Into the weekend: Catching up on Clinton

Time to wrap it up here and head to the movies. Let's head straight into the usual roundup.

One last read. The current issue of the New Yorker includes The Wanderer, a lengthy profile of Bill Clinton that's a fantastic must-read (but not available online). It opens with Clinton in Berlin for the World Cup final, and the former president's initial reaction to the confusion surrounding Zidane's head butt deserves a footnote:

Clinton was instantly forgiving of Zidane and wondered what would become of him. He recalled Gao Hong, the goalie for the Chinese women's team, who, in the 1999 World Cup final, gave up the decisive penalty kick to Brandi Chastain, of the American team. Gao had played brilliantly until that point but, like Zidane, she had to return home and endure the consequences of her defeat.
"I identify with people who get beat up," Clinton said. "I remember that game like it was yesterday."

The footnote? Gao got up quite well. She left China a couple years later, coming to the U.S. to play in the women's pro league, then moving on to Canada. She currently works here in Toronto, at Ontario Place.

One last look. Arsenal and Manchester United get round 1 of their renewal on Sunday morning. In anticipation, let's go back to 2004, an infamous year in the rivalry, and this Happy Birthday Wayne Rooney! bilingual commentary.

Sports around town. Neate Sager advises this may well be the weekend U of T ends its 35-game winless streak in pigskin -- that's almost 2,000 days worth. The Blues host the Waterloo Warriors Saturday at 2 p.m. at Birchmount Stadium, although just the thought of the Blues playing home games at Birchmount puts me off. Up at Woodbine, it's the Woodbine Mile, Sunday afternoon in beautiful downtown Rexdale.

Watching. Of course it's Arsenal-Manchester United, Sunday at 11 a.m. on Fox Sportsworld. For a little background on this particular bun throw (really, it is), go here.

Punters' corner. Recreational purposes only, of course, after a 2-3 opening week:

RAVENS (-12) over Oakland. In week 1, Art Shell took out his QB for safety's sake, not a very good sign.

Browns (+10) over BENGALS. Wave 'em high.

DOLPHINS (-6 1/2) over Bills. I don't get it -- since when is a pulled hammy a season-ending injury? Oh, now I get it.

JETS (+6) over Patriots. Pennington's got his marbles.

JAGUARS (+1 1/2) over Steelers. Monday nighter. Keep choppin' wood, Jags.

Pipe dreaming

Among the links in last week's tomfoolery surrounding the latest outbreak of (take cover!) rumours of NFL pipe-dreaming in Toronto was a suggestion/guess/chimera of the Browns coming to Toronto to play a regular season game in the next couple of years. Take it away, Cleveland Plain-Dealer:

A bizarre story that the Browns were in discussions to move one regular-season home game in 2007 or 2008 to Toronto was denied by Browns owner Randy Lerner and the NFL office.
"You've got to be kidding me," Lerner said when asked about the report. "I couldn't conceive of that."
(Snip)
At first, Lerner laughed off the rumor. Then he inquired to the NFL office to see if he was missing something.
"The Cleveland Browns are not playing any home games in Toronto, have no plans to do so and have had no discussions to do so, and wouldn't expect to," Lerner said.

The good people at Boatmen Blog -- honest, it's soon to go up on in the latest blogroll update -- are also linking to this one, and chiming in after that NFL vs CFL debate here that is almost as old as Brett Favre and Damon Allen combined:

Do you really want to replace all those nice, Argos-loving people hanging around the Argodome - not to mention the Argo Notes, because you know there's no NFL version of them - with those guys?
We thought not. And as an added bonus, Joe Theismann will never have cause to turn up in Toronto and befoul us with his terrible stench.

Into the weekend: Boneyard buddies

Doing these updates from the Canadian Open, there's precious little time for blogging, but this certainly is worth a look: Boca Juniors plan a cemetery for their diehard fans:

REUTERS

Wanna be buried next to him?

