TBURGESS

The regular whining about a guy you see as a whiner. Good times. Mike... I'd take that bet. O'Shea wouldn't allow anyone to interview his coaches.

Even though he's a one year rental? I think Austin would jump at that in a second. Wanting to try the NFL again and making it in the NFL are two entirely different things. Most players would love to take an NFL shot at the end of their contracts. Gaydosh needs starting time to get any chance at all and he won't get that in Hamilton. He'd get rotation time at the least in Winnipeg, but even that isn't likely to give him a great chance in the NFL. Like any other player, he'd have a chance to go the free agent route, but we'd have as good a chance to re-sign him at the end of the season as any other player. Gaydosh is a former 1st overall pick who has a years NFL experience and a years CFL experience. From Hamilton's standpoint he's likely worth more than the 15th pick in this years draft. He'd upgrade our Canadian talent level and would be at least a rotation guy from day one. You can't say that about anyone we'd be able to draft with the 15th overall. I like Floyd's idea too.... Gaydosh for Newman.

I'd give up our 3rd pick for Gaydosh, but I doubt Hamilton would go for it.

He's great PR for the Bombers. Heck they held a presser just to show him off even though he's not played football in years. He's big, strong, Canadian and he has the right name. Mike's right. He'll be on the PR this year unless he stinks the joint out in TC or makes the team as a special teams guy.

O'Shea said they expected Hurl to be ready to be the starting MLB. Not sure why you don't think they are expecting Hurl to be the MLB.

We've lost some good players. We've picked up some good players. We've upgraded our DC so we should hopefully be better We kept our OC which means more of the same from the offense. We did well in FA. Love getting Byrant and Picard, but we're expecting Hurl to be our new MLB, which doesn't impress me much. I don't have any expectations yet though becuase we still have the draft and Import signings and TC to go through before we have much of an idea of how we'll look this year. Best anyone can do is a wild eyed guess at this time of year. I'll go with 9-9 based on the moves we've made so far.

Apparently, 'Hand Fighting' will still be allowed and they aren't going to announce the 5 yard no yards calls, they'll just move the ball forward. It's funny that they know there is a problem with too many penalties which slow the game down, but they don't understand that adding additional things you can penalize the players for is a step in the wrong direction.

It's funny that the only proposed rule that didn't pass was challenging Offensive PI. Why is it OK to challenge defensive PI then? ROTFL because that was the only change I liked.

If they actually call all the PI's these new rules will create, we're in for a long slow season. If the DB's leave the receivers totally alone, they don't stand much of a chance to make plays and our great game will end up looking like an NBA game. All offence. No defense. The last team with the ball will end up winning. For us who like defense, it's a real shame.

Everyone knew that was going to happen. I can't remember a time that they voted down the proposed changes. I stand by my earlier comments. Most of these are just dumb. Oh well. I guess I'll have to get used to them like everyone else.

I'd love it if the draft turned out that way for us. A top O lineman, a hometown receiver, and a special teams/DB/LB player. Would help us immensely.

Man.... I wish I could watch the one one one's. Why aren't they streaming on anything but Periscope (Nope, I don't have an IPhone).

Dunno about ardvaarks take on these changes but he tends to convey his position with less condescension. Also, kind of a cheapshot behind the guys back... Stay classy British Columbia I wasn't trying to put words in Aards mouth. I was making fun of his standard procedure of replying to everyone who disagrees with him with the same silly statements no matter how many folks disagree with him. BTW: Moved to Calgary a couple of weeks ago. It's stay classy Alberta now.

Looks like Aardvark's taken over BigBlue's account for the last couple of days. Face it BB, most folks around here don't like the rule changes and we are the rabid fans. I think you'll find the same thing on most of the fan forums around the league because they are also rabid fans.

