Losing that fake concern about drugs in sports, made easy

At first blush, it was like someone didn't see Run Ricky Run.

It was tough to stay reined in after reading Winnipeg Sun column pointing the CFL's new drug policy is toothless and PR-motivated. (Rob Pettapiece has tackled the CIS angle over at cisblog.ca.)

Seeing "illegal drugs" and having marijuana lumped in with steroids was almost cause to go off after a long three weeks of seeing much of the drive-by media cock up the Waterloo War-roids story.

Plus it poked fun at Ricky Williams. Who does that anymore? The Washington Times, which is obviously run by liberal guilt-ridden propper-uppers of permissiveness, describes him as "a guy who just wants to spread the love."

"With a policy like this, Ricky Williams might want to come back.

"Actually, the use of marijuana, the former Toronto running back's drug of choice, isn’t even covered in the CFL policy. Neither is cocaine.

"The message to players: if you find the NFL's policy on 'recreational' drugs too stifling, come on up! The Cannabis Football League has a job for you!

"Wouldn't team presidents and GMs, most of whom claim to be so eager to connect with their communities and their fans, particularly families, want to know if their players are abusing illegal drugs?"

A sober second thought is that is actually a great takedown of how old media pander to a 21st-century answer to reefer madness with steroids and PEDs, the shorthand term. As a whole, it talked a lot about the Waterloo debacle, but didn't listen or learn.

No one wants to chat about how CFL and CIS football players using steroids is just a sports-of-the-times thing. The reality a a newspaper column is a 600-word sprint makes it even harder to approach. One might as well go the other way and be satirical.

For the last time, what happened at Waterloo was no shock. Look around. Big Pharm has a hook into about everybody and nutritional supplements can be bought by any student, fact. That has almost been a fourth wall in much of the Waterloo coverage. Steroids bad ... over-the-counter stuff that might work like a steroid pretended away.

Of course, we can't have that conversation. It would force OMDs to confront their own bias and cease and desist from being governed by their hang-ups and need to judge a younger generation. They're not going to give that up, especially when falling back on shallow snark out of uber-defensiveness is available.

That means the above from Paul Friesen is brilliant, and that is said in full sincerity.

He pointed out how print journalism is so self-limiting when it comes to examining anything complex. It was hook-line-sinker on this end, to the point an e-mail had to be sent just to ask for explanation. On further review (a phrase that is apt after the Saskatchewan Roughriders' wild win over the Montreal Alouettes), it works on several levels.

It skewers our dated attitudes about how sports should uphold some notion of muscular Christianity instead of athletes outwitting and outplaying each other for our vicarious joy.

The same goes for how people get in a bunch about illegal drugs. Meantime, they pay no mind all the readily available legal ones that have created a trendy career for women who look a lot like the breadwinner at Mike Fisher's home.



Using Williams as an Athletes Behaving Badly straw man hits on an irony in sports fandom that we don't talk about much. Why does the marijuana-smoking Miami Dolphin have such a stickiness, while jocks who have committed heinous crimes that made life difficult for at least one other human being go straight down the memory hole?

Dollars-to-Doritos says if we walked into a bar showing a CFL game and asked people about Ricky Williams, all could ID him as a halfback who is a lover of the herb. How many could tell you about Trevis Smith, a Saskatchewan Roughriders linebacker whom in 2007 was sent to prison for knowingly exposing his sexual partners to the HIV virus?

That is effed-up that we remember Ricky and forgot Smith. You might halfway seriously wonder why we obsess more over what male athletes put in their bodies than what some have put in a woman's body against her will, excuse the crassness.

That last graf calls out that collective effed-upedness:

"Wouldn't team presidents and GMs, most of whom claim to be so eager to connect with their communities and their fans, particularly families, want to know if their players are abusing illegal drugs?"

Feigning concern about for "families" and using "illegal drugs" as an all-purpose blanket term are classics out of a career politician's handbook.

It shows concern without addressing the matter. As such, each has become a common media trope that could and should be retired faster than the Blue Jays' 3-4-5 hitters on most days.

Families?

A sports team may be family-friendly, but it's not a morality cop.

The Trevis Smith saga actually illustrates this very well. Family-friendly really just means a family of four can still afford to watch a competitive team play a game amid a raucous atmosphere. That's it. That is the connection the CFL (and CIS football) has to make.

The crowd in Regina at the Riders' CFL 54-51 overtime win over the Montreal Alouettes on Thursday is a proof.

The Riders are one of the most profitable teams in the CFL and the most passionately followed. Their fans, like all fans, have voted with their time and disposable income that their support begins and ends with the product.

