Fatty Liver

I would agree with this, he is very quick to decide whether something is there or not and he has better self preservation instincts than Willy. What he lacks is the physical skills that Willy possesses.

When I picture Mike O'Shea in a trench coat.....I get bad thoughts.

This Tweet emphasizes the long odds of success. Greg Aiello ✔ ‎@gregaiello Did u know? Of 71,291 college football players last year, about 300 will make NFL rosters this year. #geturdegree pic.twitter.com/0IzrCU5pAk

Sports, rap or selling crack are the elite professions in many neighborhoods. Here is an interesting documentary on Anthony Cavillo's early life.

Heenan has a real advantage, the reality for a lot of footballers from the US is they come from poverty and have nothing to fall back on. They get accepted into college based on their athletic ability and are either unprepared for the challenge or blow off the opportunity provided to further their education. The edumacational system in the States is a disgrace, I been there and dids it.

Not at all, that's typical of most unions,

LaPo was fired early in 2012 and replaced by Burke. Marcel was brought in mid-way through through 2013 by Burke replacing Crowton. In the end it's all of the overlapping firing dates that are hard to keep track of.

Up close with Blue Bombers general manager Kyle Walters: "We just need to grow a little bit more." Blue boss reflects on three years at the helm, tees up the upcoming draft and talks about his team's revamped offence Kyle Walters is three years into his time at the helm of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the tangible results aren’t pretty. The Bombers have a 14-34 record and a .354 winning percentage during his time as general manager and have missed the playoffs each season. There is renewed optimism as training camp approaches this year after Walters revamped the team’s offence through big spending in free agency, but only time will tell if that is enough to make this team even a contender for a playoff spot, let alone a Grey Cup. Winnipeg Sun sports editor Ted Wyman sat down with Walters, the 42-year-old GM from St. Thomas, Ont., on Wednesday to address a wide variety of topics, from player personnel to the coming CFL draft, to what he does when he’s away from the work. TW: How would you assess your first three years on the job? KW: The ultimate grading is wins and losses. We haven’t won a lot, so as an organization we’re not doing enough. In our line of work, you win or you lose and we haven’t won enough football games. That being said, I do believe we’re building properly and each year adding a little bit here and a little bit there and trying to build continuity within the organization as we rebuild, which is always the challenge and the fine line we’re working on … you just can’t keep blowing everything up every year and thinking that the results will come. I believe in (coach) Mike (O’Shea) and I believe in the organization, in (president and CEO) Wade (Miller) and we just need to kind of grow a little bit more and win some football games. TW: Do you put pressure on yourself to get this team to a point where it can contend for a Grey Cup and end that 25-year drought? KW: Of course, that’s the pressure all of us put on ourselves, from Wade and Mike and everybody in the organization. There’s nothing wrong with that. We were hired to bring Grey Cups to this city and that’s what we’re working toward. Feeling the pressure to do it is not a bad thing. TW: Talking to (Winnipeg Jets) GM Kevin Cheveldayoff fairly often, he talks a lot about the process. You still have to stick to that, right? You can’t let the pressure affect the way you do things? KW: You still have to make big picture organizational decisions. We need to build long-term sustainable success while still trying to win short term. In the back of my mind is everything we’re trying to do here is big-picture, organizational growth to sustain winning. But we’ve got to get some wins on the field short term. TW: You said a couple of months ago that the team needed better players on the offensive side of the ball. Do you feel like you can now say you do have those better players after the free agency period? KW: I think after free agency, yes. When you look at this roster that I have in front of me, it’s vastly different from what it was and we’re constantly trying to improve it. We’ve added some CFL experience, we’ve added some productivity. On paper, the talent seems to have improved but now it’s ‘Can we gel as a group, how quickly can we get them up to speed with our new offensive co-ordinator (Paul LaPolice) and that sort of stuff.’ It’s not quite as cut and dried as ‘We went out, spent money and brought in better players and that translates instantly into winning.’ TW: I was talking to (Bombers president and CEO) Wade Miller this morning and he said it was one of the best free agency periods ever for a Blue Bombers team. How do you feel when you hear a comment like that? KW: That’s fantastic for Wade and the business people that there’s an excitement generated in the off-season by bringing in talented football players. But ultimately, it has to translate on the football field or else it’s irrelevant. TW: At last report the Saskatchewan Roughriders were still weighing their options on whether to keep or trade the first overall pick in the draft. Does that intrigue you? KW: I don’t think so. At this point we’re well into the draft process and we’ll wrap up our meetings to finalize things at the end of this week. It’s so murky with the players who are going to have NFL interest that there’s no real clear-cut pecking order at the top. I would say no, we’re not overly interested in that No. 1 pick but we’ll see how things shake down. TW: Are you pretty happy with those picks at No. 9 and No. 10 or would you look to move up at all? KW: For sure. The big determining factor is going to be after the NFL Draft. On our draft board there are five or six names of players who are going to be fringe NFL guys. So do they get drafted, do they sign as free agents? It’s going to be a real interesting week from the NFL Draft to our draft. Everyone’s thought process is going to drastically be shaken up after that. TW: Anybody targeting your picks? KW: There’s always talk. We would be a primary target for somebody who wants to drop down and see if they can grab our No. 9 and No. 10 for a top-6 pick. I’ve had a couple of calls about that but I’m not comfortable yet with where that cutoff is, as in ‘We have to get to this pick to get a guy we like.’ Nothing is going to get done until after the NFL Draft because there is just so much uncertainty right now with those players. TW: How tough is it to make a call, letting players like Bryant Turner and Clarence Denmark go from the organization? KW: It’s very difficult. Bryant and Clarence have been pillars of this organization, they’ve been outstanding young men on and off the field, they’ve been pillars of the community and they’ve done everything we asked of them. Unfortunately, in our line of work, when you are losing, things need to change. When you add players there’s a hard cap and the reality of this line of work is you have to make tough decisions that you think are best for the organization. Those were two of them. TW: How many more roster spots do you have available for camp? KW: The big challenge right now will be to make sure we get the best 75 guys into training camp. There will still be a lot of work. We’ll have our offensive mini-camp up here April 25-27 and all the offensive players under contract will be there. We’re making a real push right now to get these last few guys on our neg list under contract, see if we can get their passports sorted out and get them into Winnipeg on the 25th. There’s going to be no defence out there, just the offensive players, so hopefully we’re going to get a good read on some of these younger guys. Everyone you are going to see there, from Drew Willy on down is going to have a contract and we expect them to be in training camp barring some unforeseen injury. TW: Speaking of Drew Willy, he says he’s healthy and raring to go for mini-camp, training camp and the season. What will it mean to you to have that No. 1 quarterback back? KW: It means everything. When Drew’s been healthy we win football games, it’s that simple. Now it’s on Paul (LaPolice) and (offensive line coach) Bob (Wylie) and (running backs coach) Avon (Cobourne) and (quarterbacks coach) Buck (Pierce), all that offensive staff, to get Drew making quicker decisions, put an offensive plan in place where he can make quick decisions. Drew’s got to understand sometimes throwing a ball out of bounds or an incompletion is better than taking a hit. He’s a competitor and he’s a young guy and he’s learning that, so there’s a growth to it. He so desperately wants to make a play every single snap that he puts himself in jeopardy from time to time. He needs to understand that sometimes punting on third down is not a bad thing. TW: How much will it mean to have an experienced backup in Matt Nichols around as well? KW: That is critically important. When we sat down at the end of last year and said ‘What’s the key?’ the obvious ones were depth here, more Canadian talent there. But it was clear that we wanted to have a No. 2 quarterback we were comfortable with who could win us some football games. Matt made a very good impression on us around here. It seemed he was snakebitten down the stetch where he played well enough for us to win football games and we didn’t do it for him. When Paul sat down and looked at all the film, he said Matt was the guy we needed to have back. It’s comforting to know you are going to have two veteran guys in training camp. TW: All of the free agents you brought in have pretty good track records in this league. It must be exciting for you to have a chance to see them in action? KW: I can’t wait for the 25th. This year it’s critically important that we win – as it always is -- and it’s nice for Paul to have veteran guys to work with on the offensive side of the ball so the learning curve will be less. Andrew Harris, who is a pro and as sharp as any player there is in this league, will pick things up and Ryan Smith and Weston (Dressler) are going to provide really nice leadership on that offensive side of the ball. TW: Touching on something you said about Andrew Harris. Being a hometown guy with some star power, do you think he’ll feel any extra pressure to perform? KW: No, not at all. I think a knock on Andrew was when things weren’t going his way, he would kinda get down a little bit, which is not a bad thing. When you are not getting the ball as much as you want and your team is not performing offensively, there’s nothing wrong with having a player get upset. Clearly, out in Vancouver, Andrew put that pressure on himself to be the best Canadian in the league to be the best offensive player in the league. I don’t see that being any different here. He’s been around the league long enough. He’ll put pressure on himself whether he’s in Vancouver or Montreal or anywhere in between, to be the best football player he can possibly be. TW: Mike O’Shea is starting his third year here. The wins haven’t been there but what has he done that has really impressed you? KW: The respect he commands in that locker room among the players and the way he treats the players like men, never throws them under the bus publicly, carries himself like a head coach should. He represents our organization the way a head coach should. He’s proud to be the head coach and handles himself professionally at all times. The scouting department and myself need to give him the tools to succeed and we need to keep those guys healthy. We are on the verge, we all believe that. I believe in Mike wholeheartedly. We just need to now go out and put it on the field and win some football games. TW: This team has a Canadian GM and a Canadian head coach. Is that something you are proud of, being someone who has grown up and worked around Canadian football for most of your life? KW: You don’t really think about it, but there’s real passion for this league growing up in Canada and following it, playing high school football in Canada, university football in Canada, playing in the CFL, working in the Canadian college system … I love the CFL, I love being Canadian and there’s a real sense of pride to be in this position, being a Canadian. TW: It’s a pretty high stress job and it doesn’t slow down too often, so what do you do to relax and how often do you get a chance to do it? KW: just went through our kids’ spring itinerary. They’ll be nine and seven, my son and daughter, they’re both playing flag football this spring, they’re both playing soccer and he’s playing basketball. I’m helping coach two of the teams and my wife’s the head coach of the basketball team. So, what I do away from work is coach my kids and support them in whatever they are doing.

