OK - since we are now 3 games into the regular season of the CFL season I figure it is time to start this thread. Some surprises in the early season with some teams with new coaches - like Montreal and Saskatchewan having good starts. Sask 3-0 in the west and Montreal 2-1 in the east. But I have a beef with the way Saskatchewan got to 3-0.

This past weekend they were playing in Hamilton agaoinst my beloved Tiger-Cats and the game had truly a bizarre finish. The Cats were up by one point in the last minute when incredibly they allowed a Saskatchewan receiver to get behind all defenders and he was heading for a 60 yard winning touchdown with 35 seconds left. Just as he crossed the goal line the ball was knocked out of the receivers hands on an incredible hussle play by one of the T-Cats' defensive backs - a la Don Beebe of the Bills when he knocked the ball out of the Cowboys Leon Lett's hands in Super Bowl XXVII. The ball flew out of the back of the endzone. The official closest to the play called it a touchdown but the play went to video review and it was clear the ball had been knocked out of the receivers hand at the one yard line.

Now here is where it gets really confusing. In the NFL that would have been a touchback and the team that caused the fumble would have gotten the ball at their own 20 yard line. But there is no touchback in the CFL because missed field goals and punts into the endzone are a single point if not run out of the end zone. So after the review the referee announces that the ball was knocked out before the goal line. The Hamilton crowd roars - but then the referee goes on to say that because the ball went out of bounds after the fumble without either team controlling it before it did so - they awarded the ball to Saskatchewan at the Hamilton one yard line with 30 seconds left and a first and goal. On the next play they scored and took the lead with about 30 seconds left.

Surely in the case of forcing a fumble out of the end zone that rule has to change. You can't reward the fumbling team by giving them the ball at the one yard line - where the impact on the Cats was actually negative because it allowed the Riders to run more time off the clock and left almost no time left for Hamilton to try a hail mary pass. Stupid Rule.

And beef part 2 - on the last play of the game the Hamilton quarterback Printers scrambled away from the rush and threw a bomb down the sidelines but the intended receivers path to the ball was clearly obstructed by one Saskatchewan player as the other defensive back five yards further down the field made the game ending interception. No flag for the interference that was obvious at about the Saskatchewan 15 yard line. The penalty would have given the Cats one more crack from the Saskatchewan 15 as the game can not end on a penalty. We were robbed. And you've got to understand the Cats have only won about 6 of there last 30 games! So to lose that way is extra salt in the wounds for a team trying to get itself righted after years of struggle.

Travelpat, I didn't see that Ticats-Riders game last week and didn't hear about the controversy, all I knew was that Saskatchewan won and are now 3-0 this season. When I tried to get more info about the game and specifically about the situation you described in your post, there was nothing on the main CFL website. When I clicked on that game's date, all I got was "Buy Tickets Now!" I've encountered similar problems before with the site, it really isn't very well-managed at all.

Anyway, by now you know what happened to your Hamilton team last night, so I promise no gloating icons here! But for the benefit of other readers, the Stamps won big (43-16), and are now 3-1 so far this year. There was no local blackout on TSN, so I was able to watch the game from home, although I do hope to attend a couple of games this season. Unfortunately, the Ticats' bruising running back Jesse Lumsden didn't play due to an injury. (Side note: I'm old enought to remember when his dad Neil was a star RB in the CFL). Until last night, Jesse led the league in rushing, but the Stamps' Joffrey Reynolds is now leading the pack, and in fact scored three touchdowns for Calgary last night. He now has over 5,000 career yards. Go Stamps! I can taste the champagne from the Grey Cup already.

Hey Marc:
I knew my Cats were toast when I heard Lumsden was not playing. When he plays he is a stud - usually responsible for almost half the TiCats offence on any given night. And he is such powerful running back knocking defenders flying and usually breaks at least one tackle every run. But unfortunately it seems he is a bit fragile too. He missed at least half of last season and even going back to his last year at Hamilton's McMaster University he ended up missing the OUAA championship game against Laurier costing Mac a chance at the Vanier Cup that year that was being hosted in Hamilton. One of the threads currently running in the fan forum section of the team's wehbsite is 'Lumsden - the glass running back'.

Here are some pics of our 'glass' back.
http://www.jesselumsden.ca/photos.html

Hi Travelpat (and any other CFL fans out there), did you hear the sad news about Leif Petterson? As I'm sure you remember too, he played for Hamilton back in the late 70s/early 80s and then later was a TSN broacaster. He seemed like quite a nice fellow, and was only 57 years old.

Hey Marc - what a shock! I just went into the tsn.ca website to check on an update on the score of my Cats game in Montreal tonight and came across that story and was going to post word of it here myself. Such a surprise for someone who was relatively young - and as so many of the commentators have been saying - for somebody who always looked like the picture of health. I remember when he played for my Cats and I always sort of had a crush on him. I mean lets face it he was gorgeous and had maintained those hot and very healthy looks into his 50's. He was always such a nice guy with the fans anytime I met him at Quaterback Club lunches and things like that in Hamilton back in the late 70's early 80's.

