Bart Andrus makes Mike Kelly look like a football genius over the course of a long season
Mike Kelly tried hard this season. Every dubious personnel decision (Stefan Lefors as a starting QB??!), every media rant, every spy scandal, and every early season loss of the Winnipeg Blue-Bombers made him look like the inevitable heir to the title. Yes, Mike you could have won the coveted Dave Beckman Award for the worst CFL coach ever.
Unfortunately, even if Mike is not necessarily sly as a fox, he was smart enough to change things around when it became clear his grand scheme was not working. He pulled the plug on the Lefors debacle. He brought in an occasionally competent CFL quarterback like Michael Bishop. He delegated some offensive responsibilities, including play-calling. The sudden improvement in the Blue-Bombers towards the final weeks of the season demonstrates that he put the team before his ego.
I’d like to thank the academy…
Bart Andrus did none of this. He let the Toronto Argonauts sink deeper and deeper into the mire, claiming that mediocrity could be seen at the end of the tunnel - if only he was allowed to carry through his 5 year plan.
Like Mike Kelly, he dispensed with an offensive co-ordinator. Unlike Mike, he stayed in place even as three quarterbacks and 659 receivers failed to demonstrate any vague resemblance of competence.
Bart preached discipline, expelling star players who didn’t live up to his celestial vision. Bart’s team then went on to lead the CFL in penalties.
The Argos’ season ended with a whimper as the Montreal Alouettes crushed Toronto 42-17. As of writing, the Blue-Bombers still have to beat or tie Hamilton to get in the playoffs but at least nobody has made a complete fool of themselves in Winnipeg (except maybe the coach on the radio).
Bart did make one team better this year – the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Thanks for trading us Arland Bruce III, Bart, we’ll send a card to your forwarding address!
It’s easy to mock the new league but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.
In a moment of insomnia induced masochism, I watched a quarter and a half of the first UFL match between the Las Vegas Locos and the California Redwoods. The nascent league was kind enough to provide an online feed to the clash of the titans. Indeed, given the empty stands, it is probable that the internet viewers here in Italy outnumbered the paying (?) customers in Las Vegas. The tv crew kept the lenses focused tight on the field – keen to avoid showing the barren seating area.
Of course the quality of the football was rubbish. Here is the Youtube video of the first touchdown, scored by a reject qb who had a cup of espresso with the Montreal Alouettes this preseason.
Here is a video by one of the alleged 14,000 fans in attendance, showing the crowded conditions at the stadium:
Yet what struck me, apart from the air of desolation, desperation, and incompetence, was the myopic choice of uniforms. Not only did the 2 teams have exactly the same design, but the colours were so similar that California and Las Vegas players were indistinguishable on video.
This afternoon the 100th Giro d’Italia kicked off with a spectacular team time trial through the streets of Venice.
To the surprise of many, there were enough roads on Venezia Lido, the island where the film festival takes place, to make up a decent 21km course. It was very flat and straight but it looked great on tv.
There was only one problem: Bottecchia was missing again.
The passionate Bottecchia tifosi are tired of being offered news of the company’s exploits in minor races like the Giro delle Pesche Nettarine di Romagna, a tour dedicated to central Italian Peaches and Nectarines. It’s about time there was a professional squad prepared to bring back Bottecchia to the cutting edge of world cycling.
Great photo of the new Pinarello FP3 in Pez Cycling news. Wow, it has “adrenalina italiana” and a neat heraldic stem. What a classy piece of Italian cycling craftspersonship.
The made in Taiwan sticker does seem slightly out of place…
Tap your feet to the latest in Milano hipster sounds as a discerning bike owner rides his Bottecchia around the bright lights of the festive Northern Italian city.
This is the closest Bottecchia has got to winning the Tour de France in years. Exult as you watch sad loser play pro-cycling simulation game. At least the grand finale is worth the 6 minute and 35 second wait.
Bottecchia wins (but will you be there to see it?)
What a difference a week makes. After 6 straight losses, no one had any hope (especially me) that the tabbies would offer a decent performance last week against the Montreal Alouettes – but we were all proved wrong. The Cats won a 44-38 spectacular and the stars of the show were Obie’s new crop of rookies. Rookie quarterback Quinton Porter had one of the best games since the glory days of the McManus-Flutie tandem, winning CFL offensive player of the week. Linebacker CameronSiskowic won the CFL defensive play of the week in his first start. Plus there were three touchdown catches for first year man Prechae ‘big play’ Rodriguez. Wow.
Now we just have to repeat it on Monday afternoon at a jampacked Molson Stadium…
Or should that “distinction”go to the 90-91 Ticats?
David Beckman: Note the quotation marks around the word Coach
For years it seemed as if the thorough destruction of a storied franchise undertaken by Dave “high school coach” Beckman was the absolute bottom in Hamilton Tiger-Cat football history. A moment of insanity (and penny-pinching) by then owner David Braley led to the dismantling of the previous year’s Grey Cup finalists and a 2-12 record by an utterly unqualified coach. Now the bad times are back with Charlie “5 – 23″ Taaffe.
By all accounts the team won’t get any better. The current ownership, who shelled out on an excessive multiyear contract to alleged pro coach Taaffe, is too cheap to pay for a new coach to come in and pick up the pieces before the end of the season. The management’s spin is that “the team needs consistency” – obviously the kind of consistency that comes from losing almost every game over a number of years…
With less than a month until the start of the most famous cycling race in the world, there is one question on the minds and lips of every enthusiast: who’s next? Yes, who’s going to be the next big name to get involved in a doping scandal. Sure they’ve done everything possible to clean up the sport (or so they say) but that doesn’t mean that we’re all not still waiting for the next shoe to drop. So here goes: make your suggestions in the comments section of this post and, although we really (and naively) hope that nothing will happen, we’ll see who’s right…
By the way, does anyone know where I can get this video game?