Home of football greats such as Diego Maradona, Boca had already started making available coffins bearing the team's blue and yellow colours.
Now fans can buy one of 3,000 Boca plots set aside in the Iraola cemetery, some 37 miles (60 km) from the capital.

Great idea. Next up, we can plan exclusive boneyards for people who talk on cellphones all game long, Raiders fans, adult autograph seekers, Pierre McGuire, Platinum-seat holders who spend the first 10 minutes of each period nibbling on shrimp, Raiders fans, anyone who laughed during Men With Brooms ... Hey, there's a weekend assignment. What other fan groups deserve to rot alongside each other? Go to it, kids.

One last e-mail. Much rantage off this week's NFL in Toronto post, but here's Paul Smith of Delta, B.C., seriously:

I'm a longtime football fan, as are my three sons. We enjoy and support CFL, NFL and NCAA, and in the past few years have seen games in Toronto (CFL), Denver (NFL), Seattle (NFL), South Bend (NCAA) and Seattle (NCAA).
I have respect for both Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum as business owners away from sports, but neither has a shiny track record with their sports ownership.
I give Rogers credit for beefing up the Jays payroll, and we as a family try to get to Toronto each summer for 4-5 Jays games, but in my humble opinion, they have fallen short with their supposed marketing clout, in putting 'bums in seats'. Hey the GTA is over 5 million, why are they not averaging 35-40,000 with a pretty interesting team?
Tanenbaum doesn't have to market the Leafs because there are so many fools out there to keep buying tickets to fill the joint - just like here in Vancouver. The Raptors need selling, but have shown that when they win, they can sell out.
In my humble opinion, the NFL has its sights first of all on Los Angeles, which like New York, could eventually support two teams. San Antonio is a large area which could support the NFL, and there are possibly another 3-4 fairly large U.S. cities that would want a franchise when the NFL expands. Keeping the NFL 'American' further sweetens the TV/licencing deals (if they can get any sweeter) for American networks, which are the ones paying extremely high prices for broadcast rights.
I'd love to see the NFL in Toronto, but not at the expense of the CFL. The present hype with MLSE/Rogers is just that...also, what about the say $500-600 million just for a stadium, let along franchise fee and ancillary costs. Someone would be required to write a billion dollar cheque I would think.

One last read. This one is making the rounds: Stephon Marbury Loves Pot Snacks, a bit from his shoe-tour rider (more like a J.R. Rider, in a BYOW kind of way), courtesy of YAYSports!:

In terms of Stephon's food request for the trip, there were no Funyuns available (none until Friday, probably). The following items have arrived and are in the warehouse in Recruitment's section (ask Regina of the whereabouts if I'm not around):
4 - regular sized bags of Cooler Ranch Doritos
4 - regular sized bags of Nacho Cheesier Doritos
4 - regular sized bags of Spicier Nacho Doritos
9 - regular sized bags of Mesquite BBQ Kettle Cooked Lays
12 - packages of Pepperidge Farm Choco Chip Cookies (Sausolito or Tahoe Chunky)
72 - bottles of 24oz Poland Springs Water (six packages of 12 in each package)
3 (or 4..) - large 1-lb bags of Skittles
4 - large bags of individually wrapped Twizzlers (each bag has a bunch of snack-sized individually wrapped Twizzlers)

Brilliant. Shame about the Funyuns, though.

Sports around town. The Argos host Hamilton Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.), while the Lynx finish their season out Sunday at Centennial Stadium (6 p.m.).

Watching. Vegetating in my usual state on Sunday (Ticket) afternoon, but apart from that, nothing really thrills. Perhaps an early lookin on Liverpool-Everton early Saturday morning (7:30 a.m., Sportsnet), but man, it's September! Stay outdoors while you can.

Punters' corner. Ditching Pro-Line for this year after the robbers tightened the screws a little more on their point spread stickup game. Here's five plays, and kids, please don't try these at home:

PACKERS (+ 3 1/2) over Bears. Chicago hires Michael Jackson to co-ordinate their Neverland-in-the-end-zone offence.

