Noeller

Yeah, but in fairness, you're kind of a **** who disagrees with whatever the popular opinion happens to be around here...

That Jurassic Park thing.....I like BD Wong, I like Vince D'onofrio, but man does Pratt ever look awful. Ridiculous cheese factor that just doesn't work. Don't get me wrong, I'll watch this thing, but Pratt is awful.

Funny - no author shows up here, yet I'm willing to wager soooooooooooooooo much money that this was written by Wiecek. What a petulant ass. Sorry, that's my bad -- it is absolutely Wiecek because he's the only FP guy down there. And yes, what a whiny *****.

God, I hope Turner kills him again this year...Game 1, in Regina. Grab that arm again and give it a good wrench...

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/Bombers-looking-to-repeat-the-first-six-games-of-last-season-not-the-last-12-300684471.html BRADENTON, FL. -- Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive coordinator Marcel Bellefeuille thinks a dramatically upgraded Bombers offensive line should have the club’s offence in 2015 looking a lot more like it did during the first six weeks of last season than it did through the last twelve. That will come as great news for Bombers fans, who had high expectations for their team after a 5-1 start last season only to see their hopes dashed as the Bombers limped to a 2-10 finish and missed the playoffs for the fifth time in the last six years. Bellefeuille says his review of last season found that Bombers starting QB Drew Willy was at his most successful when his protection was at its best during the first six weeks of the year. "When I looked at the first five wins of the year last year when he was protected, we averaged 33 points a game on offence -- 33-plus, actually, in those five wins. And we protected very well. "And then we had a couple injuries to two Canadians at receiver and on the offensive line and things progressively got worse from there." Bellefeuille made the comments here Monday morning at the IMG Academy on what is Day 2 of the Bombers annual three-day spring mini-training camp. It will in all likelihood be the only time Bombers fans hear from the man who will be running the Bombers offence for the third season. Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea does not allow his coordinators or assistants to speak to the media but makes one exception during spring mini-camp. Bellefeuille says the off-season additions of tackles Stanley Bryant and Marc Dile and centre Dominic Picard should both improve the protection of Willy and also bolster the Bombers running game -- two areas the Bombers are going to have to improve upon in 2015 if they hope to get anywhere near the Grey Cup they’re hosting this November. "A lot of it is clear -- we need to be better at protecting the quarterback and better at running the ball and everything else will flow from there," said Bellefeuille. "If you want to say, it’s 1a and 1b -- protecting him better and being more efficient running the football." Winnipeg gave up the most sacks in the CFL last season and were second last in rushing yards. While the Bombers are now deep in offensive linemen, they are hoping this week to find some receivers and some running backs among the 52 players they brought to this camp, almost all of whom -- with the exception of the club’s veteran contingent of four quarterbacks -- are either CFL rookies or close to it. Bellefeuille said he has been impressed with all three running backs the Bombers are working out down here: Bradley Randle (UNLV), Carlos Anderson (Northern Iowa) and Da’Rel Scott (Maryland). "All three running backs have shown great promise -- they’re all quick, fast and can run routes coming out of the backfield and give you more dynamic on the offence. "Those guys have been really good. And there’s probably three or four receivers we’re still evaluating that have an opportunity to come in and compete for legitimate jobs." On the defensive side of the ball, sources say the club has been very impressed so far with the play of Derrell Jackson, who played outside linebacker at East Carolina but who is getting a long hard look this week at rush end. The Bombers haven’t had a dominant pass rusher since Alex Hall was traded to Saskatchewan midway through the 2013 season and Jackson -- who had brief NFL stints in camp with Miami and Arizona -- has likely already shown enough here this week to earn his invite to Winnipeg’s main training camp. Jackson says his skills are well suited to being a rush end. "I’d definitely say so -- just my explosiveness and ability to get off the ball, use my technique and speed, my quickness, my hands -- all that stuff." The Bombers practiced here Monday morning and have another practice session Monday afternoon. The club will hold one final practice Tuesday morning before dispersing.

I would rather have a guy that can do both, you know...like most of the other GMs. Yeah, I'm not sure having 25% of your starting lineup really strong and 75% kinda meh is a formula for success. Every GM we've had has demonstrated some positives and some negatives. What with them being human and all... Pff lame humans. When the robot revolution comes, all will be better. I, for one, will welcome our new overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted (not really) media source, I can be used to round up others, to use as workers in their underground lairs...

