Friday Roundup – Catching Up

Though most of my effort for the past week and change has been devoted to the CFL and a couple loving tributes to departing players, there has been lots of other stuff going on the CFL so let’s take advantage of this quiet Friday to get caught up on all the news that is news across the league.

- Riders season ticket sales have reached 24,600 and will be capped at 25,000 that is absolutely amazing when you consider that within our lifetime not even the combination of 2 for 1 ticket vouchers and the prospect of a free Whopper (if by some miracle we managed to win) could get people to come to one game, let alone commit to coming to 10.

- The Riders are currently working on signing another QB. It looks like the list of candidates has been narrowed down to 2: Todd Reesing, a very promising prospect from the Kansas Jayhawks and Ryan “I Promise I’ll Do Good Now that James Johnson Isn’t In The League” Dinwiddie. Needless to say I’m pulling for the one whose eyes don’t look like they are the portals to supernatural power.

- The Riders also added to their roster by signing WR Jeremy Gilchrist, DL Brent Hawkins and LB Taylor Wallace. Of the 3, Hawkins is the most intriguing prospect having had some success at the NFL level. Who knows, he could be the next John Chick… he could also be the next Gabe Nyenhuis so I’ll save my excitement until we see what he can do in camp. I also won’t be jinxing Hawkins by arbitrarily endorsing him. As Tim Cronk and Gabe Nyenhuis can attest, the endorsement doesn’t always lead to a successful football career… or any football career for that matter.

- In today’s least shocking news story, Jesse Lumsden was not given medical clearance to resume playing football and has been released by the Eskimos. Lumsden has always strived to prove people wrong and he has done just that. To all of you who thought there was no way he could beat last year’s record of having his season ended by injury in the 1^st quarter of the season, you were clearly wrong. This year he accomplished the feat 2 months earlier while having played no football at all. Take that naysayers!

- Just days after declaring him healthy and ready to go, the Ti-Cats have cut Kenton Keith. This isn’t really surprising given that thus far the $180,000 the Ti-cats had invested in KK had got them 102 rushing yards in return… or roughly $1765/yard.

- I think Hamilton may have finally wizened-up and learned their lesson about offering huge contracts to big name guys. Printers cost them an insane amount to fail and they finally cut him… KK cost them a pretty penny to do his best Jesse Lumsden impression and now they finally cut him. I’d like to say they learned their lesson but just this week they also added Jamarcus Russell to their neg list… so I have my doubts.

CFL Ins and Outs

Edmonton

In: DL Andre Coleman, DL Larry Birdine, RB Dennis Kennedy, DL Un’Tavious Scott (free agent signing), DB Corbin Sharun (2010 Draft Pick signing)

Out: Scott Gordon (retired), LB Reggie Hunt, DL Xzavie Jackson, DB Lenny Williams, DL Shaun Richardson, LB Josh Bean (released)

I hope Richie Hall was smart enough to cut Xzavie Jackson over the phone, because given his tendency for chasing after people with shovels, he might not have taken the news so well in person. Also what kind of name is Un’Tavious?!?

Winnipeg

In: OL Darren Hinds, DL LaDarien Scott (free agent signing)

BC

In: DB Anthony Reddick, DB Dominique Williams (free agent signing)

Calgary

In: OL Matt Sheridan, LB Mike Cornell, K Warren Keane, WR Ronald Keels, WR Landan Talley, WR Jonathan Lowe, DB Ray Cheatham, DB Brandon Isaac, DB Chris Bowens (free agent signing), DB Eric Fraser, DL Osie Ukwuoma (2009 Draft Pick signing)

Calgary is getting desperate when it comes to Canadians. They have holes on their O-line and no kicker so they have resorted to signing the likes of Sheridan (who hasn’t played in over a year) and Keane (a first round draft pick bust who has been cut from both Edmonton and Winnipeg), that’s pretty low.

Hamilton

In: LB James Hargrave, LB Lamar Myles, LB Corey Smith, RB Brian Calhoun (free agent signing), OL Marwan Hage (contract extension), TE Steve Schmidt (trade with Tor)

Out: RB Tre Smith, WR David Ball, DL Montez Murphy, FB Robert Pavlovic, DB Lamont Reid (released)

Maybe being cut will lead Tre Smith to do some soul searching and realize that he is white, his name is Lyle and he should just accept it and move on. Or maybe he will just take the extra time he has as an opportunity to star in Malibu’s Most Wanted 2 along with B-Rad.