LIONS (+6) over Seahawks. Detroit assistant Cullen promises to wear clothes. Okay, he said he'd wear a thong. Maybe. Sure hope so.

PANTHERS (-5) over Falcons. Carolina just hasn't been the same since the steroids ran out. But it's a new drug day.

Ravens (+3) over Bucs. Godspeed, Steve McNair. Don't forget your flak jacket.

GIANTS (+3 1/2) over Colts. Did you know? AFC runner-ups are 0-19 ATS in first games back against NFC opposition, on Sunday nights, in New Jersey, when two brothers are matched against each other.

NFL preview: Well, not really

No, not gonna go there. I'm out at the Canadian Open today, doing live updates for the web and trying to spin blogging gold out of pinestraw, but that won't stop me from not doing an NFL preview as it all starts tonight. Besides, the guys at Sports Matters, who really, really get into this thing, have already gone there, along with many others.

BRENT SMITH/REUTERS

Romeo, o Romeo, wherefore are thou? 10 wins vs. the number would do me fine.

But the NFL is all about the pools and the playng. So here they are, a couple teams to look twice at for value, a couple that look square and a bunch to avoid before you go filling out your slips and risking your lunch money (consensus Super Bowl odds from Oddschecker in parentheses):

A player's best friend.

The Browns (80-1). Yes, you will accuse me of bias here. And as I've said before, Charlie Frye is the new Jake Plummer, able to excape the clutches of drooling linemen only to run into his own worst enemy -- himself. But they have an decent schedule to start -- home to New Orleans and Baltimore, sandwiched around a trip to Cincy -- and in Leigh Bodden and newcomer Kamerion Wimbley, have a couple of potential defensive stars on a unit anchored by incoming Willie McGinest, who's about 77 years old but will provide the cliched 'veteran leadership' on a team finally out from under the long, devastating shadow of Butch Davis and Carmen Policy.

The Lions (100-1). Oh, I can hear you now! First the Browns. Then the Lions. But this is a cupcake division. The non-conference schedule includes pennyweights in the Jets, Buffalo, San Fran and Arizona. I'm worried about the Matt Millen factor, not to mention the Mike Martz factor, not to mention the Jon Kitna factor, not to mention ... but confident that with the Packers, Vikings and punchless Bears alongside them, the NFC Norse division is ripe for the taking.

Baltimore (40-1). Everyone I've polled on this, including Chuck Swirsky out here at the golf, absolutely love the Ravens, who've added Steve McNair. My question concerns mostly McNair, who will be his usual duct-taped together self by Week 10, at which point we can all go back to wondering about whether there are any bounds to Brian Billick's ego, or Ray Lewis's preening. They could be anything, these Ravens, maybe even good value.

Full value

Carolina (8-1) and the Giants (25-1). These two teams just look solid to me, returning playoff teams with good QBs and supporting casts -- I'd add Seattle to that group, too, except that as a returning conference champion they will be somewhat of a skimpy return at the windows. But I'm expecting big improvement from Eli Manning. Okay, he's on my fantasy team, so I'm hoping for big improvement from Eli Manning. The Giants also play in the overrated NFC East, where Terrell Owens destroyed one team and is well on his way to doing it to another.

Avoid them

Arizona (40-1). Everybody's favourite sleeper. So of course they'll flop. They're the Cardinals, remember?

The Jets (100-1). It's not that anyone's not on to them. Not only are they thin on talent, but they've gone the route of hiring a young coach with no experience, but he was with the Patriots so all is forgiven. They are the worst possible combo: a bad team, and a bad bet.

Pittsburgh (12-1). This was an above-average, though not extraordinary team up until the final five weeks or so of last season. Then they turned into something else. There's a serious karmic re-adjustment in store, and it seems to have already begun with the misfortunes of Ben Roethlisberger. No value here at all.

