TBURGESS

denial is a horrible thing. You can deny it all you like but you are entitled. You want decisions made on your schedule and if they're not made in accordance with when you want it then you start slagging the decision makers as fools. That my friend is entitlement whether you want to call it that or not. As for the cuts, biggest surprise to me is west given how much he came along on special teams over the years. Shows how much you actually read. I don't want all the decisions to be made on my schedule. I disagree with some of the decisions. I've never called the decision makers fools. I don't think I'm entitled, I think personal decisions can be made in under 5 days. Most of the cuts were pretty easy to make. When the Bombers make different choices than I would, I point that out. When they make decisions that I agree with, I point that out. It's called having a mind of my own. Agreeing with everything the Bombers do is called 'Fan Boy', which is a title worn by a group of posters around here who want to 'yell down' everyone who disagrees with anything. The part I don't understand is why you want the club (or think the club should/could have) made the decisions earlier than any other team. Is it because we played our games earlier than some of the other teams? I don't think the coaching staff should be penalized because of the schedule makers. Training camp is short enough without also losing 5 days worth of practices and meetings to evaluate the players. The other option, of course, would been to tell the players yesterday morning instead of this morning, so they could make an announcement one day earlier, but why would they do that? They were able to get in an additional day, give every player as much of a chance as they possible could, and were able to take the evening to debate the possibilites. To do so earlier wouldn't be fair to the players in question or the coaching staff. Thanks for not trying to tell me what I'm actually thinking and asking a serious question. I'm not saying the Bombers should have made all the cuts 5 days ago or that they should have made the cuts before any other team. I'm saying they had 5 more days than the teams who played on Saturday night so they had a lot of time to make the decisions. All the teams who didn't play on Saturday night made their announcements yesterday. 17 and Dee like to refer to it as my timeframe. Getting additional days out of players you aren't keeping anyway doesn't provide much if any benefit and it takes reps away from the guys who still need to make an impression to make the cut next week. I hope we're not at the point where we need to keep the first cutdown players around in case we need them later on. Better to bring in some second cut guys from other teams or to rely on the scouts if we have injuries. Even if you want to get every last rep from the guys you're cutting. I'd still prefer that those cuts be made yesterday, face to face then announced yesterday.

So do Portis and Yantz. I'd wager $10 million of Yourface's internet dollars that we won't see all 5 QB's play on Friday. TBurgess will be livid that he and the others who will be further cuts have not been announced yet. This club has no direction or clue and won't somebody think of the children! TBurgess is happy that the first round of cuts are finally over so we can use our full resources on those players who'll actually be available for this weeks game.

We finally get the announcement. Was it really that hard? Tuinei's the only real surprise.

Tuinei is the only surprise on the list for me. Thought he did pretty well in the game.

5 days isn't rushed, it's the opposite of rushed. 5 or 6 guys they are discussing tonight won't be on the field tomorrow and won't have any more chances to make the team. Most, if not all of them, didn't have much more of a chance on Thursday or Friday or Saturday or today. Tell you what.... Lets just agree to disagree yet again and move on to discussing who we actually cut tomorrow.

I'd pass on Jock Sanders.

No one said it's only about the game evaluation. The TC evaluation is ongoing. Every snap. Every nuance. Every day. I don't want a team of guys who are 'close to sticking around for the second week of TC'. I want to focus our time and effort on guys who have a real chance to make the team and especially those who have a real chance to be difference makers.

I take issue with this statement. Why in the world would that mean we have a serious problem? Overstated. I thought, initially, that all the cuts would be announced at once, but then I realized, that is more what I wanted, not what may be best for the team. Today, Coach O'Shea, put things in perspective when he talked about trying to determine what each level of play each player has, balanced against whatever injuries they may have sustained, and 'debating' what each player brings to the team, and comparing that, to what another player brings, and of course, keeping roster management firmly in mind. The business day was not finished for O'Shea and staff after today's practice…they had decisions to make, and then the unpleasant task of speaking with each player individually to inform them of the hows and whys. It's important to get it right, and if that's the way this staff has determined to do it, then we have to accept that, whether you like it or not. Of course it's important to get it right. That doesn't mean waiting for the last hour to make the decisions. They have the unpleasant task to do tonight only because they didn't do it sooner. They've chosen to do everything tonight. It wasn't thrust upon them. Everything O'Shea talked about in today's Video was true 5 days ago. It's probably been debated at least daily, probably more often.

Mike... I didn't miss anything. I'm saying you're not making sense. I know you can put players on the suspended list and (Read slowly so you understand) you can do it before tonight at 11PM. If you need proof, just look at what Hamilton did today. Oh wait, you already knew that. Firing a person, and that's what we are talking about isn't something management should do at the last second. Make the decisions. Contact HR to get the paperwork done. Call the players into your office and fire them face to face. Tell them why and try to help them out as best you can. Pass them on to HR to sign off and to get the support they need to move out. It's not something you do by phone or text or voicemail tonight. Jacquie... Getting things right doesn't have to take until the 11th hour. It doesn't take 5 days. The decisions don't have to be made tonight.