Some concerns that the ridiculous media circus around the game tonight is going to be a huge distraction, but hopefully it's just business as usual...

Fwiw, MOS said he looked fine and didn't look outclassed. Said he was getting open and all that. So who knows what it is...

^^^ this makes a lot of sense based on current evidence. I'm curious if going up against Murican DBs got to him...

Via Darren Bauming: "Had a chat with Kurt Goodrich. Says his passion and love for football isn't there anymore. Described Mike O'Shea as a class act. #Bombers"

I'd give ya Hall for Trouba +......

Jesus Christ.....what a ridiculous turn of events.

And to go along with that, if you're letting the game come down to that, you probably haven't done enough the rest of the game. Don't try and cling to a one goal lead for a whole game.

Big difference between McDavid and all the others who came before.

Poor teams blame reffing, winners get it done.

Oh man am I excited. Get some defence and a tendy for next year and we are rockin in the AB capital. Stoked for next fall since the Jets are about done now.

So many people talking about the Ducks being overrated because of their division, and the Jets will win in 6 and blah blah blah. That team is SO good. Jets will be lucky to get 5 or 6 games outta this series.

Don't. Have. Kids..........

Waiting for Iso to respond. Wasn't he ranting and raving about Molstad awhile back for being corrupt or somesuch?

http://www.tsn.ca/cfl-players-sever-ties-with-lawyer-after-dismissed-legal-fees-complaint-1.260165 CFL players sever ties with lawyer after dismissed legal fees complaint LAS VEGAS -- The Canadian Football League Players Association has ended its relationship with longtime union lawyer Ed Molstad after a group of 11 current and former CFL players filed a complaint with the Law Society of Alberta raising concerns about whether Molstad had been overcharging the league's players. Player representatives for the nine CFL teams voted unanimously on Friday to hire new legal counsel, two players who attended the meeting told TSN, in spite of the fact that the law society dismissed the complaint and found that the complaint did not support the allegation that Molstad acted unethically or unprofessionally. Union executives and player representatives made the decision during their annual meeting in Las Vegas. Molstad had been advised by union president Scott Flory during an Apr. 8 phone call that the CFLPA executive would not recommend his re-hiring, TSN has learned. Molstad was advised not to come to the union's annual meeting. When reached by TSN on April 16, Molstad declined to comment. "Your facts are not correct, govern yourself accordingly," Molstad told TSN. He would not elaborate. TSN obtained a press release the CFLPA plans to distribute on Saturday. "We would also like to thank Ed Molstad for his years of outstanding work and representation of our members," says the draft release, signed by Flory. "Ed has represented and been the Legal Counsel of the CFLPA for nearly 40 years, molding the game we all know and love today. Ed will continue to make himself available to the Players' Association through this transition. Thank you Ed, from past, present and future players!" The release says the union has hired the Toronto law firm Paliare Roland as Legal Counsel. Controversy has quietly percolated through the CFL's 500-odd players in recent months as players have been divided over Molstad's future. The law society complaint, which was dismissed in March, was filed in November 2014 by 11 players including Hamilton's Marwan Hage, a vice president with the CFL Players Association, Toronto's Ricky Foley, Saskatchewan's Chris Best and Montreal's Marc-Olivier Brouillette. The complaint, which was obtained by TSN, questions Molstad's billing practices and notes that it was filed reluctantly. "We file this complaint reluctantly but out of necessity…We simply do not know of another way to address this issue, other than through this complaint," the complainants say. "We are not experienced business people. Few, if any of us, have experience retaining outside counsel. Frankly, we do not know what is normal and what is not. We certainly do not have the comfort level to question a senior partner of an established law firm who has controlled the affairs of the CFLPA for more than 40 years, " reads the complaint. Molstad has been a CFL mainstay for decades. He played football for the Alberta Golden Bears and was the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' first choice in the Canadian college draft in 1967. He played for the Edmonton Eskimos for six years before retiring in 1973. A year later he joined the CFLPA and since then has played a pivotal role in the business of Canadian football as it has grown into a $200-million per year industry. Molstad has been the CFLPA's counsel on a wide range of issues from helping to navigate new labour agreements to sponsorship deals to player grievances. In 1990, he was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. The players' complaint alleged that Molstad had charged the union a flat annual fee of $400,000 in recent years. In addition to the retainer, Molstad's firm has allegedly collected additional annual payments of as much as $200,000 per year. The complainants say the CFLPA's constitution - which was attached to the complaint as an exhibit - calls for the union's outside counsel to bill for work on an hourly basis. From 2009-2013, the CFLPA's paid legal bills averaged $608,000, according to records Molstad provided to the CFLPA. During the five years before that, fees paid by the union ranged from $200,000 to $327,500. The complaint says Molstad told union officials in November 2013 that his fees for that year's first 10 months had already reached $871,000. By year's end, his billings would have reached $1 million for the full year's work, Molstad alleged. The complaint alleged that Molstad asked for and received a $200,000 payment in addition to his $400,000 flat fee. So instead of paying $1 million for legal fees in 2013 - the amount Molstad said he could have billed them - the players paid $600,000. The complainants believe that Molstad may have inflated his billing estimates to make it appear to union executives as if they were getting a bargain by simply paying the additional stipend. "Due to the CFLPA's lack of familiarity with what other unions our size might incur in terms of legal fees we simply accepted Molstad's fees," the complaint says. "We have since been told by numerous lawyers who work in the field that a million dollars in fees for a small, 500 member association is absurd. Even the discounted total of $600,000 is completely out of line for our real needs. This is especially so during a non-bargaining year, which 2013 was." In a Feb. 14, 2014, email