Having a player convicted of a crime was embarrassing for the Roughriders organization in 2006. Then-GM Roy Shivers was fired while all this was before the courts, but it was for a variety of other reasons. Point being, it passed. However, abject behaviour by players, coaches, or team execs (see Eric Tillman) has little sway with rank-and-file sports fans. They can sort it out on their own and continuing living their lifes without any media moralizing.

That should make it clear we have little to no need to extend the nanny state to the performers in spectator sports. It's like some people want that in order to screen out contemporary life from creeping into their notion of the world of fun and games. Oh, not stupid reality again! It's the damned modernity which shapes the fun and games, pal.

Denying it makes you as a big a goof as Stephen Valeriote. He is a former Waterloo football player who tried to blame the adverse tests at his alma mater on almost all things CIS except the testees (and the two players who have been arrested and charged).

"So you ask yourself: ‘Why were so many players at UW on steroids?’ Was it because that the only way to compete with older, heavier, stronger players out east and out west was to bulk up?

"I don't like to criticize without offering a solution. In order to purify men’s university athletics, I suggest that they adopt the following rules:

"Ban ex-OHLers or Jr. A hockey players;

"One year in junior football or Quebec prep school equals one year of university eligibility."

Purify? Who believes anything is pure now? We find a peace within a state of compromise, so GTFOY, sir. Get. The. Fuck. Over. Yourself.

Far be it to point out CIS men's hockey has not had a positive doping test in almost forever. Never mind asking how the average age of football players at out-of-province schools could have influenced behaviour among players at Waterloo. The Warriors could only meet those teams in a national semifinal or Vanier Cup. (Hah!)

Since Valeriote is a school teacher, one can only presume he'll swallow it wholeheartedly the next time a student fails to turn in classwork and blames it on someone else.

Any culture of prohibition is a rearguard action. Legislating morality is a losing battle. The only line is when drug use is a symptom of a discipline problem that affects one's job performance. Stereotypes aside, it might not in all cases.

Whose job is it to instill the personal responsibility which keeps one on the straight and narrow? The people who look after you for the first 18 years of your life. Parents, the main part of the family unit.

Acknowledging that means baby boomers have to really look at how their four decades' of self-indulgence have trickled down to millennials.

Just thinking about that would make their collective lips numb. There's probably something you can take for that. Which brings us to:

Illegal drugs?

Using wacky-tabaccy-loving Williams as Mr. Bad Example, tongue in cheek, spoofs how careless some in the Canadian media are/were about in providing context on this matter.

Dogging Williams obviously doesn't hunt. His drug habit is far from the worst among NFL castoffs who have come to the CFL in the past 15 years. Remember Todd Marinovich? He was a former first-round flameout who told Esquire writer Mike Sager (no relation) that he shot heroin at halftime during his short-lived stint with the B.C. Lions in 1999.

"Todd retrieved a premade rig out of his locker and went to the bathroom to shoot up. Sitting on the toilet, half listening to the chalk talk, he slammed the heroin. As the team was leaving the locker room for the second half, he struggled with the screen in his glass crack pipe — he wasn't getting a good hit. Then the pipe broke, and he lacerated his left thumb. By the time he got out onto the field, his thumb wrapped in a towel, the game had already started. He took up the clipboard, his only duty. 'I didn't even know what play they were calling,' Todd says. 'Nobody looked at the shit I wrote down anyway.' "

Todd Marinovich did heroin at halftime. Do you need Norm Macdonald to repeat that for comic effect?

And that segues into the drive-by media's blind spot, that aforementioned fourth wall about nutritional supplements, a highly unregulated industry. The prevalence of prescription drugs in everyday life is barely mentioned, too.

People know. However, it gets in the way of keeping a column or story simple(istic).

Rob put it best:

"Now that we have a list of banned substances, and the use of any of them in CIS counts as a first strike with respect to the CFL's policy, an enterprising reporter could take Appendix D from this PDF, then go to the well-known supplement franchise with several locations in the country (some close to university campuses) and whose website lists product categories like 'anabolic agents' and 'pure creatine powders,' then find something with lots of levels of one of the banned substances in it, then ask how many of those products have been sold recently to young men. But I guess that's too esoteric a task."

Of course, that ain't gonna happen.

Who wants to read that drug use in Canadian university football might only be only marginally more prevalent than it is among males ages 15-34 who exercise regularly? That is not sensational or sexy.

It would also jeopardize the concept any athlete who has not tested positive for a banned substance is by deductive reasoning a clean athlete.