NFL in Toronto: Go on, pull the other one

Here we go again with this story.

Not much to say from here, but I did waste spend a couple of hours going over the Star's database back to 1986 (keywords, NFL expansion Toronto) -- 887 stories in all. Whew.

So here it is, your timeline. NFL expansion to Toronto? Is it time for that one again?

Larry and Ted: The latest sequel.

Jan. 1986. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle says league doesn't intend to expand into Canada and that has nothing to do with the future of the CFL.

Jan. 1987. Rozelle says no international expansion "in my lifetime."

Dec. 1987. Rozelle: "Toronto and Montreal are both great cities, capable of supporting NFL franchises." But he adds there are "five or six" better candidates in the U.S.

Feb. 1988. Montreal group announces a bid for an expansion team.

Jan. 1989. Expansion team price tag estimated at $80 million U.S. (Rozelle).

Feb. 1989. Toronto group (The Sun, Carling-O'Keefe) announces it's been working toward acquiring a franchise since 1986. Paul Godfrey estimates cost of an expansion team at $50-60 million.

March 1989. Cowboys president Tex Schramm preaches respect for the CFL, but as far as the NFL, "Toronto and Montreal could make awfully strong representations."

Late 1989. Price for an expansion franchise estimated at $75-100 million.

Aug. 1990. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue on international expansion: "If you include Canada I think it is obviously realistic in this decade."

Dec. 1990. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says Toronto is ready for an expansion franchise, "could easily support any sports franchise."

Jan. 1991. Bills owner Ralph Wilson: "A Toronto club wouldn't hurt us. We don't depend on Canada for fans."

Aug. 1993. Browns owner Art Modell: Toronto will have expansion team "sooner rather than later."

Feb. 1994. NFL spokesman says league has no minimum seating requirement for stadiums.

Jan. 1995. Tagliabue on expansion: "Canada and Mexico would certainly be viable candidates."

June 1995. Godfrey pegs cost of expansion franchise at $200 million U.S. Tagliabue says L.A. the priority for a team, but suggests SkyDome smallish football capacity (54,000) is not a problem in Toronto's reckoning. "I think the future involves the quality of a stadium as much as the size."

Aug. 1995. Bills, Cowboys play exhibition game at SkyDome in front of 55,799.

Late 1995. Jacksonville, Carolina get expansion franchises for $140 million U.S. each. Bills owner Wilson: "A team in Toronto would definitely have an effect on our team. We think this is our market."

Nov. 1995. Tagliabue: Further expansion "unlikely until after 2000."

Dec. 1996. Pete Rozelle dies.

Aug. 1998. Bills, Packers play exhibition game in SkyDome in front of official crowd of 53,986, but Star reporters note about 10,000 no-shows out of that number.

March 1998. Cleveland gets expansion franchise, early estimate of franchise fee $350 million.

Sept. 1998. Cleveland group pays $530 million for franchise.

Oct. 1998. At NFL owners meeting, Toronto doesn't make bid for 32nd league franchise. Godfrey: "The NFL will go international and I think the first international city in the league will be Toronto."

Nov. 1998. Tagliabue: "No timetable for expansion" internationally.

Summer 1999. Local report has Bills being acquired by Toronto group for $500 million US and moved to Toronto as part of Wilson estate planning.

Oct. 1999. Houston added as 32nd NFL franchise, expansion fee $700 million.

Jan. 2001. Godfrey: "Whatever it costs, it will be worth more 10 years later. They've never gone down in value."

April 2002. Tagliabue: Toronto not on radar for future expansion.

Feb. 2005. Tagliabue, on whether NFL will expand to Toronto in our lifetimes: "It depends on how long you expect to live." And: "I think it could be very likely that the next franchises in the NFL, beyond 32, are outside the U.S. Toronto would certainly be a candidate."