to the CFLPA executive board, Molstad wrote that his firm had agreed to a flat fee "a number of years ago, (after) I was advised that the CFLPA could not afford to pay the hourly rate of the lawyers who were doing the work… this retainer continued when I joined Parlee McLaws LLP in 1995. As the work increased, the sum of $400,000 was agreed to on the basis that it was less than what the CFLPA budgeted for legal fees and it was reasonably certain that the fee posted at the regular hourly rates would be in excess of this amount." Molstad denied participating in any conduct that was improper and added, "It's not proper for me to make any comment at this time," Molstad said when contacted by TSN in February. Molstad told TSN at the time that the law society was not currently conducting an active investigation into the union or himself. In numerous emails to players and CFLPA executives, Molstad has always denied any allegations of over billing. In November 2014, as part of the law society's so-called informal complaints process, a law society official agreed with Molstad and concluded his conduct would not be deserving of sanction. In a Nov. 18, 2014, letter sent to B.C. Lions kicker Paul McCallum, which was forwarded to other complainants, Alberta law society investigator Lewis Wasel wrote that the law society has "no jurisdiction to determine how much a lawyer can charge for his or her services. The courts have jurisdiction over such matters, and the CFLPA has the option of having its lawyer's bills reviewed by the review and assessment office of the court of Queen's Bench of Alberta." Wasel similarly concluded that contrary to the complainants' allegations, Molstad's billing practices are not "fraudulent or at least deceptive." "My analysis of that issue is that the CFLPA has approved and paid Molstad's accounts," Wasel wrote. "It could question them if its board of directors chose to do so. I doubt that a complaint by one player representative even with the support of others would receive much consideration." Correspondence from the law society that was sent on Feb. 12, 2015, and obtained by TSN indicates that the law society referred the players' complaint to a law society staff lawyer. But in a March 23, 2015, a letter to McCallum, which again was forwarded to other complainants, James Oake, a formal complaints officer with the law society, dismissed the CFL players' complaint, saying the complaint "does not support the allegation that Molstad acted unethically or unprofessionally." "I appreciate that you are concerned with fees charged by Molstad; however, this is an issue for the court of Queen's Bench to review." It's unclear whether the players will file a lawsuit in civil court. One of the complainants told TSN that they would appeal Oake's decision to the law society's appeals department. Besides taking issue with his flat-fee billing, the complainants also alleged that Molstad has not given enough detail about 352 hours worth of work - about 20 per cent of his entire CFLPA billings that year - for which he charged the union in 2013. In many instances, Molstad describes his work as "review of files and prepare reports." The complaint also claims that Molstad has inappropriately billed for as many as 169 hours of travel time - described in a Feb. 12, 2014, email from Hage to Molstad that was attached to the complaint as "just time in the air." Molstad responded in his Feb. 14, 2014, email to the CFLPA executive board: "travel time is an accepted billing activity and reflects the true time that the CFLPA files require to be administered as a national organization. The costs of travel are built into the legal fees to reflect the national scope of the CFL and CFLPA." Hage also wrote the following in his Feb. 12, 2014, email to Molstad about 1,935 hours billed to the union for work in 2013: The email was included with the complaint. " "It makes no sense a small organization like ours would require you to spend almost 2,000 hours on our files or rack up a million dollars in billing," Hage wrote. Two days after Hage's email, Molstad wrote him back, copying other CFLPA executive board members. Molstad wrote that billings have climbed for a number of reasons. The relationship between the CFL and the CFLPA was becoming more challenging because the CFL had changed its lawyers before the negotiation of the 2010 collective labour agreement, Molstad wrote. As well, "the position taken by the CFL… and the clubs is more adversarial in relation to matters that legal counsel is required to address," he wrote in the Feb. 14 email. In an email sent to the CFLPA's executive board on Sept. 24, 2014, Molstad also explained that he has charged the union a discounted rate of $268 per hour, "substantially less than my normal hourly rate." Molstad wrote in the Sept. 24, 2014, email that 2013 was an especially busy one, thanks to a number of player grievances, more travel time and meetings, and increased work in relation to the preparation for the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement with the CFL. Molstad referred to a 2012 survey of CFLPA members that reported 95 per cent of players said they found legal services provided to them were "very effective" and he forwarded emails from players who had been complimentary of his work. Molstad also asked CFL players to consider the NFLPA's legal billings. From March 2013 to Feb. 2014, the NFLPA paid $5.8 million in legal fees, Molstad wrote. The NFLPA is required under U.S. law to disclose the salaries of its highest paid officials. "In addition to outside legal counsel, the NFLPA retains approximately 12 lawyers in house including their executive director, DeMaurice Smith, whose salary is $2.7 million per year," Molstad wrote. "The amount of salary paid out to the 12 lawyers employed by the NFLPA including DeMaurice Smith, is approximately $6.2 million." As the debate grew within the union in recent months, Molstad offered a number of changes. For starters, he wrote in his Feb. 14, 2014, email to the CFLPA executive board that he would begin providing more detail about his billings. "Based upon the more recent communication … we will record our time with more detail to show each individual matter in the future..." The CFLPA will also make another change. Rather than having lawyers grade the exam papers of would-be CFL player agents, as has been the practice, that job will instead fall to the union president Flory, who receives an annual $80,000 salary. "We have recommended and Scott Flory has agreed that the contract advisors examination will be changed to a multiple choice answer format and when this is completed, the exam will be marked by the CFLPA office," Molstad wrote in a Sept. 22, 2014, email to union executives. Flory did not respond to an email seeking comment on this report.

