Two Jesses Would be Better

What's interesting about Jesse Palmer deciding to join the Montreal Alouettes is whether Palmer, who hasn't played Canadian style football in an awfully long time, will find the brand of ball up north to his liking. Moreover, it's been a long time since he's played regularly, and the hope here is that the Als won't throw him in there immediately but will instead give him a lengthy apprenticeship period to learn the CFL before tossing him into the fire. The timing, at least for the CFL, is perfect for a Canadian QB, and the Als, for their part, are getting closer to needing a new one every day as the excellent Anthony Calvillo moves along deeper into his career. But for this to work is has to be a long-term committment from both the Als and Palmer, and wouldn't it be nice if the CFL one day saw the wisdom of actually giving teams incentive to develop and use Canadian quarterbacks? . . . The other Jesse, as in Lumsden, is still waiting to see if he can catch on with some other NFL squad before heading back to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. That team's new GM, Marcel Desjardins, has already made it clear he doesn't want Lumsden for another short-term deal but wants him to commit to staying at least through next season in the CFL. In what has been a middling type year for the CFL, the addition of two exciting homebrews in Jesses Palmer and Lumsden would be a wonderful shot in the arm . . . Don't know about you, but Football Night in America (what a ripoff of a name!) was decidedly underwhelming out of the gate. I'm thinking already Cris Collinsworth and Jerome Bettis would love to strangle the incredibly annoying, incredibly long-winded Sterling Sharpe.  It took the show far, far too long to get to the day's highlights. The funniest part was when the show inexplicably moved from a set behind a desk to lounge chairs, Bettis looked like he could barely fit his wide load keester into the furniture while diminutive Bob Costas took up about half of his . . . That Tiger Woods is not only a fabulous frontrunner, he knows a winning team when he sees one. Still, it had to grate on TV commentator John McEnroe and Andy Roddick's coach, Jimmy Connors, to see the American golf ace in the corner of Swiss star Roger Federer during the U.S. Open men's final on Sunday, rather than that of Roddick, the good old American from Nebraska . . . Knowing Maria Sharapova, she'll immediately figure out a way to commercialize having that piece of the winner's trophy hit her on the head on Saturday after winning the women's final at Flushing Meadows. Look for a TV spot featuring that little misadventure in the next six months . . . You probably remember back in Game 7 of last spring's Eastern Conference final when Buffalo defenceman Brian Campbell incurred a critical minor for shooting the puck over the glass that put the Sabres down two skaters and led to the series winning goal. The whining that ensued over that rule was extraordinary. Impressively, however, when it came to a board of governors meeting in June, the Sabres said they were fine with the existing rule and didn't want it changed . . . Sepp Blatter reveals himself to be the blathering idiot of world soccer on a regular basis. But this idea to bring Zidane and Marco Materazzi together to kiss and make up is a step up in absurdity even for Blatter. Here's the deal. Materazzi said something he shouldn't have. Zidane threw soccer glory away for his country over a piece of name-calling. And the World Cup is over. Period, end of story.

That Johnny Mac Sure Can Talk

Had one overwhelming thought after the MLSE-Rogers press conference on Tuesday that unveiled plans for the two to boldly go forth where no sports conglomerates have gone before. While the Jays at least got a mention because of a promise to give J.P. Ricciardi more dough to work with, it was abundantly clear that the Maple Leafs are a very small part of MLSE's overall business. Larry Tanenbaum et al are in business for business, not primarily the hockey business. . .Came this close to mentioning Mark Bell as a possible breakthrough player this season. Ooops. On the bright side, it got young Bell in the same news category for one day as Paris Hilton and the Detroit Lions assistant coach who likes to drive in his birthday suit. . .Interesting that Matt Stajan has yet to come to terms on a new contract. Have to figure after delivering not very much at all for three quarters of the season and then playing well in the final portion after being moved to centre, Stajan would be intent on being in camp on the first day to get a centreman's job no matter what. Deserving of a raise? I don't think so. He probably signs in time, but if he's not there when camp opens, either he needs to give his head a shake or a new agent. . .Okay, it's opening night for the NFL, kinda weird on a Thursday. But how flashy a night can it be with, ahem, Charlie Batch starting at QB for one of the teams?. . .Mikhael Youzhny deserves double kudos for his work at the U.S. Open on Wednesday. First, he dispatched the No. 2 seed in men's singles, Rafael Nadal. Later in the day, he was part of the tandem that eliminated the No. 1 doubles seeds, the Bryan brothers. . .How does John McEnroe just keep talking and talking and talking and never seem dull or repetitive? For my money, he's the best commentator in any sport. Period. . .One of the rumours floating out of the very strange Mike Keenan situation in Florida is that he was handed a new release by a public relations person and told he might want to read it. The release was the news of his resignation. . .It probably won't be a fit now, but the Leafs are still keeping an eye on Anson Carter. That means Jeff O'Neill might want to come out firing. . .In case you notice a rather large hole in The Star's hockey coverage over the next little while, it's because we've lost the dogged Ken Campbell to free agency and The Hockey News. Poor Paul Hunter. He'll seem like Abbott without Costello for a while. But our resourceful GM, sports editor Graham Parley, will plug the hole ASAP.

Another Keenan Mystery

Don't expect to be able to get to the bottom of Mike Keenan's departure from the Florida Panthers.

Whenever Keenan quits an NHL team or is fired, there's always lots of smoke and flames and a sense of controversy.

But the truth behind the story never seems to come out, which has always contributed to the Keenan mystique.

That was certainly the case in the 1994 playoffs when rumours had it that while coaching the New York Rangers to the Stanley Cup, Keenan was negotiating with another NHL club, the Detroit Red Wings, and waging a vicious internal war with GM Neil Smith.