Perhaps someone is getting by on eating well and getting eight hours' sleep each night.

It would probably be more honest to just accept most high-level competitors have their little helpers. Every profession has something. Imagine a newspaper put out in a world without caffeine.

That would be much more honest about where we are as a society. That's all this is, a plea for a little more honesty, which means to stop scapegoating athletes, especially the ones in CIS who make an easy target.

The obliviousness to how all drugs reshape our lives is just tiresome. (As a friend put it: "Do you eat meat? Well, you took a steroid.") By the way, the aforementioned Eric Tillman, the former Roughriders GM who had to leave after he was convicted to sexually assaulting his family's 16-year-old babysitter? He attributed his actions to the effects of prescription medication. No irony there.

In closing, it is sickening the University of Waterloo used a criminal investigation of a couple players as a kneejerk excuse to whack its football team and throw 53 players under the bus.

One may only wonder if other Ontario universities are wondering why they couldn't be so lucky to have a gift-wrapped reason to not compete in CIS football, during an an era when the calibre of play is on a huge upswing. (So, so Canadian: it's getting tougher to win, so why try?) It is equally nauseating to see the same 53 players received the angel treatment, too.

Honesty replacing fact-plus-fiction and truth-minus-facts (Chuck Klosterman's characterizations of most news stories) would involve the media not seeing everything as so cut-and-dried.

Specifically, is it that wrong to think the CFL not testing for cocaine and marijuana is barely worth a mention, since neither is the issue?

One, not testing for it might reflect a quaint view there is still some right to privacy left in the world. Two, it might be an admission it is hypocrisy to bust players for that when there would be no pro football worth watching if not for stronger legal drugs used during training and recovery periods. (Those are taxed drugs, so the government doesn't fret about them as much.)

The CFL, by its actions, essentially said:

"Look, we realize people decided we were expected to come up with a doping policy like all the big boy-pants wearing leagues, even though we always have been and always will be an independent minor league with oddball rules. So this is the best we can do. It's not going to catch everybody, but it'll help us sleep at night. Now go work out your moral and ethical dilemmas on your own instead of expecting to find answers to them between the lines of a football field."

The world where a sports commissioner could say that is the world I one day to want to live in.

In not so many words, the CFL kind of did address fans and media as if they were adults. Fans are so there. The media not so much.

That "Cannabis Football League" crack, even if it's sarcastic, is reminiscent of the exact kinds of remark that kill in a newsrooms that are bastions of old-media hubris. It does not reflect trying to challenge one's own set of assumptions, let alone so-called conventional wisdom. It just reinforces it.

Old media got old for reasons beyond technology, people. That's why there's not a snowball's chance in hell it can discuss such a topic seriously.

Something like the truth with so-called Waterloo steroid scandal

The volume of linkage below says it all with what happened at Waterloo on Monday.

The Warriors football team getting benched for 2010 even made The New York Times, plus it was in sports sections in U.S. cities such as Charlotte, Kansas City, Knoxville and Minneapolis where much of the readership hitherto was unaware Canada has college football. Even the Ottawa media noticed, actually calling the Warriors "one of Canada's most storied university football programs." (It's definitely in the top two in the Kitchener-Waterloo region and in the running for the top 26 nationwide.)

Rob Pettapiece, who will be a UW alumnus by the end of the week, had his rebuttal to the decision. My paying gig should be priority, but as so often happens when the quote, unquote real media cover a CIS story, there are some myths that have to be debunked.

1. That this is only a one-year suspension.
   
   Greg Layson gets credit for this point. Waterloo has looked to cut expenses. Rob has alluded to UW's indifference to its profile in major sports such as basketball, football and men's hockey. It has a kickass women's rugby team, which is win-win since it's a growth sport which does not cost much to run.
   
   That is why it is reasonable to think Waterloo football ain't coming back, despite the predictable day-after denials swallowed whole by the drive-by media.
   
   It's a simple plan.
   
   
   • Do an amplified impression of Claude Rains in Casablanca ("I am shocked! Shocked!") about players being on steroids.
     
     
   • Imply upstanding student-athletes knew but didn't tell (see Point 2).
     
     
   • An across-the-board punishment which is not entirely unjustified.
     
     
   • Come back in a year and plead hardship, saying they're isn't enough money for football and the scandal killed recruiting.
     
     
   • Not have football again.
     
     
   There is a chance all is on the up-and-up and Waterloo comes back in 2011.
   
   It is going to be a long, long road back to respectability. Football players aren't like basketball players. They don't go to a school for a chance to start as 18-year-old rookies, since most know they need time to get faster and stronger.
   