Mack's fault was in picking coaches and, debatably, may have had trouble with the CIS Draft, but you absolutely can not say he didn't bring in high competition in the form of Import talent. Far better than what we've seen so far from MOS/KW regime, tho that's understandably a limited comparison...

There was at least one play last night where Buff pinched on the play, turned the puck over behind the net and is just way too big to get back in time, so poor Chiarot was all by himself, and made a sensational play to break up the attack and send the puck back the other way. Really impressive, and if you're going to keep Buff on D, you need to have him paired with someone who's able to do that regularly...

Curious what's wrong with a late game on a Saturday night? Plenty of pre-gaming time, and still time after the game to celebrate the win. Unless you're the weird churchy type that's gotta be up early Sunday, I guess... Well West coast games should start at 7 IMHO. Double-header Sat games start at 6 central so we got 30m wait time most likely. Ahhh, I see, you're worried about being too drunk before the game, and/or running out of booze..... I was doing pretty good until the 3rd period. The ol' lady is pretty good about putting up with my yelling during games, but I know I've gotta dial 'er back when the cat gets spooked and runs outta the room...

Curious what's wrong with a late game on a Saturday night? Plenty of pre-gaming time, and still time after the game to celebrate the win. Unless you're the weird churchy type that's gotta be up early Sunday, I guess... Well West coast games should start at 7 IMHO. Double-header Sat games start at 6 central so we got 30m wait time most likely. Ahhh, I see, you're worried about being too drunk before the game, and/or running out of booze.....

Curious what's wrong with a late game on a Saturday night? Plenty of pre-gaming time, and still time after the game to celebrate the win. Unless you're the weird churchy type that's gotta be up early Sunday, I guess...