We know that neither of us were exactly bang-on in our picks in Week 1, so thanks for giving us another shot.  And yes, we know that if Mike Bishop starts penning a prediction column we're out on our asses.

Rusty's Picks:

Montreal at Winnipeg:

OK, I guess we better make this official. Scheduling a performance with Tom Cochrane during the Grey Cup last year - brilliant.  Performing the "Symphony of Destruction" at the Bombers home opener this year - inspired. Playing at the actual game against Montreal in what can only be construed as a call-out of Kent Nagano and the OSM - awesome.  So with that, we are proud to announce that the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra is the official orchestra of Boatmenblog.  If they want to come to this year's Grey Cup, we'll be more than happy to billet a few flutists.

Pick: Winnipeg

Edmonton at B.C.:

So the Eskies' Rahim Abdullah claimed on Monday that BC's Rob Murphy and Jason Jimenez are the dirtiest players in the league.  See Ed Philion, this is what happens when you retire. People forget about you just a couple of weeks into the year.

Pick: BC 

Toronto at Hamilton:

So Mookie Mitchell could be lining up at receiver in a couple of weeks (good thing I kept that jersey), Steve Christie could be kicking field goals for a living and I'm excited about a Michael Bishop start. It's officially 1998.  And the fact that I was able to make an age-related comment about the Argos that didn't involve Damon Allen scares the hell out of me.

Pick: Toronto

Calgary at Saskatchewan:

As we noted in our soon-to-be award-winning game diary last week, Reggie Hunt is wearing a shaded visor during night games in a nod to his idol - Corey Hart.  In their continuing nod to '80s Canadian pop, Jaime Boreham has requested that whenever he dances around the end zone before conceeding a safety the P.A. blare The Safety Dance.

Pick: Calgary

A-Rad's Picks:

Montreal at Winnipeg:

Regular readers will be shocked to know that our favourite Montreal columnist has already given up on the Als. Jim Popp, apparently, is failing because...wait for it...he's a Don Matthews disciple. Meanwhile, it seems our man has been talking to his scalper friends again, who once again are tragically having trouble selling tickets. Honestly, I'm pretty sure this guy would get kicked off talk radio for being too reactionary.

Pick: Montreal

Edmonton at B.C.:

You might not realize it from Rusty's comment above, but apparently Abdullah's shot at a pair of Lions players signalled the decline of Western civilization - so says the Vancouver Sun's Mike Beamish, at any rate. "Sad"..."embarrassing"..."demeaning"...all that from "a standard yo-mama crack taking on a life of its own." If only Wilmer Valderrama had turned up, Beamish's head might have exploded.

Pick: BC 

Toronto at Hamilton:

I don't often get to point this out, seeing as how this isn't a baseball blog. And besides, it's kind of a statement of the obvious. But holy crap, Richard Griffin is painful to read. It's not that I disagree with what he has to say...it's that I have no idea what he's trying to say. Seriously, read this foray into football-writing and figure out what he's on about. If you can convince me there's any actual point in here, I'll buy you a beer before the next game.

Pick: Toronto

Calgary at Saskatchewan:

Some sports heroes get stadiums named after them. Or trophies. Or at least a side street somewhere. But if you're Kent Austin, the last quarterback to lead the Rougriders to a Grey Cup win, you get a parking lot. Which is kind of fitting, when you think about it, since all those cars sitting there get to move around about as much as his running backs.

Pick: Calgary

Bonus pick: 

All of the Argos have been injured in practice, leaving Pinball to play the Ticats by himself. Like us, Pinball has spent much of his week on the phone with the Hamilton branch of Ticketmaster trying to get someone to actually pick up the phone and help him buy some tickets...and he's still on the line at game time. How does Pinball do?*

Boatmenblog pick: Pinball 896, Ticats 1. (Playing with the phone in his hand for the first quarter, Pinball struggles - only scoring 72 points while giving up a rouge. Finally realizing that nobody actually works at the Hamilton Ticketmaster, Pinball tosses away the phone at the start of the second quarter and proceeds to outscore the Ticats 824-0.)