   Some of you are probably aware of when the NCAA gave Southern Methodist University's football team the death penalty in the late 1980s. The Mustangs sat out 1987 and '88. A program which counted NFL greats such as Eric Dickerson and Dandy Don Meredith as alumni needed 21 seasons before it made it back to a bowl game, even though almost every .500 team in the NCAA goes to a bowl.
   
   It's possible UW looks at this in a year and says, "Too hard, don't bother."
   
   
2. That we should presume total innocence on the part of players who did not test positive.
   
   It is possible to have compassion for the players who do not have a 2010 season without striking up a symphony of small violins.
   
   One Toronto bird-cage liner ran a column headlined, "Innocent held hostage at Waterloo." It somehow neglected to mentioned there is an extant police investigation that will try to find out what coaches and players know and when it became known.
   
   Teams win as one and lose as one. Society in general seems loath to accept collective penalties, but it's hard to believe that the majority of the players in the Warriors locker room did not know something was up. There are no secrets in a team's subculture, hence that further investigation. Athletes, like anyone else, are supposed to call out unethical behaviour.
   
   One of the more illuminating quotes from a player came from Jordan Verdone, the promising linebacker, in the Toronto Star:

   "I’m not upset with them at all. Everyone that got caught is a hard working person. They actually loved and cared about football so much that they wanted to become better."

   Not to turn into Dr. Cal Lightman, but does that ring of someone who had no idea his teammates could be doping? Maybe or maybe not. There is a part of human nature where we try to rationalize behaviour, especially when a different action might have staved off a cruel twist of fate. And losing an entire football season is a cruel twist of fate, no matter how it is inflicted.
   
   
3. This pertains only to the present-day team and nearby OUA schools.
   
   The crux of a steroid scandal is it cast doubt on anyone who has a sudden spike in performance. It gets applied retroactively. Everyone knows now that steroid use baseball didn't magically start in 1995 when they were trying to get fans back after a strike cancelled the World Series.
   
   That is germane to CIS. The book is open on the past 10, 15 years, since anyone picking up a paper now knows how it easy it was to sidestep doping controls:
   

   "A football staff member, for example, can choose which numbers go in the hat. And if a player chosen happens to be absent from practice that day, he’s off the hook.
   
   "You can see how easily a team could protect players who might be suspected users."

   How far back the investigation will stretch depends on what police need to know and, to some extent, how much Waterloo admins want to know. One goal of an investigation is to establish patterns of behaviour, how things were always done.
   
   That is not to suggest anything indecorous happened at Waterloo prior to 2009. Let's call this is a historical sports irony. That roughly 1995-2005 period is now associated with a lot of drug scandals in sports. There was baseball with Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds (my prediction he'll never spend a day in jail is looking better each day), Marion Jones going from golden girl to U.S. federal prison inmate, Floyd Landis losing his Tour de France title, people snidely calling the 1996 Atlanta Olympics "the HGH Games."
   
   No one talked about this on Monday since they likely don't remember, but Waterloo won its only two Yates Cups in 1997 and '99, running Hall of Fame coach Tuffy Knight's venerable wishbone option.
   
   It seemed ironic that when all that was going on the great wide world of sports, a school typically synonymous with second-division status in OUA football won its only championships. It also did so with a run-based offensive scheme that required blockers who were agile, but beefed-up enough to overpower opponents. And shielding players from a drug test was as easy then as it was as late as last fall.
   
   That's only being pointed out to illustrate what kind of tangents people go on after a steroid scandal.
   
   Waterloo is an open book going back 10, 15 years. The same goes for neighbourhood rival Laurier, especially after its players weren't tested when the CCES showed up on campus.
   
   
4. The University of Waterloo taking the high road with steroid abuse.
   
   The only pee Waterloo cares about is in PR. This all harkens back to some fat, dumb and bald guy said last fall in regard to another egghead school cancelling its fall homecoming weekend.
   
   Universities, especially Ontario institutions that aspire to elite status, are little more than paranoid public relations vehicles these days. They are so quick to come down on any kind of bad behaviour that could mean negative headlines that stayed cached on Google forevermore.
   
   They could have gone ahead with the season. It would have been a tougher call to pull the plug on a winning team. It was easier to use a 3-5 team as a political football and show the university, in institution-speak, doesn't take these matters lightly.
   
   Did you notice Waterloo director of athletics Bob Copeland was left to make the announcement instead of university president David Lloyd Johnston? Johnston wasn't about to get the taint on his suit. I'll say it: he should have made the announcement.
   