That's good to know. As Jim Carrey once said, "So there is a chance!" (Then again, Paul Tagliabue is hale and hearty, and Ralph Wilson too.)

The remarkable Damon Allen

Does Damon Allen belong in the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

If it really is the "Pro Football" Hall of Fame then undoubtedly he does, as pro football's pass yardage leader. But it isn't, so I doubt this will ever happen. Over the weekend a couple of good reads along these lines took the bait. Dave Feschuk got out his calculator and made the point that, with the CFL a more pass-oriented brand of the game, Allen's numbers ought to be 6 per cent adjusted.

Tannis Toohey/Toronto Star

Allen: A moment 22 years in the making.

Good, interesting bar-stool argument, that. But by that same logic, shouldn't Mike Pringle get a bonus for playing in a league that's less "run-oriented"? Or perhaps Emmitt Smith's running numbers should be reduced? Numbers are sure funny to kick around, aren't they?

Meantime, the Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt mutes his reaction, but scores points with this bit:

... He's doing what all of us of a certain age occasionally fantasize about — stepping back in time, knowing what we know now and having another crack at the vitality of youth.
“I'm still playing with a joy and a passion of a kid in a sandbox, trying to be competitive,” Allen said outside the visitors' dressing room, cradling the record-setting ball in his hand.
Even if that doesn't make Allen one of the best in history, it may well make him unique in the annals of professional football, and perhaps of professional sport.

One of the few U.S. columnists to take note was the Seattle Times' Steve Kelley:

It takes someone like Moon, who has taken the same road less traveled, to really appreciate what Allen has done. The CFL is the neglected stepsister of professional football. It gets little coverage in the states and is known for its quirky rules and it's wider, 110-yard long field.
But Allen's numbers are staggering by any standards. He has rushed for almost 12,000 yards. He has won four Grey Cup championships. (Moon won five straight in Edmonton) And he has remained mobile and accurate after 21 years.

I think Allen fully deserves a bust in Canton, but it's a moot point. That's America, where the champions of domestic leagues (including the NFL) are automatically anointed "world champions". Even without Canton calling, 70,000-plus yards out of that now-grandfatherly arm amounts to about 40 miles, or 65 kilometres. That's a lot of real estate. That's something special.

It looks even moreso, too, going back in time. Allen's debut CFL start came on October 12, 1985 stepping in for a sore-armed Matt Dunigan against the Montreal Concordes (remember them?). For a link to a pdf of page 1 of The Star's sports section and the game report from the following day (in the middle of the Jays' first trip to the AL playoffs and the Leafs still buried in the Ballard years) go here (via Pages of the Past).

Oh, and if you haven't yet, Morgan Campbell delivered a fine Allen profile over the weekend. Worth a read.

RELATED, UPDATE: Via Sportsfilter, a link to non-NFL Pro Football Hall of Famers.

Fall is in the air

It's the Friday roundup, if anyone's still around, and I'll make it brief because although I do love the smell of ouzo in the morning, it is a little fatiguing.
After Wednesday's post, the estimable James Mirtle -- estimable being one of those words, like eschew, propitious and mendacious, you often see in the prints but never hear come out of anyone's mouth -- asks a pretty good question:

What I can't understand is why junior hockey has withered so much ... I obviously wasn't here for it to happen, but I'll never forget the shock of coming from Kamloops - where there's a new, 6,000-seat rink filled every night - to going to my first St. Mike's games in that cramped, crappy rink.  I thought I'd shown up in the wrong place. It was unbelievable.

Sounds like a (long) weekend assignment. Who killed junior hockey in Toronto, anyway?

One last read. Twice in one day I'm linking to the Basketball Jones. But I did so like Skeets' interview with J.R. Smith, who has been traded twice this summer but is being admirably upbeat in spite of it (full marks for the Andy Moog namedrop, too):

Skeets: So how does it feel to get traded twice in the same summer?
Smith: To be perfectly honest, it doesn’t feel any different for it to be done twice. I mean I’m still only going to one new place, right? If it happened during the season though … well, that’d be a different story.

