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Argos ARGOS
Update: The Month from Hell.... Gee, where do I start? Oh Yeah, London! The So-Called Success. Success in what way? Yes, they did save some rent money at SkyDome, that's the biggest thing I can see. It took months to sell 9,000+ tickets, most getting snapped up suspiciously at the ‘Last Minute’, but by whom? Reports said there were empty seats so calling it a Sellout is bogus, IMHO. The whole point was supposedly to entice London area 'fans' to be interested in the Argos, so of course they start Jim Ballard against Danny Mac. Great decision, I'm sure the shoddy play really created new fans there. According to people who were there the locals were 'dead', and many left early. Since London was described in the media as 'Ticat Country' I don't know why this was considered an Argo Home game nor do I think it was fair that Argo fans were the only ones in the CFL not to get a Preseason Home game without having to drive for 2 hours and pay again for a ticket they usually got with their packages every year. Anyway, Toronto lost 37-17. Yup, BIG success. I understand it was Lysko’s idea…real genius stuff. Game
Stats: HERE
Season Opener: Friday June 28. Winnipeg. Argos get off to a good start, aided by bad play from the Bombers. The defense got burned for 4 TD’s, 2 from Milt, 2 from Gordon, they let them get open and that’s what happens. Basically a poor effort all around, except for Special teams. They say that Etch’s defense is complicated and hard to learn but worth it. I’ll have to take their word for it at this point in time. Final score Bombers 39, Argos 15. Game
Stats: HERE Home Opener Disaster! Wednesday July 3rd. We lose starter Jackson on 2nd play of 1st drive. Bishop thrown to the dogs. He did a few nice throws but too many mistakes of the kind you expect from rookies. A dropped TD attempt from Zanders didn’t help either, A late game rally made it close then Bishop lost the ball allowing the Als to score driving it out of reach. Flashes of brilliance from Bishop, a likely lost season for Jackson when Ed Philion ‘accidentally’ rolled onto his knee. Uh Huh. Personally, I’m really tired of seeing the Als every home opener now for what, 4 years in a row?? Why not the Ticats? They’re a better draw. Garth’s advertising makes progress with 21,000+ in attendance, not bad for a Wednesday night right after a long weekend. The South Endzone was nearly full seeing how it was the ‘Free Pizza Zone’. MMMM free pizza is always delicious! Score: Als 28, Argos 12. Game
Stats: HERE Lion Tamers?
The Argos rolled into BC for game 1 of their Week from Hell Tuesday July 9, 2 games in 5 days. Better play all around, especially from special teams. Bishop did a couple of dandy throws for good drives, but also gave one away for a Lions INT TD. He‘s a great scrambler, if he learns just when to do it he will be as scary as a Doug Flutie someday. Really incredibly bad play from Lions kicker Kellet. Missing every FG attempt and then not regaining the ball when Prefontaine kicked it out of the endzone with seconds to spare at the games end allowed the Argos to regain the ball and score a rare Mike O’Shea TD. Definitely one of the weirdest game ending plays I’ve ever seen, but it’s what helps make the CFL so exciting. It would not have happened under NFL rules. An ugly, lucky win, yes, but we’ll take it! Score: Argos 30, BC 22. Oh yes, the Argos signed veteran Reggie Slack for insurance as a backup to Bishop, who immediately starts to learn the Argo offence, doing sideline work wearing the headset for the QB. I guess Kemp just wanted too much money to come north, or the Argos refused to give into his blackmail, who knows what the whole story is there? Game Stats: HERE Eskimo Pie-Heads? Game 2 of that week was Saturday July 13th, but it could have been Friday the 13th when we gave the Eskies their first 2 TD’s on picks from Bishops bad, panicked throws. After that the Argos seemed to settle in and play better than I thought they would on short rest, and then another QB injury strikes when Bishop pulled up lame with a quadracep pull in his right leg. For almost the whole 2nd quarter I was screaming at my TV for them to put in Reggie Slack instead of Hawley, who showed why he’s #3. After all Reggie had some time to learn and a wily old Vet like him could hardly have done worse. Why they kept Hawley over Jim Ballard I don’t know, but could guess either money or Ballard didn’t want to be #3. Bishop did make it back for the 2nd half and looked less mobile but still put in a workmanlike game, aided by listless play from the Esk’s, who seemed to be having problems of their own.
The Argos ended up losing by the same 14 points we gave the 3-0 Eskies, so I suppose that’s progress of a sort. Take away the 2 picks and who knows? Score: Eskies 31 Argos 17. Game
Stats: HERE Austin Powers vs. The Bombers? This Tuesday July 23rd the nasty Bombers visit SkyDome where Austin Power’s MOJO and perhaps distractions from KJ’s wife’s impending birthing and a nasty bar fight in Winnipeg featuring 2 Bombers vs. 12 locals who beat them like dogs in a nasty, unfair fight might catch the Argos pulling a game out from under the ‘Mighty’ Bombers, who are yet to win on the road and may be looking ahead to their Saturday game with the Als in Montreal. Well,
I can hope anyway, can’t I?? Off
to the game tomorrow, BOMBERS SUCK!! On a personal note, congrats to the Riders, off to a great start in the west! CITY
REPS STILL NEEDED Would you like to be a rep for fansofcanadianfootball.com? What is a rep??? A rep is someone who will help us spread the word about the website and help increase the popularity of Canadian football. As a rep we would ask you to submit monthly articles for the newsletter, hand out cards and pamphlets for our website at the games, take pictures and interview fans and attend training camps and practices to interview team officials and players. We know your time is valuable to you and you go to the games to enjoy yourselves so as a rep you can choose which aspects of the website you wish to participate in and when. Fact is we need a few contacts in each city to help us out. What
is in it for me??? We realize the work, time and effort a rep may put in and we would not let it go unrecognized. We will provide you with personalized business cards to hand out to friends and fans in your city, we are currently designing t-shirts and golf shirts for our reps to wear and we are also working on obtaining media passes which would allow our reps access to the field and dressing rooms on game day for interviews of players and management. If interested in helping us out and becoming at rep of fansofcanadianfootball.com e-mail us at cflfans@hotmail.com |
AARON NAGY Sask Rep Well its that time of month again. The Riders
are showing the CFL that they are for real.