Was Lapo still the HC coach when Marcel was brought in to assist Crowton or was he already gone?

It all depends who he's got sitting on the other side of the table, if it's Mike O'Shea we's in trouble.

Is that an "open carry" event?

If the "eye in the sky" can reduce officials huddling together to debate a call, I'm all for it. Eliminate the wordy explanations as well, if the call is wrong pick up the flag and get on with it.

Apparently his family has a huge farm, so it's not like he's giving up his football career to make milk money, he'll be well compensated.

Couple of Bomber notables from the Riders mini-camp in Florida. WR JORDAN REAVES ON HIS SWITCH TO DB JR: Oh I'm having fun. I'm having a lot of fun. Sunday was moreso learning the concepts and today was moreso learning them. When I learn a concept one time, it sticks to me. I'm a quick learner and a good learner. I've never been on the defensive side of the field before so it's definitely a change but I like change. But it's fun. When Coach Jones first told me to go to safety I was a little apprehensive about it but it's fun. I've been smiling the whole time, especially when I understood the concepts and saw it working. RB CHEVON WALKER CW: I feel good just coming out here and picking up the offense and where I left off. It's kind of the same offense we had in Ottawa with Jason Maas so it's second nature to me. I'm just trying to do the things they said I wasn't doing in the past. I'm just playing ball and it's good to be out here with the guys. Honestly I can't even tell you what happened in Ottawa. They said I wasn't doing a couple of things they asked me to do and that's where it's at. But that chapter is closed and I'm trying to open a new chapter. I'm just thankful to be out here with these guys and I'm just happy Coach Jones extended the opportunity for me to be out here. I'm trying to do my best and leave it in the coaches' hands.

Hillary Clinton Verified account ‏@HillaryClinton The top 25 hedge fund managers make more than all of the kindergarten teachers in America combined. That’s not acceptable.

