Friday Round-Up: Catching Up

You may have noticed that I’m a bit behind this week. I didn’t even attempt to post belated sentimonies (which is bad even for me). Please accept my half assed apologies. Anyone who is not satisfied with that can present their receipt for a full refund.

Monday I will be launching my 2013 CFL Draft coverage (the best non-Duane Forde coverage in Canada 6 years running) on Monday. For today let me just get caught up by commenting on 3 quick news stories.

First is the Brendan Taman extension. As you well know I am far from a Taman fan however I saw this extension as a foregone conclusion. I even said when we extended him last year that it was stupid to give him a one year deal and we should have just committed to the guy for 3 years. Doesn’t mean I like him as a GM but I will go so far as to say that he has managed to suck less of late than I expected. The one thing that bugs me about this extension is the timing. For the second year in a row we are extending based on some big name offseason moves without waiting to see if they actually translate into on-field success. Late July or August would have been the time to do it. Can’t wait any longer than that as a GM needs to be thinking about next year already but we are taking on unnecessary risk by needlessly extending him now based on how many recognizable names he has brought it. For the most part I am onboard with what he has done but if acquiring big name people over the offseason was a guarantee of on-field success, Hamilton would be in the midst of a dynasty. 

Second is the ongoing Chris Williams saga. Word is that now he and his agent are trying to get is contract voided based on the accusation that he was not offered a 1+1 deal by Hamilton which the CBA mandates he must be. Cam Wake tried the same thing in 2008 unsuccessfully. Honestly unless there is a huge difference in $$$ I don’t know why any rookie would sign a 3 year deal. It can be ended at any time so if you suck the team will just cut you and if you exceed expectations they can continue to pay you lowball salary. Zero benefit to the player… a decent agent should have told him that. As for Williams his problem is that he wants 2 mutually exclusive things. He wants more $$$ and an NFL shot. Hamilton is ready to back up the money truck to him (as they seem to do to everyone) but to do that he has to sign a new 2 year deal thus further delaying his NFL shot. If he wants his NFL shot next year then he has to suck it up and play for peanuts. Sucks but that’s reality. This wouldn’t be the first time however that someone has gone to great lengths to avoid going to Hamilton. They should threaten to trade him to Winnipeg to make Hamilton seem not so bad by comparison.

Last is the Khalif Mitchell saga… which is seriously 7 kinds of awesome. So he gets traded to Toronto and then proceeds to question how BC has the authority to trade him instead of release him and then goes on record as saying he wants Toronto to release him. Excellent first impression… though on the Khalif Mitchell scale (one that includes arm bars and racist tweets) it sadly is a good impression.I eagerly await this guys next display of idiocy... because you know its coming.