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

Let the record show that anyone who wears a paper bag over his head to the first game of the season, as one of the regulars in our section did this past week, does not deserve to be taken seriously. All the same, the paper bag in question - on which the gentleman in question had written that it wouldn't come off until Damon Allen has been removed as starter - was an ominous sign.

We have many fears. only some of which involve being forced to watch another season with Kent Austin as our offensive coordinator. But now, something is happening that we couldn't have imagined in our worst nightmares: Toronto is becoming Buffalo.

Admittedly, we haven't quite reached the level of fans putting out campaign-style lawn signs supporting their quarterback of choice. Also, most of us haven't developed those weird accents yet and our average weight remains approximately 112 pounds lighter. But still, the Argos' apparently unresolvable quarterback controversy - now into its second year - is starting to look like the sort of thing that's tormented Buffalonians ever since the Flutie/Johnson era.

Now, apparently, we've got Steve Christie coming to town. Granted, this isn't nearly as alarming as Scott Norwood would be. But still, this needs to stop. If Jamel White forgets to put on his helmet before taking the field next game and Wade Phillips so much as passes through our airport, we're fleeing town before the housefires start.

So, what are you doing on the Friday night of a long weekend? Because us, we're sitting around Camp Rusty drinking beer, eating Swiss Chalet and watching the Week 1 showdown between the Roughriders and the Alouettes. Two swinging guys, we are, and courtesy of the year's first game diary you're along for the ride.

***

7:04 - Other sports broadcasts have sideline reporters like Melissa Stark or Erin Andrews... Friday Night Football has Danny Mac. And yes, he still makes us jump, jump.

7:06 - When did Matt Dunigan develop a stutter? Deep breath, Matt. Deep breath.

7:07 - The Kent Austin love-in begins. Contrary to all the available evidence, the TSN panel wants us to know that he's perfectly happy to run the ball.

7:12 - Ooohhh, a Brian Williams interview. We don't really consider it football season until we've seen at least five shots of Williams nodding pensively while his subject rambles. In this case it's Mark Cohon, whose main requirement for the commissioner's job appears to be that he looks like John Tory's kid brother.

7:14 - Wait...two Brian Williams interviews? Now he's talking to David Stern about Cohon...and nodding pensively.

7:15 - Hold on...three Brian Williams interviews? Bob Young, step on up. 

7:16 - Four Brian Williams interviews? This is starting to look like a Behind the Music episode. All we need now is for the one-armed drummer from Def Leppard to turn up and credit Mark Cohon with saving his life.

7:17 - As the montage ends, we're back to Brian Williams live from Molson Stadium...who's still watching his Behind the Music episode on a monitor. Actually, he's not just watching - he's shaking his head with the sort of grin that says "Brian, you magnificent bastard, you've done it again."

7:23 - Ah, Out of Bounds - the feature clearly dreamed up by whoever signed off on this massive studio to justify its costs. Put Dunigan in one corner of the studio, Climie in another, Schultz in a third...and presto, you've got TV magic.

7:33 - Tonight's TSN poll: Who's the best Canadian receiver in the league? Our candidates: Jason Clermont, Ben Cahoon and...Andy Fantuz? Time to begin our write-in campaign for Andre Talbot.

7:38 - We're ready for kickoff...and so is Jim Popp's luxurious hair.

7:40 - Beautiful catch by Jason Armstead. And luckily, Jake Ireland isn't around to call a holding penalty.

7:48 - Someone named Mike Imoh (pronounced "Emo") is running all over the 'Riders. And every time Suitor says his name, we expect some moody kid with a bad haircut to walk into the huddle.

7:51 - Already in Grey Cup form, Anthony Calvillo is intercepted in the end zone.