There were many moving parts in that story, from Keenan to Smith to Mark Messier to Mike Ilitch to Ranger ownership. To this day, the precise details of the story remain elusive. But Keenan moved on.

Go back further than that. In November, 1992, I remember travelling to Chicago to cover an early season game between the Blackhawks and Maple Leafs and ending up in a news conference called by Chicago owner Bill Wirtz to announce that Keenan had quit the Hawks after refusing to sign a new contract as the team's GM.

Keenan, naturally, said he'd been fired after being unable to receive assurances he would get all the responsibilities and powers usually associated with being an NHL general manager.

Later, there was a stormy, short run in St. Louis, an even shorter run in Boston and a clash with Brian Burke in Vancouver. Each time, it wasn't exactly clear why Keenan was moving on, whether he was jumping or being pushed.

Now this in Florida. A brief run, a Keenan resignation and rumours he was forced out or couldn't get along with others in the organization. Indeed, he only ended up running the show with the Panthers after surviving an internal battle with Rick Dudley.

So more mystery for Iron Mike. One interesting fact is whenever he leaves a hockey situation, a drought ensues. That's been the case with both the Rangers and Blackhawks, and after he coached Team Canada to wins in the 1987 and 1991 Canada Cups and then wasn't invited back to continue his success, Canada didn't win a best-on-best event again until the 2002 Olympics.

In the case of the Panthers, of course, the drought preceded Keenan's arrival.

The NHL coaching market, meanwhile, has rarely been so filled with available coaches with enormous success on their resumes.

Keenan is the fifth winningest coach in NHL history. Pat Quinn, also open to offers, is the fourth.

Throw in Scotty Bowman, who is No. 1, and three of the top five winningest coaches in NHL history are, at least theoretically, available for hire.

You can probably count on at least one of them being behind an NHL bench by January.

Guts and Glory

What a weird, yet spectacular, way for a legend to survive for one more day.

The U.S. Open men's singles match between Andre Agassi and Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus that began Thursday night and ended at 12:38 a.m. Friday morning was as magnificent a piece of sports drama as you could imagine.

It was one of those that made you say, "Damn, I wish I was there" as it went on. And on. And on, with 23,000 New Yorkers unwilling to leave until it was over.

That Agassi's victory was still reverberating as the news filtered in from Japan that the U.S. men's basketball team had again been beaten was an interesting contrast.

As Agassi plays his final matches and prepares to exit the stage as a sporting icon, the prestige of U.S. sport seems as wobbly as never before.

The Americans couldn't win the World Baseball Classic and are now clearly, without debate, no longer a giant among Lilliputians when it comes to international basketball. The Greeks, for goodness sakes, didn't put a single NBA player on the floor in knocking off the Americans.

Barry Bonds is widely discredited, as was Mark McGwire before him, as are Justin Gatlin and Marian Jones in track and field. Even in Agassi's tennis world, the ongoing discussion is over how the U.S. is no longer an international power.

There is, of course, Tiger. But it's not hard to get the feeling a Ryder Cup win better be around the corner.

Re Agassi, his match against Baghdatis went five sets, but that was only after Agassi won the first two but then lost the next two. In fact, he lost the fourth set after leading it 4-0 then inexplicably falling to pieces, looking as though he couldn't get to retirement fast enough.

The tennis wasn't always bold or pretty, and Baghdatis seemed determined for much of the night to give the contest away by accumulating an nightmarish number of unforced errors.

With his battered back obviously making every step a tricky one, Agassi sucked it up and fought on into the the fifth set when suddenly the colorful and charismatic 21-year-old Baghdatis - 15 years Agassi's junior - began to struggle physically himself.

In Baghdatis' case, it was nasty leg cramps. The ninth game of the fifth set, with the match tied two sets apiece and 4-4, was in itself a drawn out drama. Both of Baghdatis' thighs clenched in awful cramps, leaving him only to wave weakly at Agassi's serves. Unable to get treatment during the middle of a game, Baghdatis grimaced and groaned and hobbled around, gamely trying to figure out a way to stay in the match despite not being able to run.

Still, however, Agassi couldn't finish him off. With Baghdatis all but unable to move, Agassi doublefaulted, creating the eighth deuce of the game.

It was like watching two men torture one another. Or seeing two scorpions repeatedly stinging one another.

Finally Agassi prevailed, and eventually he won the deciding set 7-5, keeping his dream of one last Grand Slam surprise still alive.

"Tonight is just another example of moments you're not guaranteed to have in life," said Agassi as he was interviewed post-match by John McEnroe.

The Flushing Meadows fans cheered every point won by Agassi and every one lost by Baghdatis, only cheering the Cypriot as he walked off the court after the match.

The emotional wave of an Agassi run is starting to build, but at the same time, given the difficult time he has already had winning two rounds, it seems impossible to believe he could actually take the tournament.

Agassi's next opponent, in an odd coincidence of names, is one B. Becker, but not Boris, the king of German tennis at the same time as Agassi's wife, Steffi Graf, was the queen. Agassi last faced that Becker back in 1999 and held a commanding 10-4 career edge over him.

This Becker is also a German, 25-year-old Benjamin Becker. But this Becker just graduated from Baylor University where he was a three-time All-American in tennis.

He came into this U.S. Open ranked 112th in the world, and upset Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean yesterday.

If Agassi can get past Becker, he would likely face Andy Roddick. If you project an Agassi title here, it's also worth noting he's in Rafael Nadal's half of the draw.

And we haven't even said Roger Federer yet.

So the odds are hugely, overwhelming against Agassi winning it all, maybe even greater today after his painful marathon against Baghdatis, the tournament's No. 8 seed.

But every match Agassi survives, in whatever fashion, is a victory for tennis, one more opportunity to witness a legend and another reason to understand how much this athlete will be missed when he's gone.