It was unfortunate that the Argos made the decision this week to cut Bashir Levingston. He's provided as much excitement as a fan could ever want from a returner and we hope he lands in a good football situation soon. Good luck, Bash. 

And now to get back to our regularly scheduled smarminess...

Rusty's Picks:

Montreal at B.C.:

Aside from learning that Bob O'Billovich is the proud owner of three pink suitcases, the biggest revelation from last year's Grey Cup was that the Als hate cold weather. Ben Cahoon spent most of the game in sweatpants and Mark Estelle and the defensive backs spent most of the game jockeying for position in front of one of the large heaters. So as I see it, the Lions have two options: either they can make it freezing cold in BC Place or they can place heaters on the Als sidelines to distract them. Their choice. 

Pick: B.C.

Winnipeg at Saskatchewan

Wait a minute, these two have the best records in the league?  Dogs are mating with cats... Marty York's rumours are all true... John Huard is a brilliant head coach... Run for your lives! 

Pick: Saskatchewan

Toronto at Hamilton

So just weeks after he apologises to Argonaut fans, Frank D'Angelo has performed in front of the Canadian Armed Forces at the Meaford base and is considering giving performances in Afghanistan. While it's nice that he's trying to help the troops (a couple of kegs of Sleeman's would probably be better recevied) we note that after being rightfully booed at the Rogers Centre, Mr. D'Angelo told Perry Lefko that "we're the wrong genre for CFL fans. They're rock people." What are the odds that the troops are the right genre for Frank?

(Note: We could see the miltary strategy of having Frank play to the Taliban. He's Canada's nuclear option.)

More to the point though, the Argos and Cats have the worst records in the league. Yet you have to think that if they still existed that the Renegades would somehow find a way to be worse. Long live Ontario pro football.

Pick: Toronto

Edmonton at Calgary

The Stamps ended up spending one of their days off this week playing paintball.  One can only assume that it took many hours to explain to Jeff Pilon that you aren't supposed to squeeze the balls.

Pick: Calgary

A-Rad's Picks:

Montreal at B.C.

Only in Vancouver would there be serious discussion of curing your team's injuries by going to an "energy healer" who replaces your "bad" energy with your "good" energy. But then, this being Vancouver, there's probably a much more traditional way of doing that. And honestly, I kind of like the idea of a stoned Dave Dickenson wandering around the sidelines infuriating Wally Buono by craving all kinds of high-cholesterol snacks.

Pick: B.C.

Winnipeg at Saskatchewan

Apparently, Roughriders lineman Gene Makrowsky has been sidelined for much of the year by mono. This strikes me as highly suspicious. What 34-year-old gets mono? Considering he plays in Saskatchewan, has no one considered the possibility that he was just really bored? Did Wayne's World teach us nothing?

Pick: Winnipeg

Toronto at Hamilton

For those interested, Timmychang.net provides a helpful list of pro football players of Asian heritage. It's interesting reading, but there is one dramatic, unforgiveable oversight: Whither Brian Ah-Yat?

You've got a lot to learn about this league, Timmy. A lot to learn.

Pick: Toronto

Edmonton at Calgary

You have to love that the judge who overturned A.J. Gass' suspension is an Eskimos' season ticket holder. If Robert Baker had known there are judges who'll let you off the hook if they like your CFL team, he'd totally have stuck around.

Pick: Calgary

Bonus pick: 

All of the Argos have been injured in practice, leaving Pinball to play the Ticats by himself. To boost Hamilton's tourism, Pinball has been challenged to sample its finest cultural institution by eating a donut at each of the city's 1,400 Tim Horton's locations before gametime. How does Pinball do?*

Boatmenblog pick: Pinball 1,612, Ticats 0. (All those donuts just make Pinball even more dominant. For one thing, he's inspired to ensure there's one more donut on the scoreboard. And really, do you want to face Pinball when he's on a sugar high? With all that extra energy, he's just more dominant...and is able to hug every single fan in the stands at each commercial break.)

* = Everything we need to know about football analysis, we learned from early '90s SNL sketches.