Lions find another way to lose on the road
Leos will need to fight like demons to make playoffs — and Duron Carter could help
In honour of the B.C. Lions, here’s something else that’s close to being good without quite getting there: the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports:
There’s an adage in football that goes: You are what your record says you are and, while they have some strengths, the Lions are a 3-5 team that will have to fight like rabid badgers to make the CFL playoffs.
Along the way, some obvious weaknesses have been revealed and after the 24-23 loss to Toronto on Saturday, it’s apparent the offence needs a big-play receiver. As it happens, Duron Carter is still out in the cold and he represents a ready-made answer to the Leos’ needs.
Lions general manager Ed Hervey has already expressed an interest in Carter and said he’d be open to bringing in the all-CFL, all-diva receiver this offseason. That’s fine, but the Lions’ problems are in the here-andnow and Carter would be just as valuable next week as he would be next year. Carter is a lot of things, but he’s a game-changer and if you believe your leadership group and locker-room are strong enough, you have to believe he’ll fit in.
One player shouldn’t alter an entire season, but one player can provide a spark that sets things in motion for a team. Just not sure if the Lions can keep trotting out the same lineup when they know this guy is available.
Know this isn’t exactly breaking news, but the Argos’ inability to gain any traction in Toronto remains the CFL’s most vexing problem and neither the league nor the club appears to be any closer to finding a solution.
The Argos are the defending Grey Cup champions. They have the best player, non-quarterback division, in the league in James Wilder and an emerging star, to say nothing of a fine law firm, in quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson.
On Saturday, the Lions and the Argos met in a cracker of a game that drew a season-high crowd of, sheesh, 18,104 and even that number was artificially inflated by a free entry into the CNE.
There are 6 1/2 million people living in the Greater Toronto Area and the Argos just need to find a sliver of that market to guarantee their success. They have a splendid facility, committed owners in MLSE and a solid organization headed by Jim Popp and Marc Trestman. If they can’t make it work under these circumstances, they might never make it work.
Interesting take from one hockey man after the Canucks’ front-office purge. Trevor Linden carried the title of team president, but, in reality, performed most of the traditional general manager’s functions while Jim Benning, the titular GM, was essentially the director of player personnel/ head scout.
Linden’s mistake, according to this source, was in not hiring an experienced GM when he was named president. George McPhee, most recently seen working miracles with the Las Vegas Golden Knights, reportedly wanted the Canucks’ GM job but Linden had a different model in mind for the Canucks.
McPhee would have given the Canucks a veteran voice in a crucial position. Linden and Benning were rookies at their respective jobs and, quite frankly, it showed, especially in their first two years.
Don’t know if McPhee would have altered the course of Canucks history. Do know he would have helped steer a straighter course.
The 59 club in golf — which is actually the 59 club and one 58 — has become one of these mythic numbers in sports. The list, which Brandt Snedeker joined this week at the Wyndham, is actually quite long when you count the European Tour, Champions Tour, Nike and Web.com tours and, yes, the LPGA — take a bow Annika Sorenstam.
But here’s the interesting thing. Snedeker’s 59 was the 10th time 60 has been broken in an official PGA event and he became just the fifth player to win the tournament in which he shot a dream round.
Jim Furyk, meanwhile, is the only player to break 60 twice in a PGA event, including a 58 two years ago at The Travellers. He didn’t win there, or at the BMW in 2013 when he shot 59.
And finally, been fortunate to have a front-row seat for some of the defining sports moments of the last 20 years and Usain Bolt’s epic performance at the Beijing Olympics might top the list. The Jamaican sprinter had announced himself to the world just before the 2008 Games, but he was hardly a known quantity as the Olympics began. That changed abruptly with a worldrecord turn in the 100 metres, setting the stage for the 200 a couple of days later and an assault on Michael Johnson’s world mark.
Unlike the 100, when he pranced the last 10 metres, Bolt poured himself into the 200. The crowd of 80,000 at The Bird’s Nest stadium was with him every step of the way and when he made the turn, finding yet another gear, they were on their feet to bring the big man home. He would break Johnson’s record, but that sight of Bolt, the perfect sprinting machine flying down the straightaway with the crowd roaring in his wake, will always stay with me.
Last week marked the 10th anniversary of Bolt’s historic double. The memory of those two nights will live a lot longer.
One player shouldn’t alter an entire season, but one player can provide a spark that sets things in motion.