   
5. The media's concern about steroids in the CFL and CIS.
   
   It is a good story when a university takes a knee on an entire football season.
   
   The subtext to why there was so much coverage is part monkey-see, monkey-do and part is that excrement runs downhill. Everything that happens in Canada typically follows in the shadow of what has already happened in the United States. The U.S. media went through its period of high dudgeon and righteous indignation over athletes being goosed up on steroids. We're a little more into shades of grey in Canada, but we still needed one to make our own.
   
   Waterloo was built right to spec, a legitimate news/sports story and a vulnerable target. People have commented that how it's funny that people got bent out of shape about juiced baseball players, but gave the NFL a free pass. The latter is a sacred cow. In Canada, the NHL is a sacred cow. Insinuations about doping or player misbehaviour are almost always rebuffed with extreme prejudice.
   
   It's a little easier to put the focus on football and little easier to go after CIS. It's petty to ask, "Hey, TSN, since a CIS 'scandal' led Sportscentre, does that mean you'll make more of an effort with covering the basketball and football championships?"
   
   At least we understand why they played it up in such a way. Canadian football's lack of a drug testing policy could have been an issue long ago. Odd how that works.

I have about run out words on the subject. Some sort of punishment was needed. Honestly, you should read Bill James' 2009 essay that says in future generations, everyone will be taking some form of steroid, once the health risks are controlled.

In the here and now, drug testing in CFL and CIS needs sharper teeth, even if it's more for keeping up appearances.

Related:
UW suspends football team’s season in wake of steroid scandal (Christine Rivet, Waterloo Region Record)
Waterloo steroid scandal a 'wakeup call' says University of Regina's director of athletics (Ian Hamilton, Regina Leader-Post)
Solutions elusive for CIS doping problem (Bruce Arthur, National Post)
Waterloo doesn’t shirk dirty work (Randy Starkman, Toronto Star)
Plugging the loopholes; Dobie applauds off-season tests (Paul Friesen, Winnipeg Sun)
Coach trying to fix 'collateral damage' (Perry Lefko, sportsnet.ca)
No football for a year: captain 'sick to his stomach' (Greg Mercer, Waterloo Region Record)
Waterloo suspends football program over steroid use; Waterloo’s 2010 season ends after nine adverse drug tests confirmed among players (Allan Maki, Globe & Mail)
Innocent held hostage at Waterloo; University of Waterloo’s harsh solution leaves normal kids left out in the cold (Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun)
Doping scandal bombshell; University of Waterloo Warriors football program has been suspended for a year (Ryan Pyette, London Free Press)
Sevigny disappointed but not surprised by steroid scandal (Greg Davis, Peterborough Examiner)
Suspension a 'black eye' on university football, says Huskies coach (Matthew Wuest, Metro Halifax)
Collateral damage (Rob Massey, Guelph Mercury)
Argo stunned by Waterloo revelation (Terry Koshan, Toronto Sun)

Bleeding Tricolour: Sheahan on the 'well-orchestrated loss'

Remember when Queen's lost its regular-season finale 25-13 to Laurier and dropped from No. 2 to No. 4 in the last Top 10 poll prior to the OUA playoffs? Gaels coach Pat Sheahan, in Belleville, Ont., to speak at sports dinner (defensive coordinator Pat Tracey attended high school in the Friendly City, as did defensive back-kick returner Jimmy Allin) had a colourful way of describing that game:

"Queen's was already guaranteed top seed in the OUA playoffs.

"'So, in the final regular season game against Wilfrid Laurier, at 7-and-0 and learning from last year, anybody with a bruise did not play in Week 8,' said Sheahan. 'And, even though we didn't want to tip-toe into the playoffs, sometimes a well-orchestrated loss can pay off.' "

Suffice to say, it worked out a lot better than the Seinfeld episode in which Jerry took a dive ("who wants to laugh?") in an effort to sabotage a hack comedian named Kenny Bania.

Putting on the Queen's hat, there was a sort of calm descending after that result. (I made a point to attend a Windsor-Ottawa game to eliminate the distraction.) Neither of the top two tailbacks, Marty Gordon and Jimmy Therrien, dressed, and there was a feeling afterward that they would be fine in the playoffs so long as the offence could convert in situations like, say, second-and-5 and third-and-1. It seemed like it worked out.

Few seemed to figure it out what was happening at the time. Queen's dropped two spots in the polls for losing a nothing game. The same old questions were raised. Ottawa fans actually cheered when it was announced at Frank Clair Stadium that Laurier was beating Queen's, even though if a memory serves, a Golden Hawks might have helped the Gee-Gees' playoff seeding.

