We're genuinely sorry to hear the news of Don Matthews' apparent health problems, cited as the reason for his departure from the Als. Despite having become somewhat of a nemesis to the Argos in Montreal, he did deliver two Grey Cups to Toronto and has been a source of innovation and excitement in the CFL for as long as we've been following the league. He was also especially talented at pissing off the Montreal media, which can't be a bad thing.

We look forward to the day, twenty years from now, when Matthews' general surliness is described as "gritty" or "tough," and to being there when he's inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame. By "being there" we pretty well mean being in a bar somewhere watching the game on TV, but we'll at least raise a pint to The Don.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, a few lingering questions and thoughts about Wednesday's announcement:

• If (God forbid) The Don needs to have an operation, will Jack Todd be there to ask scalpers how much they're getting for seats in the operating theatre?

•  If this is in any way related to our suggestion that The Don try to spruce up the Als-Lions rivalry by taunting Wally Buono with delicious, high-cholesterol poutine, we sincerely apologize.

• If there's a silver lining to this whole thing, it's valuable medical information it's provided - namely, that incuabtion time for the stress caused by "Ted White Is My QB In The East Final Syndrome" is approximately 2 years. 

• Wait a minute... is this all just a ploy by the Als to get someone to send them a backup QB as a get-well-soon present?

• Dare we hope that, as opposed to being sick in the sense of illness, The Don is just sick in the sense of his hit single? Because if that's what he means by being too sick for the Als, we're going to stop typing right now and go pray that he'll hereby be spending his time collaborating with Shake Severs.