I must admit on a couple of occassions in the last few weeks I had sort of wondered why we had not heard anything from him this season. I know he did a lot of work for TSN over the years and with them doing ALL the CFL games this year I had always expected at some point to hear his voice.

I also find it a bit strange that there seems to be no mention anywhere of the cause of death - at least as far as I can tell so far. It truly is sad.

Well clearly the west is best - and all 4 teams in the west may make the playoffs. The 4th place team in the west will cross over to play in the East semi-final - which happens in the CFL if that team has a better record than the 3rd place team in the other conference. But that makes this weekend a crucial day for the Argos, Bombers and my Cats.

The Argos are currently in 2nd with a 3-5 record travel to arch rival Hamilton for the traditional Labour Day showdown. Hamilton has beaten the Argos twice already this season - unfortunately those are the only wins for the 2-6 Cats. I'm heading down to the game with two Argo fans - so survival may be my goal for the night - as the Hamilton crowd will get nasty if the Cats lose. Winnipeg tied with Hamilton at 2-6 play at 6-2 Saskatchewan in a Grey Cup re-match. So assuming the Riders can beat Winnipeg - IF - my Cats can beat the Argos - we're tied for 2nd in the east - but have the advantage because of the wins over the Argos. A loss though and Hamilton falls 2 games back - and this team may not win 2 more games the rest of the season, the way they have played against other teams.

Well - it has been a challenging year for the CFL in population rich Southern Ontario. Not exactly what the league had hoped with worries that the NFL Bills will siphon away revenue with their 8 games here over the next 5 years with continuing rumours of a move here after the Bills lease expires at Ralph Wilson Stadium in 2012.

The Toronto Argonauts are playing lousy football and are 4-6. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are even worse at 2-8 - and their only two wins were against Toronto! This is the 3rd year in a row of dismal football in Hamilton who finished 3-15 last season, and 4-14 the year before that. Attendance at Ivor Wynne Stadium is understandably nosediving with only 18,000 tickets sold for last Saturday's game against BC and only about 15,000 fans actually there. Even the 'Labour Day Classic' against hated rival Toronto just one hour down the QEW was 3,000 less than capacity at 25,000 and change. At the Rogers Centre they don't even open up the 500 level for Argos games this season. So that means a sell-out is in the 32,000 range for a team that could draw 40,000+ regularly when SkyDome first opened.

And obviously both teams are not happy with their records and have both fired their coaches this week. The Argos have brought back CFL legend Don Matthews who is something like 69 years old but is the winningest coach in CFL history. The Cats who have much better talent than their 2-8 record would indicate have promoted one of their assistants Marcel Bellefeuille. If both teams continue to struggle and the Bills have a good season - that will only have those who worry the CFL will die in Toronto with the possibility of the Bills moving here - worry even more.

And I know everybody across the rest of Canada likes to say this is all because of Toronto's obsession with all things American - but a lot of the interest in the Buffalo Bills is the fault of the CFL itself. Growing up here in Southern Ontario all Argos and Ti-Cats home games were blacked out in BOTH cities because of their close proximity. So kids growing up hardly ever would see either team play on TV. At most 5-6 games a year with many of those late starts in the west. And worst of all - they would NEVER get to see games against each other - the biggest rivals! Yet at the same time with the Bills always having the blackout lifted for home games - because they usually sold out Rich Stadium - now the Ralph- we would get 14 or more Bills games a year on TV here with NFL stars like OJ Simpson, and then the early 90's four time AFC champs featuring Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed etc. It is no wonder there are so many NFL fans here. It has been only over the last 5-10 years that the Argos and Cats have actually started to market to their fan base again by lifting blackouts etc.

And - that is where their is a silver lining for the CFL. The Labour Day game here in Hamilton did have the local blackout lifted - and even though the game did not sellout - it did draw the largest TV ratings of the season for TSN with viewership topping 800,000 late in the game. So clearly there still is interest there - but these teams need to start winning to get some of those fans to start buying tickets again.

Dusting off this old thread to ask if any of our Canadian posters are headed to Montreal for the Grey Cup?

I will be and looking forward to it.

No such luck. No money after all I've had to fork over for the Bills game here in Toronto December 7th.

Actually with both the Argos and TiCats so brutal this year - interest in the CFL is close to an all time low in Southern Ontario. Both teams were realistically out of the playoff picture by early October and at that time the Bills had gotten off to the great start - so that is where all the interest was with the Bills games getting great TV ratings up here. And with the promotions going on surrounding the Bills game here againt the Dolphins - it really borders on overload with Rogers trying to get rid of the last few thousand overpriced tickets.