On a Queen's related-note, there is word defensive end Neil Puffer has earned a CFL free-agent shot with the Edmonton Eskimos. Unfortuanately, inside receiver Chris Ioannides will apparently not attend training camp with the B.C. Lions. Each player posted Facebook updates recently.

(The Seinfeld reference is apt. Remember the early episodes when Jerry sometimes worry a T-shirt from his alma mater, Queens College in New York City?)

Related:
Queen's coach praises Belleville duo; Sheahan says Allin, Tracey instrumental in Vanier Cup victory(Paul Svoboda, Belleville Intelligencer)

Views from the West

As a North Carolina Tar Heels basketball fan, it just kills me to see Coach K with a championship trophy. It doesn't matter if Duke earned it. Still hate anything to do with Blue Devils success. Needless to say I was praying along with the State of Indiana and the other Butler bandwagoners the Hoosiers' knockoff would pull it off like the movie. This was one of the best Final Four finals I've ever seen.


•For those who missed it, the NHL, via a Phoenix publication, used Winnipeggers' love for their fallen Jets against them and Glendale city administrators to get someone else a deal to keep a team where no one wants it. Sounds like the NFL's use of Los Angeles, doesn't it. And yes, I, and many other Manitobans, are offended by this. If you want to move the team back, fine. I'll buy some tickets. If you don't, stop using a city that's suffered enough by this story as a pawn.

• News in Winnipeg that a new football stadium may actually happen came to light recently. A few quick thoughts on this. The U of M location is fine by me. I have to drive more than 200 km to get to it anyway, so an extra click or two isn't much bother. Rapid Transit (which I'm sure will move much faster than the city councils that tried to set it up) will link it with downtown, should it ever be built. But did the government really need to give David Asper such a sweetheart deal of a loan to get this done? If I were Mark Chipman or Sam Katz, who had to battle varying degrees of bureaucracy and negative public opinion from naysayers to get their very successful sports facilities built, I'd be pissed. If a provincial election featuring a Premier without legacy weren't around the corner, I wonder if it would be built. this way.

• Brandonites have gotten behind the Memorial Cup with their wallets, buying up any available tickets. So much so, that the initial allotment for fans has increased several times by the CHL to meet local demand. Now that the CHL has seen the light on going to smaller venues once in a while to create an atmosphere, maybe the Canadian Curling Association can do the same by looking at Brandon for an event such as the Brier. Sure it won't make as much money. But it will be the only thing people will talk about for a week, unlike some larger centres.

• Anyone else sick of hearing stock answers about Tiger Woods from Tiger Woods about issues he could have put to bed by being honest months ago?

• Baseball season has opened, and with it, one more season lamenting the loss of the Montreal Expos.

• How's this for irony: Ilya Kovalchuk gets traded to the New Jersey Devils, then eliminates his old team, the Atlanta Thrashers from the playoffs a few weeks later — a team that seemed to play better without him.

• It's high time the NHL adopted a four-point system for its standings. Reward teams for winning in regulation time as it shows a more accurate picture of dominance, and lessens the value of a shootout "win" that is hockey's excuse for a slot machine.

• Note to the CTRC: WE WANT ESPN (a homage to Rob Vanstone, Regina Leader-Post, but seriously, cough it up and give us what we want).

• If the dome stadium goes up in Regina like some hope it does, this could be the start of a serious shift in power from Manitoba to Saskatchewan. Power of positive thinking vs "We can't do that here". Winnipeg used to have positive thinking on their side when they brought up Bobby Hull to the WHA. Where did it go?

• Buck Pierce may have a lot of talent, and the CFL needs talented quarterbacks. But was Wally Buono trying to tell people something by grabbing Casey Printers and shipping him out the door? That maybe too many concussions means playing more football is more risky than it's worth?

Bleeding Tricolour: Gaels receivers Ioannides, Valberg sign CFL contracts

Four members of the Queen's Golden Gaels offence have signed pro contracts for next season.

The word out of Kingston is two-time all-Canadian Scott Valberg and fellow receiver Chris Ioannides have signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and B.C. Lions as free agents, respectively. Two members of the offensive line which protected quarterback Dan Brannagan so well, left guard Vince DeCivita and right tackle Jon Koidis, have signed to play in a league in Switzerland, beginning in January.

There should be more to come abut this from both Queen's and the Kingston media in the next couple days.