7:54 - After their second possession of the game, the 'Riders have still yet to run the ball. The balanced attack is in full effect.

7:56 - How bad a beer is Coors Light that they're trying to sell it on the basis that it's colder than other beers? Watch for Steelback to counter with its campaign to make its beer the warmest beer you can buy. Which of course would make it even more delicious.

7:59 - Calvillo is sacked...we think. It's hard to tell for sure, because TSN was showing a pan shot of the entire stadium. Finally, we can experience what it's like to watch the game from the rooftop of a nearby building.

8:07 - Glen Suitor wants all you kids out there to follow Ben Cahoon's lead by investing in some sort of contraption that flings balls at you at an extremely high speed. If you can't afford that, kids, just have your friends fling their own balls at you. Or give Rod Black a call.

8:11 - End of the first quarter, and it's a scoreless tie. We should really warn fans before we liveblog games so they don't waste their Friday nights.

8:12 - "Etienne Boulay shows Blitz..." Why are you stopping, Cuthbert? We want to know what he showed Blitz, although this being Etienne Boulay we can probably guess.

8:16 - Kent Austin's balanced offensive unit currently has 10 rushing yards, most of which we're pretty sure came from Kerry Joseph

8:32 - We don't mean to pick on Glen Suitor too much, at least this early in the season. But after a running play from Imoh goes nowhere, he decides to make his second point about Dave Mudge's awesomeness in two plays. Why not explain why the running play didn't work?

8:38 - It's starting to rain at Molson stadium. Luckily Danny Mac isn't in a white t-shirt.

8:39 - Uh-oh. With the rain, the Riders are going to have to run the ball. Kent Austin's biggest foe: rain

8:39 - TSN cuts to the Als cheerleaders in the rain. An admirable decision.

8:43 - It's really hard to watch football in the rain without thinking about the opening scene from The Last Boyscout. Good thing Robert Baker didn't sign with either of these teams.

8:56 - That Emo kid is running the ball again for Montreal.  If they keep hitting him like this, they're going to smudge his eyeliner.

8:58 - Jim Popp appears to have pulled his hood up to avoid messing up his hair.

8:58 - We're at the half and it's a 6-2 barnburner. By our count, there have been about 3 touchdowns combined in all of the game diaries we've written.

9:02 - This game is so bad, the studio crew isn't even trying to convince us it's not.

9:05 - Fantuz is at 12% in the wide receivers poll. It's safe to assume that 12% of the people watching this thing are from Saskatchewan.

9:08 - The net yards at the half - 143-103. Or less than two Bashir Levinston kick returns combined.

9:10 - We still can't see Jennifer Hedger without thinking of The Lofters. And in turn an unpleasant conversation about her nipples that we hope we're imagining but we're pretty sure we're not. We won"t elaborate.

9:11 - We're able to shake that thought long enough to notice that Hedger is plugging TSN's live coverage this weekend of NHL free agent signings...official proof that this country's hockey obsession has turned into self-parody.

9:12 - We've just been warned that "no accounts or descriptions of this game" are allowed to be "disseminated without the official consent of the CFL." Good thing we're too busy writing about Popp's hair and Hedger's nipples to pay much attention to the game.

9:17 - The Riders have put together something resembling a drive.

9:18 - Mark Estelle is one of those guys who should always be referred to by his full name. Otherwise, we think one of the Golden Girls is loose on the field. (This also applies to Chip Cox, for obvious reasons. You really don't want to hear Chris Cuthbert talk about someone being "smothered by Cox.")

9:19 - Congi hits his third field goal of the game. It continues to mystify us that TSN doesn't bill his stats as "the Congi line" each and every time it shows them.

9:25 - Calvillo is sacked. Again. How will Jack Todd find a way to blame Don Matthews for this?

9:27 - It's always disappointing when they show a closeup of Montreal's cheerleaders, all of whom look about 15. A city of beautiful women, and these girls look like they should have been on Green Bay's sidelines during the Mark Chmura era.

