johnzo

I remember back in March 2020 initially I was kind of excited to be working from home all the time because it meant I'd get to watch the first half of CFL eastern games .. I'm using working and commuting 4:30->6:00pm. but then 2020 loled at that.

Can't really start a weekday game in the pacific team zone at a good time for people back east. You start the game at 4:30 local, no one will be in the stands, they'll be at work or in traffic or on the ferry from the island or picking up their kids from karate or whatever. As long as the CFL is a gate league and not a TV money league, we'll have this problem.

Reilly is looking good, he threw a deep ball the other week that was a pure 2014 Reilly ... 55-60 yards, hit his receiver in perfect stride. Gotta wonder if he's taking Toradol shots ... the NFLPA just warned its membership to use less of it. He's listed as questionable on the depth chart, who knows if that means anything though. Have seen this guy beat us singlehandedly in his salad days, so I never count him out.

I don't know if it made news here but there was a big story in the Freep about Lori Pierce (Buck Pierce's wife) and her cancer battles .. she's had a way rougher ride than me, with breast cancer and then leukemia and a bone marrow transplant in the middle of the 2020 pandemic that required her immune system to be completely flattened. I can't imagine what she's been through. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/bucks-team-survives-brutal-life-blitz-574849812.html

Hey MBB, just wanted to share some news and some thanks. Earlier this year I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I had surgery in May and started chemo in July and it sucked like chemo does ... was quarantined at home, couldn't do much of my regular life fun stuff .. I was bored out of my mind, and I have not been bored in years. Then the CFL season started and I discovered that lying on the couch and yelling at mapleball and hanging out in the forums with the good folks here was something I could manage (chemo comas permitting). So the CFL and MBB was a big big deal to me this year, it really helped me get thru by giving me twelve hours of low effort fun to look forward to every week. This is a thank you to everyone here for that, especially the mods who built and run this place. Had my last chemo yesterday, I'm in complete remission, and my prognosis is good. Back to life, back to reality. Thanks again and **** the cancer that stole 2021 from me. ps. it's impossible to say why I got cancer, I'm a nonsmoker ... but the single biggest cancer risk factor in my background was that I grew up with chainsmoking parents in the age of indoor smoking. That damage increases your cancer risk forever. Don't smoke in the car with the kids, friends.

College for me. I was 20 when Nevermind landed, which was the perfect time to hear the music that defines your generation (in pop culture terms, anyway.) a metalhead, right?

100% tho I was more of a Soundgarden guy. Badmotorfinger was a facemelter... but re Nirvana, the late eighties were such a terrible time for popular music. I'll never forget the first time I heard Nevermind at a party and I was like "what, this stuff is popular now?" Everything changed after that.

yeah, the 1989 16-2 Eskies were another team that owned the league and pooped out in the playoffs ... opening the door for the 9-9 Riders to win their second stripe. I think 16-2 makes that team the best regular season team ever. The 87 Bombers -- according to Cal Murphy, the best team he ever coached -- were cruising fat and happy at 12-6 until they inconceivably shat the bed in the eastern final. Of course, everyone remembers the agony of the 2001 Bombers. More recently the Bombers have turned 7-1 (2011) and 5-1 (2014) starts into playoff heartbreak (no-playoff heartbreak in 2014's case) I remember Swaggerville, and how Drew Willy was playing like Drew Brees for us and how quickly that bubble popped when he started getting hurt. Regular season record means nothing when the temp gets low and the stakes get high. I agree with folks here that the 2021 Bombers just seem way more fundamentally sound than those gimmicky / lucky 2011 and 2014 teams and that O'Shea is right to keep them focused on not being too proud to compete .... but they still gotta deliver the goods in the wintertime to get the trophy.

you know, this week, I don't really care who won -- after the dull & dreary first half of the season, I'm just stoked to see a doubleheader of entertaining and competitive football. Hopefully this bodes well for the second half of the season. So it looks like the Riders are the clear #2 team in the west, but BC is dangerous ... next week's game vs. the Bombers is gonna be a slobberknocker. Wish I could go see it but alas next weekend is for other things.

Week 8 Alouettes at Toronto Turnovers and flags-- these Als are not dirty birds, they are sloppy ones.

Montreal defense super soft when there's more than 15 to go. Getting zero pressure, MBT has all the time in the world for someone to come open and he's completed at least three clutch thows to turn longs into first downs or 2nd-and-shorts.

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be running backs who run backwards while trying to elude pursuit. Chad Simpson used to do this, drove me crazy. But it's okay because MBT converts the second-and-way-long that DJ Foster gifted him. yeah, getting that on hulu down here too.

damn, Adams Jr. has some giddy-up.

jinx.

Argos exploding!

I wonder if having a friendly White House and Justice Department could be of help here? The separation of powers is a pretty big deal so based on my super naive understanding of such things, the executive branch can't help enforce a congressional subpoena, but it would be cool to see Merrick Garland throw Steve Bannon in the pokey.

meanwhile, in Arizona:

The TSN people mentioned at some point that Lapo couldn't get into the mad scientist part of his playbook because his offence simply wasn't on the field long enough. I think the guy needs a long slow grinding offence like his Winnipeg one so he can do all the little setups that unlock the kill shots. When it works, it's great, but too many things have to go perfectly right in order for it to work its best, so it is fragile, and its failure mode looks terrible. We have seen Lapo completely change up his offence ... that snow game against Calgary in 2017, the game where the Fever was the surprise starter. It looked like high school, lots of wishbone and I-formation and option stuff, extremely vanilla. I think Fever threw the ball like ten times that day, and we won (tho largely because Calgary had already locked up their playoff spot and started their canadian backup, who was terrible.) So Lapoisn't completely inflexible. Parachuting a new hope rookie QB in midseason -- totally a Rough Rider move. I hope there's more than a dozen fans in the stands at the end of this season, this is looking like 1988 in Ottawa.

hey, he did the research!

I can't have been the only one thinking of this:

Week 7 Bombers at Antlers (guest poet: James Wilder, Jr) flex flex flex flex flex: flex flex flex flex, flex flex flex! oh ****, did we lose? Bombers at Antlers (regular idiot) Athletic QB lays trap for Blue! Alas, he's no Rocky Butler.

Sees the speedflex name, goes into flexxing frenzzy! flexflexflexflexflexflexflexflex

Biggie blew up Wilder in the first quarter for a loss or a very short gain and did a little bitty flex afterwards that is gif-worthy.

gotta give Bailey some love, ppl here were lumping him in with Nelson as a guy who should be cut or benched but the dude balled tonight.

is it just me or is tackling bad across the whole league this year? istr people saying that no-contact practices would lead to bad tackling...