Amazing the number of times the word STUPID is used ... total unreasoned emotion .... no logic ... no examination ... no justification ... "fraidy-cat of change" thinking .... the convert changes add real excitement and an outcome difference maker .... adding more pass completion to 2 down football means more drives and scoring ... who wants two bucks and a kick type offence, yawn? .... kick returns even off converts for more big plays .... less driving through the 5 yard zone .... I love CFL over NFL because of the higher levels of excitement To those who cry STUPID I can only say KILLJOY in its most literal sense Stupid is the right word in this case. I'm not afraid of change. I just don't like change for change sake and that's what most of these rule changes are about. No form of football that I've ever seen have any of the PAT rules for good reason. They don't make any sense. The current rules allow for 1 and 2 point conversions. If you can't score from the 5, then you should go for 1 point. Most of the PAT's will still go through the uprights from the 32. Those that don't will almost certainly go through the end zone without any chance for a run back. The extra chance to score would be from a block or partial block, which is an extremely low chance or a huge wind in which case, you'd take it on the 3 and try for 2 which won't result in a run back anyway. The 'Down lineman can't leave until the punt happens' rule will create more flags which is bad by definition. It will reduce the number of down field players by 5 big guys, which will mean that the the Special Teams coaches will have to change the way they cover punts. I expect it will produce additional big run backs in the short term, but I think it will be short lived as the coaches figure it out. The PI changes will create more flags and is closer to 'flag' football rules than 'real' football rules. A rule change that's black and white would be a step forward, but this one isn't that. The refs still have to figure out who initiated the contact and if it affected the play before they throw the flag. More flags with more interpretation by the Refs, who've already proved over and over that they cant handle interpretation is a bad thing for the CFL. Offensive PI being subject to video review is the right thing to do if you have to have video reviews of calls/non calls, but the CFL refs have proven time and time again that they can't get video replays right so the better route is to just get rid of coach initiated video review completely. BigBlue... You seem to be the only one who likes these changes.

My take: • a kick for a single point, which now comes from the 12-yard line, would come instead from the 32-yard line. No need to change the current PAT rules. They're fine. • two point converts would be scrimmaged from the three-yard line, instead of the current five-yard line. Silly idea • during the pre-season, a convert worth three points when a team chooses to run or pass the ball over the goal line from the ten-yard-line. Outright stupid. • defensive player would be allowed to contact a receiver within five yards of the line of scrimmage, but would not allow either a defender or a receiver to create or initiate contact that impedes or redirects an opponent beyond five yards. Really stupid and not well thought out. • on a punt play, when the ball bounces on the ground and a five yard no yards penalty is called, the penalty will automatically be added to the end of the return, or from the point the ball was first touched by the return team, whichever is better. Currently, the receiving team has to choose between the five-yard penalty or the yards gained on the return. The only change that I like. • any time in the game the offence be allowed to signal to the referee that it doesn't want to substitute and it wants to use a tempo offence. The officials would then blow the play in immediately upon the ball and yardsticks being set for play. Signal needs to be immediate and easily seen by both teams coaches. Will likely lead to complaints from the defensive coaches. • on punts, prohibiting the five interior linemen on the kicking team from leaving the line of scrimmage until the ball is kicked. Change for change sake IMHO. Will create more penalties, not less. • remove the ability of a coach to request a measurement, leaving it to the referee to measure when he is unsure if a first down has been made or not. Blatantly stupid. Coaches should be able to continue to ask for measurements. • offensive pass interference subject to video review. If defensive pass interference is, offensive pass interference should be too. Personally, I was hoping that PI reviews would be removed this year. They add nothing to the game, they slow things down, and they can't get them right even with the reviews. • no longer giving the receiving team the option of demanding that a team kick again after one of its kick offs goes out of bounds. The receiving team will either take the ball where it went out of bounds, or at a point 30 yards in advance of where the ball was kicked off, whichever is better. This isn't a problem as is.

Reilly's money came in the contract extension after his first season as a starter, not when they got him from BC. He got big bucks and is 'overpaid' IMHO compared to the other young up and coming QB's. Willy would love to get what Reilly got, but he's more likely going to have to settle for a Collaros/BLM/Crompton type of deal.

Not really. First the Ref has to decide who initiated the contact. If it's the receiver that's offensive PI. If it's the defender it's defensive. Then the Ref decides if the contact matters and if it creates an advantage. Still not black and white.

I've got no idea if he's a good hire or not, but good luck to him.

The draft isn't about playing this year. It's about getting the best players for the future, 2 or 3 years down the road. I'd like to see us get the best O lineman we can and that means using our top pick, not waiting until the second round when the top O lineman have already been picked by other teams. If Ottawa doesn't pick Waud then I'd be OK with changing the plan to pick the best DL available with our 1st round pick as I see him as a rotation guy in year 1 and I don't think much of Jake Thomas. Still a long way off though. It'll be interesting to see what happens with NFL draft and with the one on ones at the combine.

Politics has little or nothing to do with 'My God is better than your god'.

I'd take Sheets in a second. He's a difference maker in the CFL.

I'm worried that Hurl is penciled in as the starter and that they won't bring in an FA competition for the MLB spot. Hurl would then only have to beat a CFL rookie for the starting spot. Still might be a huge problem for him based on last years play.

Best thing about Brohm signing IMHO is folks can stop arguing about Glenn.

Tate over Brohm every single day of the week. Tate's a better QB and has way more experience. I really don't understand what folks see in Brohm. He's literally played one good half in his entire CFL career.