9:30 - Joseph finds Henri Childs deep and...he's in! 16-3 Riders. And that's what a touchdown looks like. We'd forgotten.

9:34 - Somehow, Jamie Boreham just got called for unnecessary roughness. This is what happens when other kickers try to be Noel Prefontaine.

9:35 - We love Danny Mac and we're thoroughly enjoying his debut. But someone needs to tell him to stop saying things like "Calvillo's balls are fluttering."

9:40 - With the Riders pinned deep, they concede the safety. But first we get that inevitable moment where the kicker tempts fate by running around the back of the end zone with the ball - the most inexplicable thing in football next to the failure of the Las Vegas Posse.

9:44 - In this year's edition of Chris Schultz's food drive ad, he's got his sleeves rolled up. This is a man who clearly means business.

9:46 - Cuthbert notes that the fans don't seem to be getting on Calvillo despite his abysmal performance. Just a wild guess here, but that may have something to do with all the fans having gone home to avoid the rain.

9:50 - Calvillo's picked off again. The fans are audibly voicing their displeasure.

9:51 - Kerry Joseph has 43 rushing yards. Austin's going to have a running game whether he likes it or not.

9:55 - Apparently the Riders had to make a trade to get Henri Childs from the Als because they couldn't find his phone number while he was a free agent. God, we love this league.

10:00 - Nice to see Reggie Hunt rocking the tinted-visor-at-night look. He's officially the Corey Hart of the CFL.

10:03 - Calvillo's picked off yet again, this time inside the 10. Mar-cus Bra-dy (Clap. Clap. Clap-Clap-Clap.)

10:07 - Boreham concedes another safety for the Riders. If you're turning this game on now, you're going to see a 16-7 score and assume the Als have a touchdown. That would make this a merely bad game. But to understand how uniquely bad it is, you have to know that they actually have three safeties and a rouge.

10:12 - Just what this game needs - a challenge.

10:14 - Calvillo gets run over. Pity he didn't hear Cuthbert's panicked "LOOK OUT!" before the hit. You know you're having a bad night when the commentators start pitying you.

10:17 - It's also a bad sign when your enormous inflatable mascot is visibly depressed.

10:19 - Why must they tease us with promises of "Glen's Gladiator"? Tell us who it is, you bastards!

10:23 - The Als turn it over on downs with 1:22 left after Calvillo throws it about 8 yards short of the first-down marker on third down. In other words, he pulled a Damon Allen.

10:27 - Apparently this is the lowest scoring game between these teams since the Als came back to Montreal 11 years ago. So naturally, one of the quarterbacks is Glen's Gladiator.

10:30 - Calvillo just went down in a pitiful heap to avoid being sacked.

10:31 - And...it's done. Riders 16, Als 7. We were going to demand Jim Popp not cut his hair until Montreal wins, but that might get in the way of Herb Zurkowsky collecting locks of it to keep by his bed.

So we’re back. While the off season was OK (it’s always entertaining to write scripts for Rocky VII: Showdown in Steeltown, Top 10 lists that only go to 5 and speculate on the whereabouts of Morganna) it’ll be nice to finally watch some football. Let’s get to it:

Rusty’s Picks:

B.C. at Toronto

It’s pretty obvious that the league wants to forget about that field-goal laden Grey Cup. How else to explain the fact that instead of being at home raising a championship banner, last year’s winners will be playing a game that will start at 3:30 on a Thursday local time?

In any case, this game features the teams that will most likely have the most significant quarterback controversies this year. OK, maybe Hamilton, but I’m pretty sure that after the last few years of futility that the Ticats have been demoted to First Division or Arena League or something.

Pick: Toronto

Winnipeg at Edmonton

What?!?! How could the Bombers release Jazzmen Williams? What are all of the TV commentators and headline writers supposed to do with gems like “Jazzmen’s making them sing the blues” and “Jazzmen improvises an interception”. You realize that this is killing Glen Suitor, right?