FOX

Frankie got game.

Skeets: Tell me a different story, J.R..
Smith: Excuse me?

Skeets: Please tell me a story. A tale, a fable…
Smith: About?

Skeets: Anything. Go nuts.
Smith: Um…

Skeets: Let your imagination soar, young child…
Smith: OK, um … um … I guess once upon a time–

Skeets: Hold on. You guess?
Smith: Um, yeah…

Skeets: If you’re going to tell a story, tell it like you mean it!
Smith: Sorry.

Skeets: No wonder you got traded for air. You’ve got no gusto man.
Smith: Hey, Howard Eisley is solid baller.

Skeets: Yeah, so is Frankie Muniz. Come on man…

One last heads-up. The Flagrancy is counting down the 50 Most Dubious Moments in Raptors History. In other words, the shortlist.

Sports around town. The York Yeomen (Lions; thanks, Andrew! and you're right, it is kinda dull) open the CIS football season Monday at home against McMaster (2 p.m. up on the windswept edge of the world), so once again it's okay to start painting your face red and white and yelling "Tentanda Via" around town. Really, it is. Go to it, kids (Thanks to regular John Richardson for the link. Go Axemen!).

Watching. There's Cat Power on Monday night at Lee's. Okay, as far as TV, a look-in on Sunday's world hoops final (6:30 a.m., Raptors TV) and the latest chapter of the Damon Allen Show (Monday, 6 p.m., CBC) is pretty much the only thing on the PVR as I'm resting up for youknowwho.

Punters corner. We're a week away from the first full Sunday of youknowwhat, so like I said, it's rest time. Save your loonies. Have a fine weekend. See you the first day of fall.

 

Notes from a weekend

Little bits -- very little -- from the weekend and a quiet Monday morning, seeing as there's not a whole lot going on:

Tennis. Yah, tennis. Won't see that here too often. Today is the opening of the U.S. Open in New York, and you're welcome to it. ESPN.com has a poll up this morning on whether you care about the U.S. Open or not, and as of this writing 62 per cent are saying no. What's most intriguing to me is that the only state voting yes: Nevada.  Makes perfect sense to me.

DAVID GUTTENFELDER/AP

Is there a doctor in the house? I think he's choking.

Hoops. They're down to the final eight at the (interminable) world basketball championships, and yep, Chris Bosh is stepping it up. But check out old pal Chris Sheridan's weekend column, in which he notes that Saturday's Italy-Lithuania game featured 13 missed free throws and but two makes in the final couple of minutes. The Azzurri clanked the most of 'em and lost -- "Italy will be reeling from its choke job for a long, long time," he writes, but here's Sheridan's most ripping riposte from a Raptor-watcher's perspective: "Memo to Toronto Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo: "If this is the way all Italian players perform in the clutch, TRADE ANDREA BARGNANI IMMEDIATELY." Actually, my first thought was how Bargnani's decision not to go to the worlds was vindicated in those two minutes. At least he won't have to carry the collapse around with him.

Football. The Argos looked better on Friday night than they have all year (although Winnipeg surely gifted them some with the late meltdown). Even in the pass-heavy CFL, a commitment to running the football is the best guarantee of success and the Argos, post-Kent Austen, are showing that. As for the NFL, opening night is just 10 days away and here's a sleeper for your fantasy league draft: Browns RB Jerome Harrison (Disclaimer: Browns fan talking).

Horse racing. Having pitched a shutout at yesterday's Woodbine Handicapping Challenge (media division) -- congratulations to winner Shale Wagman and runner-ups Sheldon Usprech and Tony Natale, all of them winning entry into Vegas for January's 2007 national handicapping finals, and presumably some tennis bets -- I really have nothing to say except I'm tired of races coming off the turf when someone spits on the course. That's my excuse, anyway (to say nothing of the advent of Polytrack at the Rexdale plant come Wednesday night, which will no doubt be my next one. Only seven six races filled for Wednesday's debut of the faux-dirt, 63 49 horses entered in all -- UPDATE: I miscounted, adding a grass race to the mix -- Sounds like a wait-and-see vote from the backstretch.)

