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Actually it does. That's the whole point, WCT earnings leader, and has been many times yet only 2 provincial championships and failure in the Brier playoffs? What else do we call it? We called the Stamps chokers for being the best team in the league and not winning the Grey Cup, We call the San Jose Sharks perennial chokers because they're had great regular seasons and failed in the playoffs, it's no different for the McEwen rink. They choke when the pressure amps up I don't care if they're amateurs or not that's the reality of it and that's going to be their reputation until the win something that the public cares about because not a lot of people really give two shits about the grand slams.

Oh please, the guy has been one of the top teams on tour for years and he managed to piss away provincial championships to guys who weren't Stoughton you know. He lost to Rob Fowler, he lost to Carruthers and yes lots of losses to Stoughton, including years when the McEwen rink was a stronger team on the tour. Never mind that Peters and Burtnyk were hardly competition when McEwen had his own team in provincials were they even still doing anything beyond token appearances by that point? Seriously Stoughton is the only name that he had to face and for the past probably 6 or 7 years McEwens team has been the top team in Manitoba. Yes Gushue gets free passes to the Brier every year, but the fact that McEwen never seems to win the big events whether it's provincials or Briers or Olympic Trials is a black mark against him. Guy folds when the pressure mounts. Brad Gushue is a good shooter but he's kind of dumb, that's likely why he only won his first Brier this year, but McEwen has had all kinds of success at grand slams, but he always seems to find ways to fall before becoming a championship when all the eyes are on him. You want my opinion? There's no other explanation for why a guy who can be one of the very best teams in the world has so few Brier appearances and hasn't won squat once there despite being one of the top teams there through the week. Until such time as he wins something other than grand slam events that no one watches he's a choker.

DC doesn't deserve to have high hopes, at this point they are firmly in the show us territory. They don't get the benefit of the doubt until they prove that they can produce something that works.

Mcewen has always been a choker. Think the dude is just mentally weak. That's one thing Koe does have going for him, he's got that winners mentality.

Man I saw a clip of the signing on TSN and he so big..... Yeah I know the camera adds 10 pounds but cripes, stop eating the cameras!

And I don't buy that it's a team that needs the veteran guidance either. Not that Amy Nixon is any screaming hell of a player anymore but just seems like there had to be better options out there.

Yeah I dunno that that move makes them any better at this point...

either way, it's ******* old to be playing front end these days.

maybe 10 years ago...

Koe is a good player and always has been, but there's more than one guy on a team and while he's got some good players on that team, I don't think it's as good a mix as some of the other teams.

yeah that's not a super easy sched either. Jacobs could be in some trouble cause good Koe is no easy match and Menard is playing well apparently.

The key part of the Manitoba win over Northern Ontario is that it drops Jacobs to 3 losses I believe which makes things real interesting for the playoffs cause there's no guarantees. Now I would have to look but I think they've already faced all the "top" teams so maybe they have a soft end but at 3 losses there isn't a lot of room for error anymore.

if I was signing in Sask I'd want it up front as well because knowing Jones he'll toss you aside on a whim anyway.

Yeah I agree that Koe team is pretty over rated, they're still a very good team no question but I think the younger teams are hungrier at this point. Gushue is also massively over rated because of that Howard led Olympic run. Still good because he's got tons of unearned Brier experience but honestly to me it's McEwen and Jacobs should be the top teams there. Maybe Morris and Cotter can make a run of some kind but the pair of them are crazier than a bag of cats and their heads may or may not be in the right place. so yeah there's 5 teams that have a shot but in reality it'll be an upset if it's not mcewen, jacobs or koe in my mind.

You are making very strong statements with little to back them up, that's why people are taking you to task. I don't believe for a second that Bauman was a generational receiving prospect just because he put up lots of numbers and I don't believe that was the thought when he was drafted either. Here is what I suggest, the reason there are less home runs at receiver early in the draft is simply a case of GMs in the CFL preferring to allocate NI spaces along the lines and therefore disproportionately draft a high number of linemen early on. Simple positional preference as opposed to receivers being a bad choice to pick early. The simple fact is that GMs can go pick up a dozen american receivers who can probably play as well as a canadian one and just use a token NI guy to fill space but you can't really use a token guy on your offensive line. That doesn't diminish what a good Canadian receiver can do for you though. I ain't even pretending to know how good of a prospect Vandervoort is or isn't but if he's getting the buzz he is in terms of being a prospect then if a team feels he is a good choice at #1 I am not going to let a thing like usual positional picks and something as trivial as numbers make me think it was a bad pick up. There's more to judging prospects than their counting stats, always has been.

but what is this based on? You are making a lot of comments like this without any attempt to back them up from what I can see

all time? really? there's gotta be #1 picks that never played a down in the CFL that are worse than that...

because it fits your narrative? Doesn't it make more sense that he signed at a back up special teamer rate?

you know that Hurl signed a new deal and likely isn't getting that same premium anymore right?

because development isn't linear and when a guy has had injury troubles in his first couple years you have to show that patience. That's why you seem to be willfully ignoring.... he hasn't shown anything in his first couple years because he has hardly seen the field! Let's see how he actually plays and then make a judgement. The odds of getting a guy in the draft who can contribute in year 1 are miniscule anyway and when a guy is hurt a bunch in year 2 it's too soon to say anything. Unless you're you, in which case you didn't like the pick so he's a failure. If he does have success you'll probably hand wave it away with some fantastical leap of logic.

Scheifele was definitely a reach when the Jets took him. Guy was ranked as a likely 20 something overall pick and the knock on him was his skating. Jets did good identifying a good prospect though and were patient enough with him to let him develop into the player he is now.

yes because if he doesn't make the team after coming in healthy having an offseason to prepare or if he gets hurt again then we can cast judgement because his time with this team will have come to an end. You said yourself, you called it a bad pick when it was made, you had him labelled as a failure from the get go. Fact is that the guy had a rough go of things with his health in the first couple years, let's see what he can do when he's not struggling with that before we label people. That is all anyone has said, hold off on the snap judgements and just don't be such a debbie downer. Give it a try sometime, you might find is changes your outlook on life.

but if he does well this year and going forward then he really never was a failure, that's the entire point of waiting before we cast judgement. I seem to recall you never really having patience with the guy. Maybe the first year but certainly not last year. Very quick to **** all over players you are.

It's a good thing no one is saying that he's a good great or average pick, that's the entire point, we don't have to be so black and white, we are saying there's no harm in waiting until the entire story of his career is written before casting judgement. It's not about saying he's not a bad pick, it's about waiting to make that call, hence the calls for patience.

Richards might be a bad pick, but that really depends on what he does this year. It is premature to write him off until such time as he actually plays. A little patience would go a long way for a lot of Bomber fans.