I’m the least knowledgeable football fan ever, but I figured us CFL fans still need a place to talk about it!
The season is currently in the midst of Week 3, with the Alouettes having beaten the Lions in Vancouver last night for the first time since August, 2000. They did so without scoring a touchdown, with a final score of 16-12. It was the first game of the season that I’ve been able to watch. The Als are 2-1, while the Lions are 1-2.
Also this week, the Ti-Cats destroyed the Bombers 28-7 in their first win of the year, and the Argonauts beat the Stampeders 27-24. The Eskimos and the Rough Riders play later this afternoon.
The standings for the other teams can be found on the CFL webpage.
This year, the CFL is having 14 games shown on the NFL Network, so Americans can learn how much fun this version of the game is.
The Alouettes are off to a real sluggish start. I’m a big Calvillo fan, and even though they got the B.C. monkey off their back, their offence was looking terrible. Hopefully their homestand will help them re-tool their game.
I went to my first Als game last year at McGill. It’s such an absolutely gorgeous venue; I loved it. I’ve been to three CFL games in my life without any repeats. I need to see a battle of Alberta, and the Bombers play the Ti-cats, and that’ll be every team exactly once.
Yeah, they haven’t been looking great, but starting a season with three road games has got to be a bit harder than playing at home, no? They play the Ti-Cats this week at Molson stadium. In the first couple of games, the defense was weak, so that side of things seems to have been straightened out (more-or-less). I’m sure they can beat Hamilton!
I’ve never been to a game, but would like to try and make it to one this summer. Of course, I said that last year too. We spent a few years living in Hamilton saying “we should go watch the Ti-Cats when the Als come someday!” and never made it over to Ivor Wynne either. Time and/or money aren’t really on our side it seems!
Kijjiji (or however the hell you spell that, lol) is an amazing tool for finding tickets. When I went last August, found a guy who had season tickets who was going on vacation - sold me his tickets to the Als/Riders game *below *face value!
Then of course, you find out how much 100 bucks gets you at McGill: very last row on the 30 yard line. :smack: Gorgeous venue, though!
I’ll look there for tickets if I ever have the opportunity to go! If it’s just a matter of seeing the stadium, I can go watch the Redmen lose again!
Alouettes won against the Ti-Cats today, as expected, scoring two touchdowns and a ton of field goals. There was a moment of collective panic as it looked like Calvillo may have been injured, but he magically repaired himself and was able to continue the game. The fourth quarter was a bit of a blow out; I swear, the Alouettes are so good they decide to only every really show up for the last 15 minutes. It’s like a personal challenge to see how well they can do in so short a time!
TSN was saying Calvillo is the all time pass yards leader in the CFL by a wide margin, beating out Doug Flutie. Did not know that. Gained even more respect for him.
EDIT: Most passes in a quaterback with a passing % over 60%. Damon Allen still has him beat for the all time record.
Saturday’s Stamps/Riders game should be interesting:
The minor-pro ball team across the parking lot from McMahon is having a Riders Day prior to the game complete with a rock concert and booze. These things are rowdy at the best of times.
The Stamps beat the Riders 40-20. Both teams are sitting on a 3-1 record. I didn’t get to see it, but I thought I’d make this thread a little more balanced than just talking about the Alouettes! Also, it makes me smile to see a CFL thread on the top of the Café Society page!
The Alouettes have just destoyed the Argos 41-10. Enough touchdowns to make up for the past few games and a couple of field goals for good measure. Calvillo was near perfect tonight, Ben Cahoon is now #3 on the career reception list, and Avon Cobourne brought the ball to - if not always into - the end zone all night long. That was fun!
Danny Maciocia has been fired by the Edmonton Eskimos, who finally came to their senses.
This is the coach, remember, who guided the Eskimos to missing the playoffs two years in a row (2006, 2007), ending a 35 year record streak for playoff appearances.
Most coaches who do that get canned, but in the City of Champions, that apparently entitles you to become general manager.
Finally, the Esks management have come to their senses, looked at the 1 and 4 season record, and told Danny that they’re going in a different direction.
So now the Eskimos are as good as the Lions, both sitting at 1-4 after this week’s game. Saskatchewan tore into the Ti-Cats, making them 4-1 and 1-4 respectively, and the Stamps beat the Blue Bombers putting them at 4-1 and 2-3 each.
Is it just me, or is it kind of a lopsided season so far? The same three teams keep getting their butts whipped, while another group of three teams keep doing the whipping.
Montreal hasn’t faced Winnipeg - that’s Week 8 - nor have the faced Calgary, which goes to Week 14, absurdly enough.
The Ti-Cats are in the middle of a political mess: after 2011, when their lease expires at Ivor Wynne, they will have no home. The 2015 Pan-Am games, officially hosted by Toronto, wants to help build a new stadium in the Hammer, and the mayor and town councillors are managing to fuck it all up royally.
The city wants to build in the West Harbour, on some mistaken (IMHO) belief that having a downtown stadium will revive the downtown. I used to live in Hamilton; trust me, it won’t. There is a dead mall, one tiny street of university-crowd bars and clubs (do not be misled by the name Hess “Village”), a bunch of residential areas where no one likes crowds and noise, a ton of one-way streets (getting to the waterfront isn’t all that easy from any direction, certainly not off the highways), and add on crime and drugs… given as the Ti-Cats are already downtown and haven’t created any economic revival miracles, I have trouble believing this new stadium could do it.
The owner of the 'Cats wants to build on the East Mountain, an area I’m less familiar with but I believe is near both the Lincoln Alexander Expressway and the new (to me!) Red Hill Valley Expressway. Easy traffic, easy views which equal advertising and - more importantly IMHO - a location the football team is willing to play at.
Today, the moron councillors voted to keep pushing for the west harbour site. They are going to lose their CFL team if they keep going down this route. And this is a city that believes it can attract an NHL team? It’s absurd to treat the only realistic tenant of your facility with such disdain. Hamilton needs to keep this team - it’s a city that’s lost a ton of jobs, lost much of the industry it was founded on, and is generally struggling in the shadow of Toronto. And yet they are fucking this whole thing up so royally.
I’m glad I no longer live there, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the Hammer and the Ti-Cats, and I think it sucks that the city risks losing the team to a stupid idea that a football stadium can save a hell-hole of a downtown core.
Upper Paradise really, really wasn’t what it’s name would suggest. But like I said, Hess Village isn’t exactly a Village either. One street does not a village make.
I’m pretty much assuming the Pan-Am people will tell Hamilton “no tenant, no deal” and they’ll end up on the East Mountain or, more likely given what city we’re talking about, no stadium at all and in two years we’ll be watching Les Tigre-Chats de Québec.
I have a better idea, though - send the 'Cats to Phoenix and send Hamilton the 'Yotes. Both teams would be so much better off, and come November, the Edmonton Eskimos will be begging for a nice trip down south!
In other news, Holy fuck do the BC Lions ever suck this year. It’s rather funny to watch!