The cuts could have been decided on soon after the first game. The only reason to keep practising the guys you're going to cut in just in case a player ahead of them on the depth chart gets injured. Even if that happened, do you really want to keep a player you were willing to cut in the first set of cuts? No one's played themselves on or off the team since the game. The players on the bubble have waited 5 long days and nights to find out if they still have jobs next week. They've practised as hard as they can this week hoping that will be enough to get another chance. Now they get one more uncomfortable day/night jumping every time there's a knock on the door. More maybe's? Really? Can't get hold of them by phone tonight? In this day and age. Weak argument at best. Stupid argument at worst. Weren't you one of the guys who said a voice mail was an OK way to cut a player last year anyway? (I don't agree BTW) Assuming the decision's have been made, they could have told the players to come to the office after practise today and told them in person before announcing it. Is tonight a night off for the players? Red herring unless it's true. Final call on the number they have to cut? Today? Really? They've known since before TC how many players they have to cut today. Waiting on the Doctor's? To tell them what? No 1 game IR at this time of the year IIRC. Anyone hurt badly enough to 6 game them? I'd think they'd already know if that's even a possibility. Still arguing who should be cut? At this late date. Those decisions should already have been made. Keep bathing in your ignorance and keep making excuses based on 'What if's' that no one can prove or disprove.

I prefer mine to take as long as they need to get it right. It shouldn't take 5 days to make the right choices. If it does... we've got a serious problem. Great argument. They might have done X or the might not have. I don't think we are still at the point in our teams development that we need to look over other teams 1st cutdown players to make our team better. You just prefer to whine. Pick your battles man, who the **** cares when we announce our cuts? Et tu Mike? Whining? Hardly. Yup... I care if the management is decisive or not and we're not.

They've had 5 days to make their decisions. Other teams will do it in 24 hours or so. This is the first cutdown date, not the final one so the decisions aren't as tough this time around. I'd prefer we get rid of the dead weight as quickly as possible to give the guys who will play together this year and those on the bubble more reps. End of the world stuff? Nope. I just prefer my management team to be effective and decisive.

5 teams haven't made their cuts yet. The 4 that played last night and the Bombers who played on Tuesday. Now we are hearing that the cuts will be made tonight but not announced until tomorrow. There's no excuse for the decisions not having been made yet. There's no need for the players to wait another day to find out if they've been cut or not. There's no advantage to be gained by waiting until tomorrow to announce the cuts. Just make the decisions, cut the players, let them know and make the announcements already.

Horribly boring game in Ft. Mac. 60+ Penalties called. 55 taken. Give the refs more reasons (new rules) to throw their flags and they'll throw more of them. Durant doesn't look like he's fully back yet although he did throw some good balls. Sunseri looked like he did last year. Smith looked better. Franklin looks like a good find for Edmonton. Can run and pass. Was noticeably better than than Nichols and Goltz last night.

Calgary's going to be a force again this year. Mostly played their 3rd, 4th and 5th string QB's and still managed to look like a good football club. BC left a lot of starters at home and played with their 3rd, 4th, and 5th string QB's too. Jennings looked pretty good and will likely start the season as Lulay's arm isn't ready yet. Partridge looked pretty bad. Horrible throwing motion = horrible accuracy. Probably cut IMO. I liked the quick offence from BC. I don't think they will be as bad as a lot of folks around here do.

I don't have a vote, but I'd vote for an earlier start / end to the CFL season. I'd like to see the Grey Cup the same week as Remembrance day every year.

Atta boy KBF. Exactly what I was expecting from you.

Two TD's are better than 2 FG's.

I'm tuning in for sure. Not expecting much though.

Clearing out the Import MLB's shouldn't be much of a surprise. Hurl's been our MLB since the day he was signed. Can't afford to have an import backup unless we start 8 NI's. Even then, he'd have to be able to play more than just MLB to be useful. Hall was beaten like a rented mule in preseason game 1. Guess he's better in practice. Still think he'll be gone by the end of the weekend. Weakest RB and FB gone. No suprises there.

Yantz isn't going anywhere. What are basing that opinion on? Yantz wasn't even taken to the first preseason game when he was most likely to get some reps. I doubt we see him in the 2nd preseason game either. PR because he's a Canuck?

You keep the best players you can and Marve's better than Portus by a long shot right now. We're getting to pay him based on his rookie contract so he won't be that expensive this year. He's betting he's worth more next year either to us or to another team. Cutting him now wouldn't make the team any better this year, in fact it would be worse.

Every player who's not under contract in the off season may up and leave. Marve's not special in that respect.

Marve doesn't want to be 3rd string next year. I'm sure he thinks he's stuck there in Winnipeg. He's not going to get a sniff in the NFL, but he might get a shot at #2 or even at #1 in Ottawa next year. Can't say that I agree that it's close between him and Portis. I'd say he's way ahead. In fact, I'd look for a different #4 QB if we're serious in keeping 4 QB's around.

The reporters do in fact ask about Richards. They did it last night in O'Shea's postgame interview (4:25)... but you won't like his answer http://www.bluebombe...index/id/110947 Actually that was about Richardson... DE who went off with a knee(?) injury.