Thought I would revive this old thread with this recent article as it is still newsworthy and ties in with the recent Panama Paper revelations. Canadians need to pay more attention to issues that influence the long-term future of this country and pay less to trivial sparkle dust thrown up by the media and the entertainment industry. TPP 'worst trade deal ever,' says Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says the Trans-Pacific Partnership may well be the worst trade agreement ever negotiated, and he recommends Canada insist on reworking it. "I think what Canada should do is use its influence to begin a renegotiation of TPP to make it an agreement that advances the interests of Canadian citizens and not just the large corporations," he said in an interview with CBC's The Exchange on Thursday. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York, was a keynote speaker at a conference at the University of Ottawa on Friday about the complex trade deal. International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland put Canada's signature on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, but it has yet to be ratified here. The House of Commons trade committee is studying the TPP — a process that Freeland said could take up to nine months. Stiglitz described Freeland as "old friend" in an interview with The Canadian Press and said he has explained some of the pitfalls of the TPP to her, among them its potential to reduce workers' rights. Stiglitz takes issue with the TPP's investment-protection provisions, which he says could interfere with the ability of governments to regulate business or to move toward a low-carbon economy. Multinationals have right to sue It's the "worst part of agreement," he says, because it allows large multinationals to sue the Canadian government. "It used to be the basic principle was polluter pay," Stiglitz said. "If you damaged the environment, then you have to pay. Now if you pass a regulation that restricts ability to pollute or does something about climate change, you could be sued and could pay billions of dollars." There were similar provisions in North American Free Trade Agreement that led to the Canadian government being sued, but the TPP goes even further. He said the provision could be used to prevent raising of minimum wages or to overturn rules that prevent usury or predatory lending practices. Stiglitz argues the deal, which is a 6,000-page mammoth and extremely complex, should have been negotiated openly. "This deal was done in secret with corporate interests at the table," he said. He also forecasts the deal will have little impact on trade volumes, especially in advanced countries like the U.S. and Canada, where mostly capital-intensive goods are exported and labour-intensive goods are imported. Rules of origin provisions But it will change the basic legal framework that governs society, shifting power to corporations, he said. Stiglitz said the "rules of origin" provisions have the ability to hurt North American employment, because they allow "very clever ways of hiding what's going on." "You could have an automobile where the vast majority of the automobile was actually made in China and Thailand [which did not sign the TPP] but it comes into Canada as a Japanese good," he said. All the presidential candidates now are speaking out against the deal and it may never be passed in the U.S. "I'm a little surprised that Canada would seriously consider going through the political fight that is associated with getting this agreement ratified until the U.S. adopts it," he said. He recommended Canada work with the Europeans, who have also objected to the investment protection provisions, to rework the deal. With files from The Canadian Press http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/joseph-stiglitz-tpp-1.3515452

Equally points the finger at coaching when the players don't know what to do.

Eric Matthews.

Wow, terrific analysis. Who is this guy?