The Vanier Cup was nice, but it makes it even more special to hear coach Pat Sheahan's players have earned opportunities to play more football. Speaking as a grad, there is happiness that that DeCivita, Ioannides, Koidis and Valberg get to play a little more football. Being able to point out graduates who have moved on to the next level should also be a recruiting chip.

A decade ago, Queen's CFL representation consisted of Jock Climie and Brad Elberg — two players in the entire league. Now almost every team in the league has at least one ex-Gael.

Defensive end-linebacker Shomari Williams is projected as a first-round pick in the 2010 CFL draft. I am no expert on these matters, but slotback Devan Sheahan has the size and speed to likely warrant a look. Outside linebackers Alex Daprato and Chris Smith were each fourth-year players this past season, so they are draft-eligible. Both are pretty heady players who play a kind a hybrid linebacker-DB position.

Also, as observers such as the FAN 590's Mike Hogan have noted, if someone doesn't try to find a spot for cornerback-kick returner Jimmy Allin, then there's nothing real in the world anymore.

It's a nice payoff for Valberg, who appealed successfully to get a season of eligibility back so he could play this season. He ended up leading CIS in receiving for the second season in a row and also caught the touchdown passes which put Queen's ahead for good in both the Yates Cup vs. Western and the Vanier Cup against Calgary.

Ioannides — it's hard to forget the passage from a Mike Koreen column in the Kingston Whig-Standard about him being slumped, despondent, against the goal post after the 2008 playoff loss vs. Ottawa — made several catches which were just as huge in the grand scheme. He caught a pass with 3.3 seconds left to set up the winning field goal in the wild 52-49 win over Guelph in the season opener. He also caught a third-down pass on the game-winning drive in the Oct. 17 win over Western.

Both receivers played a lot of special teams this past season, which should help them in their bids to crack a CFL roster next season.

(Cross-posted to cisblog.ca.)

CFL: Western Final Live Blog

Come join us below for the live blog of the CFL Western Final, between the Calgary Stampeders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

CFL: Eastern Final live blog

It's an oddly-named Eastern Final this year in the CFL playoffs, as it features the league's westernmost team, the B.C. Lions. The Lions finished fourth in the West Division this year with a 8-10 mark, but earned a crossover berth thanks to finishing ahead of Winnipeg. They knocked off Hamilton last week, but now will take on arguably the league's best team, the Montreal Alouettes. Come join in at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific to see if they can continue their run!

Friday Night Football: Lions - Eskimos live blog

It all comes down to this. The 8-9 Edmonton Eskimos and B.C. Lions face off for the third and final playoff spot in the CFL's West Division. The winner's in, while the loser has to hope Hamilton beats Winnipeg on Sunday. To add even more drama, this is the last game that will be played in B.C. Place until 2011. The action starts at 10:30 Eastern; 7:30 Pacific. Come join me after the jump then for the live blog!

B.C. Lions - Saskatchewan Roughriders live blog

It's a crucial battle for playoff positioning in the CFL West Division, as the 8-6-1 Saskatchewan Roughriders take on the 8-7 B.C. Lions. Game time is 5:30 p.m. Eastern/2:30 p.m. Pacific. Join me in the live blog below!

CIS football live blog

I'll be live-blogging the McMaster-Guelph game today, which is on The Score's University Rush program at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific. I'll also have some thoughts on other CIS football games around the league, including the Queen's - Laurier clash, which I'll be listening to on CFRC. Come join after the jump for any and all CIS football talk! If the CFL is more your thing, I'll also be live-blogging the B.C. - Saskatchewan clash at 5 p.m. Eastern/2 p.m. Pacific.

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.)

CFL live blog: B.C. Lions - Winnipeg Blue Bombers

wWe interrupt your regularly scheduled Sunday for a spur-of-the-moment CFL live blog! The 7-7 B.C. Lions are on the road against the 6-8 Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a game that could have huge playoff implications. Come join in the action starting at 5 p.m. Eastern/2 p.m. Pacific.

Friday Night Football: Lions-Eskimos live blog!

I'll be live-blogging tonight's CFL clash between the B.C. Lions and the Edmonton Eskimos here and at Sporting Madness. It should be a good one with plenty of playoff implications, given the logjam in the West Division. Come join me after the jump at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific!

Friday Night Football: Lions - Riders live blog!

It's a great CFL Friday night showdown. In one corner, we have the 7-5 Saskatchewan Roughriders, tied for first place in the West Division; in the other one, the 5-7 B.C. Lions, in the division cellar. The playoff race is so close at the moment that this could be a huge game. I'll be live-blogging it here and at Sporting Madness starting at 10:30 p.m. Eastern/7:30 p.m. Pacific. Come join me below the jump!

