There will be much criticism of the Argos' turfing of Kent Austin the next few days; in fact, it's already started on the CBC panel. Rest assured that all of this criticism will come from people who haven't actually paid to watch the Argos play.

Losing your job sucks, so we'll try to go easy. But all we really ask of our football is that it entertain us. The Argos don't need to win the Grey Cup every year; they can miss the playoffs, and we'll still find ways to amuse ourselves. But this season has been progressively sucking the life out of us: There's only so many bachelor searches, chili throw-downs or haunting voyages down Rod Black's pants we can distract ourselves with before we realize that the games themselves are unwatchable.

It wasn't Austin's fault that he had no O-line and no starting quarterback to work with this year, or that the Argos running backs have been falling faster than a Spergon Wynn screen pass. But he does have to take some heat for the world's most boring playbook. If the talent is lacking, that should make you more creative - not try running the same play 30 times a game in hope that Sperge will eventually get it right. Honestly, it would be more fun to watch the Argos get picked off four times a game throwing downfield than trying to keep our eyes open while they go two-and-out every series. And if Ricky Williams (or John Avery, or Jeff Johnson) is in your backfield, and you can't block up the middle - for crying out loud, send him outside.

Since this is veering dangerously close to serious analysis, we'll stop and leave that to the experts (even if they can't spell our quarterback's name). All we can really offer is that, if we're right about Adam Rita being high 24 hours a day, he might just be creative enough to turn this thing around before this battleship is totally sunk.