NEED STATS FOR YOUR HOCKEY POOL? SEND ME AN EMAIL!
Attention hockey poolsters: If you need 2016-17 NHL team-byteam statistics for your hockey draft, please email me (address appears at the bottom of this column). I will happily reply with two PDF pages, listing every team and all players.
After weighing in on the issue of football players protesting racism, I can understand why they feel compelled to take a stand in very public fashion. The bigoted emails I have received in response to my views are truly sad. People are free to agree or disagree with my views — that is the game we play — but it is depressing to read the repugnant sentiments of racists.
I understand that Darian Durant, who is having such a miserable season with the Montreal Alouettes, could have accepted less money to remain with the Saskatchewan Roughriders — thereby continuing an uneasy alliance with head coach and general manager Chris Jones. It is also true that Durant is being paid very well to experience the mess that is the Alouettes. But if you have appreciated him as a person and as a player, it is impossible not to sympathize with someone who, regardless of what is happening in Montreal, will always be fondly remembered as a legend in these parts. TSN’s Derek Taylor put it very well on his Twitter account: “Gotta say, it does hurt to see this happen to a warrior like Darian Durant. He deserves better for all he’s given.”
Last year, the Roughriders registered two of their five victories at the expense of the Ottawa Redblacks, who went on to win the Grey Cup. The 2017 Roughriders are vastly improved, whereas the Redblacks have regressed. So what reason is there to expect that Saskatchewan won’t win in Ottawa on Friday night? In other words, the Roughriders can bank on a victory at TD Place.
Roughriders receiver Naaman Roosevelt is to miss Friday’s game with a concussion that he suffered during Sunday’s
15-9 CFL loss to the visiting Calgary Stampeders. The hit, applied by Tunde Adelike, was not malicious and could even be labelled as inadvertent, but he was nonetheless penalized for unnecessary roughness. The best solution would be to simply apply a “defenceless receiver” rule to protect players such as Roosevelt.
CFL officials are held to a level of scrutiny that is seldom applied to players and coaches. Sure, there are blown calls from time to time, but how often does a head coach or a co-ordinator make a strategic error? How often does a player drop a pass, throw an interception, miss a block or whiff on a tackle? Without having access to the numbers, I would bet that the officials grade out significantly higher than coaches on a game-to-game basis.
Randy Ambrosie has made many applaudable moves during his short, but eventful, tenure as the CFL’s commissioner. He could keep moving the chains by pushing for the elimination of all CFL games on Sundays during NFL season.
Kudos to Ambrosie for his role for establishing conditions under which any player with a history of domestic violence will be allowed to try out for a CFL team. Given the magnitude of the issue, the league needed to have a formal process in place.
Henry Burris is a tremendous addition to TSN’s CFL panel.
Best broadcaster who was never a full-time broadcaster: The great Jeff Fairholm.
Here is one of many examples of why TSN’s Glen Suitor is a superb football analyst: Even before a replay is shown during a telecast, Suitor typically describes and breaks down the play. Seconds later, the replay inevitably proves him correct.
Nice people who deserve a plug: Darian Durant, Kevin Glenn, Glen Suitor, Julie Gobeil, Jeff Fairholm, Natascia Lypny, Henry Burris, Bob Arscott, Al Schaefer, Levi Paul, Sean Marshall, Norm Souza, Marc-Olivier Brouillette, Brendon Halloran, Graham Condo, Cristina Ruiu, Victoria Bateman and an amazing jazz pianist named Larry Fuller.