We were so busy yesterday trying to remember all nine Ticats turnovers on Monday, we almost missed a fairly entertaining freak-out by one of Hamilton's favourite sons.

Nobody makes sports seem like less fun than the Star's Damien Cox. Usually, his moaning (ownership is cheap, coaches are mean, players are stupid, fans are even stupider, etc.) is confined to the Leafs. But being a native of Steeltown (a "notable Hamiltonian," even, according to Wikipedia), he occasionally ventures down the QEW to see how the Ticats are doing. And this time, Damien did not like what he saw.

We can hardly blame him, even if most columnists for a Toronto newspaper would have been a little more interested in Damon Allen breaking the pro football passing record. But we would have expected a slightly more mature reaction from a professional sportswriter than calling for the head of an owner who saved the team from folding three years ago.

Understand that the Ticats aren't just bad; they're part of some dark conspiracy to rob simple-minded Hamiltonians of their hard-earned cash. Or, as Damien put it: 

"There has been a terrible betrayal here, folks. Hamilton football fans, understanding the precarious future of their team at the time, responded to Bob Young's golly gee ownership approach by filling the stands, and in return have been force-fed an organization of near complete ineptitude."

What's that, you say? Young just owned up to his mistakes and hired a good football man in Marcel Desjardins, who's been honing his craft at the league's most consistently successful franchise for the last four seasons? Not good enough, says Damien:

"The hiring of Marcel Desjardins, yet another rookie, to take over the football operation last week sure didn't provide an overwhelming sense that the Tiger-Cats have turned the corner. Desjardins might be the guy. But there's no record there to make that a certainty."

Ah, yes. Certainty. That's what makes sports fun, isn't it? But maybe wins wouldn't be enough to satisfy Damien anyway. Because what really has him outraged is the Ticats' lack of fashion sense:

"The Hamilton owner, a local lad, promised prosperity and instead delivered a joke of an organization and a set of Labour Day uniforms for the 2006 "classic" that were an insult to the traditions of the franchise.

"The Cats in all-white uniforms with white helmets? As bad as, or perhaps worse than, the baby blue outfits the Argos once trotted out in the late 1970s."

The nerve of some people - having the players wear different helmets for a game, then selling them (autographed) to raise money for a children's literacy charity. But if Damien really thinks this is a firing offence, he's missing the point anyway.

Young may not have done a great job with the football operations. But if he hadn't stepped in, the team wouldn't exist. And since he bought it, he's opened up his wallet not only on the personnel side (however unsuccessfully), but also to dramatically improve the Ticats' marketing, community presence and in-game experience.

We'd suggest that, to appreciate that last one, Damien buy a ticket sometime and sit in the stands instead of the press box. But then, the last time he tried that - detailed in a column that mercifully (for his sake) doesn't seem to be online any more - he was so terrified by the great unwashed that he vowed not to come back again. We're sure that absolutely breaks the hearts of Hamiltonians.