You ever been married?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...+Article+Links Top hockey producer’s firing before NHL playoffs hints at Rogers turmoil DAVID SHOALTS TORONTO — The Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Apr. 07, 2016 5:00AM EDT Last updated Thursday, Apr. 07, 2016 5:35PM EDT An Angus Reid Institute poll has driven an exclamation point into what executives at beleaguered Rogers Media already know – most Canadians will not be watching the NHL playoffs this spring. But at Rogers, the blood was already on the floor thanks to the fact that none of the seven Canadian NHL teams will be in the playoffs for the first time since 1970. On Tuesday, the man in charge of hockey production at Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada, senior vice-president Gord Cutler, was fired. Before that, several staffers in the hockey department were laid off. While company insiders said Cutler’s dismissal was a financial move since he was undoubtedly hired away from rival Bell Media’s TSN two years ago with a healthy salary, the timing was extraordinary. No one could remember a network firing its head of production with the NHL playoffs days away. The move hinted at the turmoil in Rogers Media, which has seen even more ratings trouble in the second season of its $5.2-billion, 12-year contract with the NHL for the national Canadian broadcast rights. While Cutler cannot be held responsible for a 16-per-cent decline in Hockey Night In Canada ratings through late March, which follows a 16-per-cent decline in the first year of the deal from the 2013-14 season, CBC’s last year broadcasting the show, his departure is a sign there may be unhappiness with the on-air product at the highest level of Rogers, even above Sportsnet president Scott Moore and Rogers Media president Rick Brace. A Rogers spokeswoman said Moore would not be available for comment until later this week. When ratings do not reach the projections given to advertisers, broadcasters have to give their clients free commercial time as compensation, known as make-goods. The problem for Rogers is that the loss of viewers is so severe that it has to give out far more make-goods than was planned. One source in the advertising industry and one in the broadcast industry say the free spots, two of which are being given for every paid ad, have eaten up a significant portion of Rogers’s playoff hockey inventory. This means there is much less to sell to paying clients, which further hurts revenue when Rogers usually would expect to sell playoff advertising at a significant premium. The company is putting some make-goods on its Toronto Blue Jays broadcasts and entertainment shows, and that, too, cuts into the sales of advertising time. “It is kind of grim, but unlike the fairy tales, it is reality,” said the advertising source, who requested not to be identified because of a business relationship with Rogers. Hockey fans’ unhappiness has been building since late January, when all seven Canadian teams started wobbling. Of the 1,522 Canadian adults Angus Reid surveyed from March 28 to 31, 54 per cent said they planned to watch either less of the NHL playoffs than they did a year ago or none. Only 30 per cent of the respondents said they plan to watch the same amount they did in 2015. Nineteen per cent said they will watch no playoff hockey, while 35 per cent said they will watch less than a year ago. All of the respondents said they usually watch the playoffs. The full results of the survey, released on Thursday, are on Angus Reid’s web site. The trouble signs for Sportsnet began at the start of the 2015-16 NHL season thanks to the network’s unexpected success story, the Toronto Blue Jays. According to multiple sources, some major advertisers took advantage of provisions in their contracts with Rogers that allowed them to switch their commercials from the hockey broadcasts to the Blue Jays as they went on their run through the baseball playoffs in October. According to another advertising source (who also requested anonymity because of direct dealings with Rogers), some companies could do this, but they had to pay a premium, because the Jays were getting audiences of three million or more. Another source said the audience numbers for hockey reached only 77 per cent of the projections Rogers gave advertisers in the fall of 2015. Rogers was also hit by a drop in ratings for its conventional shows on its City channels and specialty networks such as OLN, the source said. This makes it difficult to satisfy advertisers who demand a certain audience level for make-goods on those channels. It also eats into the advertising inventory for those shows. Broadcasting insiders have suggested Rogers could get some revenue relief by selling games from its national package to TSN. However, a source close to senior management at TSN said the network, which remains profitable, is not interested in buying any NHL games. This is not surprising given the ratings tumble for Rogers. By late March, the average audience for the early game on Saturday’s Hockey Night In Canada was down to 1.66 million from more than 1.9 million in 2014-15. When the biggest driver of hockey ratings, the Toronto Maple Leafs, were competitive, audiences for those games routinely exceeded two million. However, the largest audience for a Leafs game between Jan. 3 and April 2 was the 1.8 million who watched on Saturday, Jan. 23. That may look good compared with this season’s average, but it was against the Montreal Canadiens, a matchup that used to draw more than two million viewers. By April 2, the viewers were down to 826,500 on both the CBC and City for a game between the Leafs and another strong rival, the Detroit Red Wings. Moore acknowledged the problems of poor ratings and falling advertising revenue caused by the Canadian teams’ lacklustre play in a recent memo to Sportsnet staff. He also mentioned layoffs, part of Rogers’s announcement a few months ago of 200 job losses, that hit the hockey department for the first time. But he did not draw a direct link between the Canadian teams and the layoffs. However, Sportsnet staffers see the connection and it has not been good for morale. This was compounded by Cutler’s firing, which came long after Moore’s memo. There is much fear at the network about more layoffs once the hockey season is over. “There’s tons of concern about that,” one Rogers employee said. “That’s all anybody talks about.” Editor's note: An earlier version of this story stated the last time no Canadian NHL teams made the playoffs was 1969. The last time there were no Canadian teams in the playoffs was 1970. This is a corrected version.

Bad news for the Riders is always good news for the Bombers.

Lapo can become interim whatever he wants to if Walters decides to can O'Shea mid-season but I hope they wait till the next off-season and acquire the best available HC. Worst case scenario there should be a couple of good coordinators looking for HC positions in the next few years.

Merle was one of the very best.

I still don't understand how they think they can start 3 Natls. on the O-line. As soon as one of them goes down (hello Patty), they have to go shopping for a replacement as a backup even if they flip over to 3 imports. God forbid they lose 2 Natl. O-linemen to injury. Unless they can pick up a cast off from other teams TC's that barrel is empty.