Friday Night Football live blog: Stamps and Leos!

It's Friday, and the Stamps are going be hard to tame. Their clash against the B.C. Lions in the second game of tonight's CFL doubleheader should be a great one, though. 5-6 B.C. is coming off an emotional win over Toronto that gave Wally Buono sole possession of the CFL coaching victories record, while 6-5 Calgary enters this one looking to bounce back from a dismal loss to Hamilton. Calgary's in a three-way tie for first in the West Division, while B.C. is just one game back but in last place in the division, so this could have huge playoff implications.

B.C. hasn't beaten Calgary at all in the John Hufnagel era, and they'll have a tough task pulling that one off at McMahon Stadium, but you know middle linebacker JoJuan Armour will be motivated against the team that cut him, and plenty of his teammates are fired up too. It should be a great one; I picked it as my Game of the Week in my latest column, so I'm hoping it won't disappoint. I'll be live-blogging it here and at Sporting Madness, starting at 10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific. Come join me then!

CFL: Lions - Argos live blog

It should be an interesting CFL clash in Vancouver tonight. For B.C., quarterback Buck Pierce returns after missing a couple of weeks with a concussion, thanks to what may have been a season-ending rotator cuff injury to Jarious Jackson. Head coach Wally Buono will also be going for a record-breaking victory that would vault him above Don Matthews (who will be in the building) into sole possession of first place on the CFL's all-time win list. Perhaps even more importantly, a win would improve B.C.'s record to 5-6 and strengthen their push for a playoff spot.

This game is just as important for Toronto. They'll be trying to build on an overtime win against the Tiger-Cats last week and improve their record to 4-7. If they win this one, they're back in the hunt for the playoffs; if they lose, it's going to be a tough slog for them. Playing a late game on the West Coast in the unfriendly confines of B.C. Place won't help, but they may have an opportunity thanks to the injury to Jackson. It all depends on how well Pierce plays and how much protection he gets from his line. For game previews, check out my CFL column here, Jack Bedell's breakdown of last week's action here, Lowell Ullrich's preview here and his game preview chat here. It should be an interesting one, so come join me here for it at 10 p.m. Eastern!

(P.S. If you're interested in the Toronto FC - L.A. Galaxy clash at 10:30 p.m., I'm also live-blogging that one. Feel free to contribute to both live blogs!)

B.C. Lions - Montreal Alouettes live blog

For those who like football of the three-down variety, I'll be live-blogging today's B.C. Lions - Montreal Alouettes CFL match. The game is on TSN in Canada; American viewers can check out the U.S. broadcast schedule and Internet coverage options at the league homepage. Preview is here. Come join in!

Friday Night Football: B.C. Lions - Winnipeg Blue Bombers live blog

Who's ready for some football! It's Friday night, it's the B.C. Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and it's a CFL live blog! I previewed the game a bit in my weekly CFL column at The Rookies; check that out, then come join in below!

Friday Night Football: Lions - Argos live blog

Saturday may well be Hockey Night In Canada, but Friday's reserved for the CFL! There's an excellent matchup this week, with the B.C. Lions looking to keep their momentum from a win over Saskatchewan and the Toronto Argonauts hoping to avenge last week's shutout at the hands of the Montreal Alouettes. For a full preview, check out this piece over at CFL.ca; you can also check out my weekly CFL column over at The Rookies. There, I predicted a B.C. win, and I'm sticking to that; both teams may be 2-4, but B.C. was very impressive last week against a good Saskatchewan team, while Toronto played their worst game of the year against Montreal and couldn't record a single point. Join me in the live blog below to see if they can bounce back!

CFL: B.C. Lions - Hamilton Tiger-Cats live blog

It's Friday Night Football in the CFL, and the early game should be a great one tonight. I'm live-blogging the match between the 1-3 B.C. Lions and the 2-2 Hamilton Tiger-Cats starting at 7:30 Eastern. It should be a fascinating one to watch, as the Lions will try and rebound from a 48-10 thumping last week at the hands of Calgary.

That loss was bad enough to prompt owner David Braley to issue a rare public apology [Lowell Ullrich, The Province] for the team's dismal performance. It was possibly the worst loss head coach Wally Buono had suffered in seven years [Jeff Blair, The Globe and Mail]. However, all is not lost yet, according to Vanya Tucherov of the great BC Lions Den. Now, the Lions are underdogs against the Ti-Cats for the first time in a decade. Can they rebound, or will their nightmarish season continue? Find out tonight!