Mo update: On Friday the blog asked for some great Mo's in Toronto sports history. E-mailer John Reid sent in one Mauro Gozzo. Give that man a Flaming Moe!

Friday roundup returns: Hello, Mo

Taking you into the weekend like John Gibbons heading down a tunnel, we give you: Mo Johnston. New coach of your Toronto FC. Or is it FC Toronto? This may take some getting used to.
Let's start with the essentials. He looks good in a kilt. Along with Paul Maurice, MLSE now has Two Guys Named Mo (and with Marc Iavaroni rumoured to be coming along some day, is it too much of a stretch to maybe call it three someday? Yes, I think it is. *sigh*). And as ace blogger Mike Cardillo of That's on Point predicts, this Mo is never going to horn in on the much-anticipated Gibbons-Sam Mitchell showdown for TO's heavyweight coaches Ultimate Fighting championship.

TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Best.Mo.Ever? Shaker slips 'em the tongue, Bell and Barfield crack up.

As a player, Johnston was a solid pro, a World Cupper for Scotland and, most notably, the central figure in a bitter storm when, as a former Celtic forward, he moved to hated rival Rangers and was branded a traitor by some, which made for some cute T-shirts. As a head coach, he's pretty much an unknown quantity, as Cardillo notes in an e-mail this morning:

It's hard to give a gauge on Johnston as a head coach, since he didn't really get a fair shake with the Metros/Red Bulls. They never really let him get his players, so it's hard to say what kind of manager he is. He was an assistant under Bob Bradley, who was once an assistant under Bruce Arena.
I hate to say it, but Johnston might seem like more of a "name"/ PR move than a straight coaching decision. That's just my thought. MLS seems to recycle the same coaches throughout its history.
Maybe with a budget and the support of the board Mo can do a good job. He certainly knows the game and played in a World Cup.
At the very least, I doubt he'll be challenging players to fights in the locker room like another boss in the Great White North.

Damn. I was so looking forward to that. Thanks, Mike.

Weekend assignment. Who's the mostest Mo in Toronto sports history? Lloyd Moseby, perhaps? Mo-Pete? Frank Mo-hovlich? A toast of a Flaming Moe and JABS immortality to the best answer.

Who's your Moe?

One last read. This one comes from reader Paul Batte, who is fed up with the Blue Jays' pitching rotation:

Why on earth are the Jays sitting Halladay on 4 days rest in order to pitch Marcum tonight?
By going with the 5th guy in the rotation tonight, this could cost Halladay the Cy, since he will likely get one less start, and now will face the Yankees and Boston a couple more times.
And if the Jays state that they are setting up the staff so he does face the tough teams in order to win more games overall down the stretch, that is a really weak argument. The automatic loss when the 5th starter goes far outweighs any benefit to having Halladay go against the tough teams.
The Jays owe it to Halladay to trot him out there every 5th day, regardless of the schedule, so he can make every effort to win the Cy Young.
Especially since the season is a write-off.

Blog watch. With the Argos in Winnipeg tonight in a key eastern matchup -- yes, it's key; yes, it's eastern -- it's time to plug the arrival of a brand new CFL blog that will go up on the blogroll just as soon as I get off my fat ass and update the blogroll. So a belated welcome to Boatmen Blog, Adam Radwanski of the National Post and a couple of friends conspiring to interpret the world according to the Argos. And of course he's picking the Argos tonight:

I've resisted any Ricky/pot comments so far, mostly because they're the domain of middle-aged sports columnists eager to bust out their outdated drug lingo for the first time since the '70s. But it has to be asked: At some point, during all the tedious hours spent in there, has Ricky contemplated hot-boxing his hyperbaric chamber? I mean, it has to have crossed his mind for at least a fleeting moment, no?
As for the game itself...I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but if the Argos got five interceptions on Anthony Calvillo, how many can we expect against the Mighty Quinn?
Pick: Toronto

Yo, Adam. One toke over the line, man!