With a 3-2 record the Riders got off to their best start since 1989.
The Rider sure layed a can of whoop ass on the
Edmonton Eskimos 45-11. They had the
crown into the game early and they didn't look back.
Sheldon Napastuk a good friend of mine had one
heck of a game recording 5 defensive tackles, and assited with many
more. THe Riders were hurt after that
game though, losing Bendross, Moore, Davis just to name a few. The Rider went into Calgar hurt and it
showed as the Riders lost the game.They may have lost that final game against
Calgary, but they won the season series by six points.
This week the Riders take on the Ticats, in the first game of a home and home
series. The Ticats are currently 2-3,
and had a heart breaking loss to Ottawa last week. They had a chance to win it, but Ozzie missed a last second
field goal for the win.
So cheer on those Riders to
Victory. VIEWS FROM TRUE BLUE It's a
little tough these days being in a good mood when I do my usual surfing of a
few CFL websites. I personally have
supported the Bombers utterly for about 5 years now and been a fan for about
18 years. I've only spent the last
couple of seasons visiting CFL sites for discussion and for the most part I
have enjoyed myself. I personally
don't do a lot of posting anywhere but I do enjoy reading other
opinions. But this year it's
changed. At one site there was a lot
of personal attacks with a lot of non-football related posts going up. At another site, there is currently a lot
of Bomber bashing. Now, everyone is
entitled to their opinion and it would be quite boring if there weren't
twists thrown into the discussion.
But as with everything there are at least 2 sides to a story. On one hand you have some Bomber "fans"
who say the Bombers are the greatest and some say even greatest ever. That gets a lot of people upset and for
some reason, they feel they have to respond to every post. Then you have the people, as I mentioned,
that feel they have to respond to every post that so called Bombers
"fans" put out. Why can't
people use common sense when either posting or responding? I don't wish to say that we should sensor
posts but for the most part people are actually grown adults. And a lot of you are acting like children. Idiot children at that and it's taking a
lot of fun out of the discussion. Please, if you know what your going to post
is going to actually anger a lot of people, don't post. There are a lot of legitimate posters out
there and people just get angry at everything. And it seems lately any pro-bomber post is responded to with
anger. I post less these days because
it isn't as much fun anymore. Some
sites have shut down because of these problems and even Brad is thinking of
shutting down his site because of this nonsense. And he has a very established site. One last time and I'll get off this rant. People, please act like adults. We're just here to have fun. If you want to rain on someones pararde,
go somewhere else. With the above in mind, it's
hard to put any heart into a good story this month but I'll see what I can
do. By the time this is out, the
Bombers will have gone through a tough schedule (yes yes, just like everyone
else but this is my time) and that may determine how we'll do. Currently we're 3-1 and feeling fine about
the beating we gave Ottawa. Up next
we have Toronto and then a few days later Montreal. Honestly, I worry more about the T.O. game than Montreal. No slight to Argo fans but your team is
still a mystery and we have little clue to what type of team will show
up. With Montreal, we know what to
expect and can prepare that way. When
BC got off to that terrible start, I pointed out that they got the shaft
schedule wise and ended up losing a few players. I worry what will happen to our guys. Thank goodness we have a bye the week after. And then we had two players attacked
outside a bar. It's crazy. But I'm happy with how we've progressed
but I realize we still have work to do.
I believe we are one of the top teams ( to early to really call it)
and we'll prove that in the Grey Cup.
I look forward to the game every week and can't wait to get going. I want to
apologize to Ty and Dale for the lateness and the poor article. I hope things turn around and I'll be more
enthusiastic the next time. True Blue ____________________________________________________ “Oh ye
of little faith”
By Geri Micks and Leslie Wood, Calgary Alberta After facing another devastating loss at the hands of the Edmonton Eskimo’s, it doesn’t bode well when the highlight of the season is “the weather” and the cheerleaders are outperforming our beloved Stamps. That being said though, us Redcoats are not quitters. What goes up must come down – so while the Eskimo’s gloat, we wait patiently in the wings to get revenge at our annual re-match in Edmonton. As Wally says, “its disappointing when you have players who have the talent to make good plays, but just can’t seem to find the means to make them”. We don’t blame Wally for their “follies” – after all, he can only play with what he’s been given. It’s a shame though, that so many of our CFL losses are to the “hall of shame”, that Nasty Football League, the “NFL”. Never fear, hope is not lost in our fair city. We have witnessed the Stampeder’s retribution before and we live with the hope that we will witness it again. In the meantime, “we still got the Cup” and on the upside we have managed to outperform the NASDAQ, TSE and the Dow Jones. There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – we just need to find our way there. |
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