny Brannagan, whose "ice-blue eyes match a placid demeanour that seems antithetical to sports' chest-thumping, tattooed present."

"Golden Gaels centre Dan Bederman went to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' training camp as a free agent last spring. And he's quite sure Brannagan belongs at the next level.

" 'I got to take an up-close look at the kind of quarterbacks there, and I'm not an expert, but I could see that in terms of QB talent, Danny is right there," Bederman said. "He deserves at least a shot. He can throw just as far, he's smart and can read a defence – the only knock on him is his height, but this is a league where Doug Flutie and Jeff Garcia showed you don't have to be that big to excel ... it's a shame.' "

It is past the point of saying, oh well, it would be nice if more "played-in-Canada" quarterbacks (Young's phrase) got a legitimate shot in the CFL. It goes deeper.

For one, where's the econommic pressure to come up with a star Canadian quarterback? Last night, the Toronto Argonauts had 25,000 people in the stands to watch their unwatchable offence.

Regardless, it's a great article by Young and it speaks to what globesports.com's Allan Maki said earlier this week about major media outlets not being afraid to write a good story about a university athlete. The fact Chris travelled down to Kingston is quite impressive. The Oct. 18 Sunday Star mentioned nothing about Queen's 27-26 win over Western. Even the agate page had only CIS scores, no standings. To be fair, there was a lot more news value in the high school game it covered (a young man named Akeel Lynch rushed for 390 yards) than what happens in the typical late-season U of T or York game, no nice way to say it.

By the way, did anyone notice Young called Queen's the "Golden Gaels" when it was "Queen's Gaels" in the same paper a couple weeks ago? Chris Young and his colleagues rock.

For anyone doubting what Young says about Brannagan's placid demeanour, check out his post-game interview following the win over Western. The only jitters come from the schlub taking the video who overdid the Amp Energy Drink before the game:



Related:
Tale of two quarterbacks: Tebow, Brannagan (Chris Young, Toronto Star)

(Cross-posted to cisblog.ca.)