Sports around town. Lynx vs Puerto Rico, 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Centennial Stadium. Good dude Maty Campeonisimo will be there. Just two weeks to go in the Lynx schedule, and considering the way the season's gone for them that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Watching. Browns at Bills, Saturday, 6 p.m, Ch. 7. Favourite team against least favourite team. Charlie Frye is the new Jake Plummer. J.P. Losman is the poor man's Charlie Frye. Can't wait.

Pro-Line picks. Well, if Adam's making Argocentric guesses picks, then surely so can I revive this bit from last year. Besides, there's a couple weeks to go before the NFL betting season arrives:

BLT V win (2.60) at CRL. I'll take a BLT over a cruller any day.

OAK H win (1.70) vs DET. Art Shell is back. So are the Lions. Easy call.

KC V win (2.20) at TOR (Friday). A Paul Batte pick, so blame him.

HAFN H win (2.00) over AROD (Friday). Playing against A-Rod doubles your pleasure, especially with T-Haf's HR range. A degenerates' schadenfreude special.

Get rid of the exhibition 'season'

It's very quiet out there, but with the Leafs exactly one month away from opening training camp, it's a good time for -- an NFL collection, with opening night a little more than three weeks away:

AL BEHRMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Clinton Portis: Hors de combat. More to the point, hors de preseason.

The Washington Post's Michael Wilbon on the too-long, too-dangerous, otherwise nearly devoid of meaning NFL preseason, after Redskins' Clinton Portis was injured over the weekend:

Okay, it's not news that football players get hurt. And the Portis injury wasn't nearly as gruesome or as maddening as, say, the blast to the knee of Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer in that playoff game against the Steelers in January that still has Palmer on the sideline.
But it's worth getting hurt in the playoffs because it's the playoffs.
It's unspeakably unnecessary to get hurt in the preseason because it's nothing.
(Snip)
But the story here concerning the Redskins wasn't the way the team played or how Jason Campbell looked; it was the Portis injury. When I asked him what he thought about the number of preseason games and chances to be hurt, Portis looked into a bank of cameras and said, "Let's get rid of some of these games -- four games is ridiculous -- then you go out and have a 16-game season and the playoffs are after that."

In general, the preseason in any pro sport, with its regular-season ticket prices, its betting lines and its stars just one hit or one false step away from missing the real games, is one of the greatest swindles going. Give them 10 days or two weeks of workouts, a week of fine-tuning with the first team and the backups set and if you insist a game or even two without veteran players logging heavy minutes (and in some cases, no minutes at all), and turn them loose -- all tickets priced so low that no one comes out of it feeling burned, and casual fans have a way into buildings priced so high in the regular season they're all but unattainable.

(UPDATE: Just moved, Washington's Kerry Carter, from Vaughan, is out for the season with a knee injury suffered in the same exhibition game Sunday night.)

Good work from Vito Stellino in Jacksonville: This NFL that Roger Goodell is inheriting from Paul Tagliabue is not quite the unsinkable ship that it's made out to be, with small-market owners in Jacksonville (and in places like Buffalo, too) looking for a new economic model (via the Sports Law Blog):

If Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver had the right sense of his colleagues' feelings at the league meetings last week, when Goodell was elected on the fifth ballot, the new commissioner might soon find himself in a crisis mode.
Weaver said the consensus of owners is that they need a new business model. The old model is the agreement that owners passed by a 30-2 margin in March but hasn't even been finalized in written form.

From the weekend, this season's rule changes (now let's see how many are enforced. The 60-second replay review limit, down from 90 seconds and always ignored, is a case in point).