- daily email update from BillsIntoronto.com with everything from daily injury updates on Bills players plus information on plans for the 'Great tailgate party'
- promotions a couple of times a week from Tourism Toronto and the various hotels offering special Bills packages
- Budweiser commercials doing Bills ticket giveaways
- Bills ticket promotions on my cable and internet bill
- commercials on every Rogers owned TV station numerous times per day promoting the game on CITY TV and Rogers Sportsnet
- almost daily stories in the sports section about something related to the Bills

Until the last few days when some more Grey Cup stories started to appear the CFL had more or less gotten completely lost in the shuffle of the Bills, Leafs and Raptors dominance of the sports market here in Southern Ontario over the last couple of months.

I'll do what I always do and cheer for the Eastern conference rep Alouettes. You should have a blast in Montreal and the noise of 60,000 Alouette fans under the lid at the Big 'O' will be ear-splitting I'm sure. Have fun Blueraider!

Hopefully be able to meet up over a beer at the tailgate party for the Bills/Dolphins games game up here on the 7th!

so for this weekend - Go Als Go!. For the 7th 'Squish the fish!' and 'Let's Go Buffalo!'

You're right Blueraider, the CFL thread has been disappointingly dormant this year with Travelpat and I being the only contributors until you mentioned you were going to the Grey Cup game, which I hope you enjoyed even though you were probably cheering for the Alouettes. Admittedly I haven't been on Outsports much at all myself in recent months, but somebody had to speak up to congratulate the Calgary Stampeders on their 22-14 victory yesterday and I guess I'm the logical choice as cheerleader

Although both Calgary and Montreal have each played in quite a few championship games in recent years, this was actually the first time since 1970 that they have faced each other in the Grey Cup. And I can't recall another season where the disparity between east and west has been so glaring. Collectively, the four western teams amassed 46 wins, versus only 26 wins for the four eastern teams. Only the Alouettes were above .500 at 11-7.

The Stamps had a 13-5 record, best in the league, and in fact beat Montreal twice during the regular season. They had the league's best rusher (Joffrey Reynolds), receiver (Ken-Yon Rambo) and kicker (Sandro DeAngelis). Henry Burris' stats as QB were only slightly behind those of Anthony Calvillo. And yet despite all this, the Stamps were snubbed by the media in the CFL Players Awards prior to the Grey Cup game and were regarded as the 'underdog' in the game itself. I think Burris can be forgiven for his uncharacteristic outburst last week.

I would like to have seen both teams score more touchdowns (as it turned out, only one each), but it was still an entertaining game and obviously not a blowout. Henry was in tears in his post game interview yesterday, but his trademark grin was back today, and I was lucky enough to get a picture of him hoisting the Grey Cup (along with coach John Hufnagel, Sandro DeAngelis and other players) as the Stamps rolled into McMahon Stadium this afternoon to a throng of cheering fans. There will be a bigger public event tomorrow at Olympic Plaza.

There were over 65,000 fans at Montreal's Olympic Stadium, the second-largest crowd in Grey Cup history. No doubt the fact that the Alouettes were in the game was a big factor. I know it must have been very disappointing for the Als and their fans to lose at home in the biggest game of the year; and the fact that they have only one win in six trips to the Grey Cup since 2000....the nearest thing we have to the legacy of the Toronto er, Buffalo Bills Anyway, it's Calgary's turn to be the host city for next year's Grey Cup, so let's hope for a repeat (and a Stanley Cup for the Flames in between....OK, I guess I shouldn't get too greedy!)

I had a great time, that is for certain. I always do when in Montreal.

It was great to see Stade Olympique thumping with a full house, I don't know how many times I'd been there in the past for Expos games with a few thousand? Hundred? Dozen? fans and wondered how the place would feel for a full house. I came away satisfied.

I came away realizing that the Grey Cup weekend is really a celebration of the CFL with diehards wearing the colors of all eight(and some Renegade gear too)clubs in one weekend long party.

I'll remember that intoxicating aroma of pancakes at the Stampeders Breakfast, I didn't have any because the line was too darned long. But man, did they smell good!

The game was far better than most Super Bowls, which is one reason why I always liked watching the Grey Cup through the years, and yes the Stamps won thanks to the leg of Buffalo area native Sandro D'Angelis' five field goals.

And as a bonus, I got into the Bell Centre for the Patrick Roy ceremony, I felt privileged to be in the building for a number retiring ceremony. Unlike some other places that retire numbers in honor of the fans, you know when the Canadiens do it, it is for an icon of the sport, there nothing else will do.

Shameless plug(and an attempt to save bandwith on this message board). Here's a link to me blog with photos of the weekend past.

Yep, will be at Rogers Centre cheering on the Bills.....I'll be out the door Friday morning to head to Detroit for the MAC Championship Game(Buffalo...who'd have thunk it) so hit me up with a PM before then Pat:)