Sporting Madness

Photo: Hamilton RB DeAndra Cobb (Michigan State) dances in for a touchdown before Toronto safety Willie Pile (Virginia Tech) can stop him. The Tiger-Cats won 16-12. Welcome to another edition of The Whole 110 Yards , your weekly guide to the CFL! Only two games to cover last week and this week thanks to byes, so we'll get right to them. I'll also be live-blogging tonight's B.C. Lions - Calgary Stampeders clash tonight with the usual suspects in the CFL.ca Friday Night Football Live Chat ; make sure to come join us at 10:30 Eastern/7:30 Pacific! Game of the Week: Hamilton 16, Toronto 12 This edition of the Battle of Ontario was surprisingly entertaining despite the low score. Both teams' defences came to play and delivered impressive performances, particularly early; the score was 3-3 after the first quarter and 9-3 for Toronto at halftime. The Argonauts extended their lead to 12-3 in the third, but fell apart down the stretch, conceding 13 unanswered fourth-...

Photo: Toronto Argonauts' running back Cory Boyd (South Carolina) dives into the end zone for the tying touchdown in the last minute of the Toronto - Edmonton clash last Friday. The Argonauts won 29-28. [ Dan Riedlhuber , Reuters ] Welcome to another edition of The Whole 110 Yards! Here's my breakdown of all of Week 6's CFL action and previews of the coming week. Game of the Week: Toronto 29, Edmonton 28 A slow-starting game between two teams that aren't all that highly-regarded turned into a barnburner Friday night. 3-2 Toronto came out strong and scored 11 points in the first quarter on the road against a 1-4 Eskimos team that only picked up its first win the previous week. The Argonauts led 19-7 at the half, and it looked like this might be a blowout. Edmonton turned it on in the second half, though, with Arkee Whitlock (Southern Illinois) plunging one yard for a touchdown on the Eskimos' first drive. Slotback Jason Barnes (Sacramento State) then m...

Photo: Toronto Argonauts cornerback Evan McCollough intercepts a pass intended for Calgary Stampeders slotback P.K. Sam in their clash Wednesday, July 14. Toronto won 27-24 to improve to 2-1 on the year. [ Mark Blinch , Reuters ] Welcome to another issue of The Whole 110 Yards , your weekly update on the CFL complete with game recaps, off-field stories, former college football stars and predictions for this weekend's games! Also, I'll again be running the CFL.ca Friday Night Football Live Chat tomorrow with Brian Wawryshyn of BC Lions Den and Tyler Bieber of CFL Daily . This week's featured matchup is the B.C. Lions and Toronto Argonauts, and we'll kick off the chat at 4:15 p.m. Pacific (7:15 p.m. Eastern) tomorrow evening; make sure to come join us then! Game of the Week: Toronto 27, Calgary 24 In recent years, the Toronto Argonauts have tended to receive more national coverage than any other CFL team. That's understandable, considering that they...

It's nice to see CFL teams actually giving Canadian (and CIS!) quarterbacks a look for once. Shortly after the Hamilton Tiger-Cats added Erik Glavic (of Saint Mary's Huskies and Calgary Dinos fame) to their negotiating list, the Toronto Argonauts announced that they'd signed Queen's Vanier Cup-winning quarterback Danny Brannagan . There's a good piece from Chris Zelkovich in today's Toronto Star on the matter, talking to both Brannagan and Glavic about their invites to the CFL's evaluation camp this past weekend and the proposal that would allow teams to bring a Canadian QB to camp without taking up a roster spot. Of course, this is very early, and there's no guarantee that any of these Canadian quarterbacks will actually get a shot to prove that they belong. Still, progress is always good, and you have to start somewhere. Maybe this can be one of the first steps towards a real evaluation of quarterbacks based on their skills , rather than national...

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 ...

There are several key sporting events going on tonight, including the return of Buck Pierce in the B.C. Lions' match against the Toronto Argonauts and the clash of Julian De Guzman and David Beckham in the Toronto FC - L.A. Galaxy MLS contest. Which to follow? Well, it's time to make this blog live up to its name of Sporting Madness: I will be live-blogging both games simultaneously. We'll see how it works out, but hopefully, with enough caffeine, I'll be able to keep up with both of them. Both will be posted here in separate posts, so you can follow them both that way; the CFL blog will also be available through Out of Left Field and the MLS one will be available through The 24th Minute and Epic Footy . The CFL game kicks off at 10 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. Pacific), and the MLS match starts at 10:30 p.m. Eastern (7:30 Pacific). Stop on by for one or both!

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! B.C. Lions v. Toronto Argonauts

I'll be live-blogging the B.C. Lions - Toronto Argonauts game here and at Out of Left Field at 7:30 Eastern/4:30 Pacific. Until then, here's some links to the other stuff I've been writing and some of the best stories from around the web, as well as some tuneage to get you all pumped for the game. My pieces: - Here's the story of Canucks' prospect Sergei Shirokov and his quest to escape the KHL [ Canuck Puck ]. - Here's a link to the newest edition of The Whole 110 Yards , my weekly CFL column over at The Rookies . - The Vancouver Olympics are now only six months away. I have a story on one local group's Olympic preparations in The South Delta Leader , where I'm working for the next few weeks. - My weekly Phoenix Pub column took aim at the lack of proper standards and treatment around concussions in sports. - As part of those aforementioned Olympic preparations, the Richmond-Vancouver-Vancouver Airport SkyTrain line is opening on Monday. It will s...

