Sporting Madness

One play. One mistake. That's all it came down to in one of the craziest endings to a football game I've ever seen . After Saskatchewan got stopped deep in their own end and punted, they still seemed to have a great chance to hang on and win. In fact, disaster almost struck for Montreal on the punt itself when Brian Bratton bobbled and then fumbled it, but Etienne Boulay saved the day, diving on the ball. Still, Montreal only had 40 seconds to work with, no timeouts and a starting position on their own 34. There were a few mishaps, but Anthony Calvillo completed two long passes and Montreal was in position to kick the winning field goal, but it was from long range and kicker Damon Duval had struggled all game. The ball was snapped, the hold was good, but Duval drove it well right of the uprights. Jason Armstead ran it out and took a knee, and it looked like the Riders had won. Not so fast. In a moment reminiscent of the legendary call that ended Don Cherry 's coac...

Today's Grey Cup clash between the Montreal Alouettes and Saskatchewan Roughriders is all set to kick off in about 40 minutes, and I'm planning to live-blog it right here. I have a brief preview column up over at The Rookies , but I figured I'd use the last few minutes before the game to write a more detailed one here. Without further ado, here's some thoughts on what may be crucial parts of the game. Quarterbacks: On paper, this one looks like a bit of a mismatch. Montreal has Anthony Calvillo , who just won his second straight Most Outstanding Player award after a season where he completed an incredible 72 per cent of his passes and threw for 4,639 yards and 26 touchdowns while only being intercepted six times. Meanwhile, Saskatchewan has Darian Durant , who wasn't even guaranteed to be their starter this year. Durant has come on in the last few weeks, though, and led a tremendous comeback against the Calgary Stampeders in the West Final last week. Moreove...

I've been planning to bring back my regular Link Train feature for some time now,and the amount of great coverage of the Grey Cup out there provides an excellent opportunity. I'll throw in a few Vanier Cup links as well, as I'll be live-blogging that game (from my Calgary hotel room) with the rest of the gang from The CIS Blog tomorrow at 12 p.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Mountain, 9 a.m. Pacific. I'll be back to regular coverage of other sports as well after Grey Cup Weekend. Song of the Day: U2 - Mysterious Ways This has always been one of my favourite U2 songs. The rhythm groove of bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. fits perfectly with The Edge 's guitar work and Bono 's vocals. Plus, it was played at CFL commissioner Mark Cohon 's press conference this morning, which gave me a great excuse to use it here. League links: - David Naylor of The Globe and Mail reports that Argonauts' owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski are ...

Montreal Alouettes' guard Scott Flory earned his second-straight selection as the CFL's most outstanding lineman this evening at the 2009 Gibson's Finest CFL Player Awards. Flory had a great year; his line only allowed 35 QB sacks this year, third-lowest in the CFL, and he was effective in both the pass and run game. The Alouettes finished first in total yards, passing yards and rushing yards per game, with 390.3, 288.4 and 119.9 yards in each category respectively. Flory earned his seventh CFL All-Star selection as well this year. Flory passed much of the credit off to his teammates, though, naming each of his fellow offensive linemen (regular and reserve) in his acceptance speech and giving them most of the credit in his post-award media conference. "It's easier when you play with guys like that," he said. For Flory, a Regina native who played at the University of Saskatchewan, it's refreshing to see a lot of young Canadian offensive lineman excel...

I’m in Calgary to cover the Grey Cup, and will be providing plenty of material on it all week. First off, though, I thought I’d address the importance of this event.As a writer covering both the CFL and NFL, and one who frequently writes for an American audience, I’ve faced my share of skepticism about the league and the Grey Cup over the years. Detractors of the CFL often try to diminish it by direct comparisons to the NFL, and on that playing field, the CFL can’t compete; it doesn’t have the resources to pay the NFL’s massive salaries or stage anything on the scale of the Super Bowl. Those detractors are missing the point, though. The CFL isn’t trying to be the NFL, and the Grey Cup isn’t trying to be the Super Bowl. Instead, both offer compelling alternatives. Despite having only eight teams, the CFL has a devoted following across the country, and it delivers exciting action that often goes down to the wire week in and week out. The three-down game makes for an interesting product...

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! CFL East Final: B.C. v. Montreal

Here's the live blog of today's Montreal Alouettes - B.C. Lions clash. Preview is below . Come join in! B.C. Lions - Montreal Alouettes

I'll be live-blogging the Lions - Alouettes game in a few minutes, but I figured I'd set up with a quick preview. The most interesting and most-discussed clash of last week was one I got to see in person last Friday, and one which set the table for this week's matchup ; B.C.'s incredible 19-12 upset of Montreal. That the Lions came out on top was amazing enough on its own. They came into Friday's match reeling from a 37-10 pummelling by Winnipeg in their previous game, where they gave up 393 rushing yards to the Bombers, and their 3-5 record didn't seem to pose much of a threat to the dominant Alouettes, who entered Friday night with a league-best 7-1 mark. Granted, Montreal hadn't won in Vancouver since 2000, and the Alouettes had looked relatively average in their previous game (a 35-24 win over Saskatchewan), so the potential for an upset was here. That potential seemed pretty small before kickoff, though. What made the night even more unusual was its ...

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 . I'm hoping to have a preview up here in the morning as well. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Pacific) in Montreal. Come join me then!

Sean Gordon of The Globe and Mail reported this afternoon that David Beckham may be looking into joining forces with Joey Saputo in the Montreal Impact's bid for MLS. The story's apparently based off this report from Jack Bell of The New York Times over at the paper's Goal blog. Here's the money quote from Bell's piece: "According to a person with knowledge of Beckham’s planning who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concern about jeopardizing a potential deal, Beckham, 34, and his management team at 19 Entertainment (led by Simon Fuller) and Creative Artists Agency (led by Jeff Frasco) are interested in being partners with Joey Saputo, the owner of the Montreal Impact. The Impact plays in the United Soccer Leagues First Division, one tier down from M.L.S." Obviously, Montreal's push for MLS is no secret, and it's been gaining plenty of force lately. The financing struggles of George Gillett , owner of Liverpool, soon-to-be-former ...

My Grey Cup preview is up over at Out of Left Field . It should be a great game. I'll hopefully have some post-game thoughts up there as well later on.

Just thought I'd mention that I'm doing CFL coverage today over at Out of Left Field . East final preview is here , West final preview here and a East final recap is here ; I'll put a West final recap up there later tonight, hopefully between periods of the Queen's-McGill game (which will be live-blogged here, as previously mentioned).

Hopefully I'll be able to get/keep weekly CFL picks going here. Here's the first (brief) version: more detail to come in future weeks! Tonight: Hamilton (1-2) at Calgary (2-1) (TSN, 9 p.m. ET): Pick: Calgary Rationale: Calgary's solid offence and quality defence should be enough to beat a Jesse Lumsden-less Tiger-Cats team. Tomorrow: Winnipeg (0-3) at B.C. (1-2) (TSN, 10 p.m. ET) Pick: B.C. Rationale: B.C. and Jarious Jackson finally looked like they were supposed to last week on the road, where they demolished Winnipeg: this week should be round two. Saturday: Montreal (2-1) at Saskatchewan (3-0) (TSN, 7 p.m. ET) Pick : Saskatchewan Rationale: No one's looked able to beat Saskatchewan yet, and I don't think the Alouettes will be able to break that streak. Sunday: Edmonton (2-1) at Toronto (1-2) Pick : Edmonton Rationale : The Eskimos have looked much better than expected so far, and Ricky Ray should be able to pick apart an old and slow Argo defence that has u...