I'll be live-blogging the second game in the CFL Friday Night Football lineup tonight, which features the B.C. Lions hosting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Both teams lost their opening games last week, so they'll be eager to pick up their first win of the season, but that's going to be a difficult task for the Tiger-Cats. For one thing, despite an appalling showing last week against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, B.C. had plenty of chances to win the game, including on the last drive. That's not too bad against a pretty solid Saskatchewan team, especially one playing in their home fortress of Mosaic Stadium. Meanwhile, Hamilton got their clocks cleaned at home by the lacklustre Toronto Argonauts. The final score was 30-17, but the Tiger-Cats looked worse than that to this observer. Moreover, as Globe and Mail football reporter David Naylor relates on his blog , the Tiger-Cats are 2-22 in June and July since 2005, and no team from the Eastern time zone has won in B.C. since...

[ Photo : B.C. Lions owner David Braley (left) with the Grey Cup, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell , former CFL commissioner Tom Wright and 2005 Grey Cup Committee Chair Dennis Skulsky in 2004. From gov.bc.ca ]. Quite the story in this morning's Globe and Mail from David Naylor and Matthew Sekeres . According to the Globe , B.C. Lions owner David Braley "secretly put up half of the $2-million franchise fee when David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski purchased the Toronto Argonauts out of bankruptcy in the fall of 2003, and continued to lend money to the CFL club". The story says the deal was made without informing then-CFL commissioner Tom Wright (who I spoke with not that long ago about the Coyotes-to-Hamilton situation) and has continued to the present day without the knowledge of current CFL commissioner Mark Cohon . No sources are named and all sides appear to be denying the story, but in very carefully worded terms. For example, consider these comments from Sokol...

The NHL to Hamilton situation continues to get stranger by the day. Yesterday, a new group came forward with their own plan for a team in Toronto [ The Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail ], which involves a 30,000-seat arena at Downsview Park (with Olympic-sized swimming pool!), a percentage of the profits going to charity and possibly the stupidest name ever proposed for an NHL franchise, the Toronto Legacy. MLS and WNBA clubs laugh at that name. Even the Oklahoma Thunder snicker at that name. Anyway, add them to the list of prospective owners for a GTA franchise. Of course, that list also includes Balsillie and his Hamilton plans as well as the group led by former Leaf Kevin Maguire , who are trying to bring a team to Vaughan . Even more interesting, though, was today's revelation that Toronto Argonauts owners Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon are apparently interested in buying the Coyotes and leaving them in Phoenix [ Paul Waldie , The Globe and Mail ]. Here's the...

Three of the football teams I follow all recorded important victories over the past weekend, but those victories couldn't have been more dissimilar. However, there were still common threads and themes between the three games. First, there was Queen's 43-16 win over Western [myself, Queen's Journal ] Saturday. This was particularly interesting, especially when you consider that Western was favoured by many going in. However, the score was rather deceiving. Queen's offence was missing in action for most of the day, and only created 295 net yards and 18 first downs against Western's 510 net yards and 33 first downs. The lopsided victory was mostly due to the excellent field position Queen's offence was given by Western's 12 turnovers and inability to convert in the red zone. The strong efforts from Queen's defence and special teams also came in handy in terms of field position. The game was also made more of a blowout by Western head coach Greg Marshall...

Yesterday saw some more incredible news out of the Toronto Argonauts when new head coach [ Sporting Madness , Sept. 9] Don Matthews announced [ The Canadian Press , via The Globe and Mail ] that he would start backup quarterback Cody Pickett in place of Kerry Joseph Friday night against Calgary. Now, Pickett did play well in relief of during the Argos' 39-9 loss [ James Mirtle , The Globe and Mail ] to Winnipeg Friday night, completing nine of his 13 pass attempts for 100 yards, but that was his first game action for the Argos. It's a risky move by Matthews, but one perhaps justified by Joseph's poor play, and as Duane Forde pointed out on TSN yesterday, benching, reducing or changing the role of established players in favour of unknowns has given Matthews two Grey Cups (changing Pinball Clemons from a running back to a slotback in 1997 and benching running back Mike Pringle in favour of an offence centred around then-unknown quarterback Anthony Calvillo in 2002)....

This [ David Naylor , The Globe and Mail ] is absolutely out of the blue. I hadn't even heard rumours that Toronto Argonauts head coach Rich Stubler was about to be fired, but that makes sense given their play this year, and it makes abundant sense if you can replace him with the CFL's all-time leader in wins, Don Matthews . The team has called a press conference for 11:15 this morning to announce the change, and everyone from the CBC to The Fan 590 's Bob McCown to Sportsnet 's Perry Lefko has picked it up: TSN still hasn't had anything on the air, though, as they're still focusing on yesterday's firing [ Stephen Brunt , The Globe and Mail , a must-read as always] of Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach Charlie Taafe . It's pretty funny that both struggling Ontario franchises decide to get rid of their coaches within a day of each other. Perhaps this is just the usual Argos' plan to upstage the Ti-Cats? Seriously, though, Matthews certainly isn...

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...