Pick: Winnipeg

Saskatchewan at Montreal:

Good to see that Etienne Boulay has joined the blogging world although it’d be nice if it wasn’t a team sponsored blog. In any case, for those who doubt the power of the fan blog, note that the team has taken down the old photo of Etienne, and replaced it with nothing. If only we used our power for good.

Pick: Saskatchewan

Hamilton at Calgary:

You know we’ve poked some fun at the Ticats and the city of Hamilton in the past, but jeez… we’ve never come close to the level that Doug Brown showed in a recent article in the Winnipeg Free Press. Doug seems to have forgotten that Bob Young’s a pretty shrewd guy though. If he let’s Doug get madder and madder, steam will start shooting out his ears, and voila… hot water without the cost. Brilliant. (Also, let's ignore that the Free Press has the date of the article as June 26, 1977)

Pick: Calgary

A-Rad's Picks:

B.C. at Toronto

One of the stranger phenomena in the CFL is the tendency for accomplished players to fall completely off the map - sometimes after all-star seasons. Personally, I like to call this Manny Hazard Disease. (Don't remember Manny Hazard? I rest my case.) This year, such a fate has befallen several beloved Argos - among them Eric England and my beloved Clifford Ivory, both of whom are apparently out of football. Also, R. Jay Soward, although that one might not quite fit the "inexplicable" tag.

Anyway, I really have no idea where most of these people are. But I know where they should be - at tonight's game. So if you're a displaced Argo, contact us immediately. We'll buy you a seat; hell, we'll give you ours. Just remember, this applies only to players who disappeared at the end of the season. If it was mid-season, we want no part of you, mostly because we're scared of you. We'll call this the Robert Baker Rule.

Pick: Toronto

Winnipeg at Edmonton

Speaking of displaced players, it really was sad to see Mookie Mitchell released by the Eskimos. So sad, in fact, that we really feel the need to cheer him up, lest Mookie be on some sort of Anchorman-esque binge in downtown Edmonton.

The obvious answer is to record a Mookie tribute song, but Rusty and I have no musical talent whatsoever. So there's only one option: appropriate the Mookie Mash - the classic tribute song recorded in Mookie Wilson's honour during his brief time on the Toronto Blue Jays.

Unfortunately, copies of the Mookie Mash are not as easy to find as you'd expect; for some reason, this gem doesn't seem to be available online. So if you're sitting on a recorded version, or are prepared to re-enact it, please contact us immediately. Bonus points if you also have a copy of the Tom Henke "Terminator" song ("You can bring him in now but he's even better later.")

Pick: Winnipeg

Saskatchewan at Montreal:

Quick quiz: name the Roughriders' starting running back. Go on...take your time. I can wait.

Give up? Okay. It's...hold on...Wes Cates. Yeah, I have no idea who he is either. But it's a safe bet that neither does Kent Austin, so it's probably not really worth trying to figure it out.

Pick: Montreal

Hamilton at Calgary:

A couple of years ago, TSN introduced a matchup between the Argos and the Ottawa Renegades as a battle that would feature both the "Knowin' Samoan" (Adam Rita) and the "Throwin' Samoan" (Joe Paopao) on the sidelines. This was unfortunate, since neither of those guys are actually Samoan. They're Hawaiian.

Hopefully Randorf & Co. have since gotten their Pacific islands straight. Because given the likelihood that Timmy Chang is starting in Hamilton by mid-season, the CFL - with its rich Rita/Paopao faux-Samoan heritage - may soon be recognized as the sporting world's premier destination for Hawaiian talent.

Pick: Calgary

Bonus pick:

All of the Argos have been injured in practice, leaving Pinball to play the Lions by himself. Overconfident from their Grey Cup win and having forgotten Pinball's awesome powers over the offseason, the Lions foolishly fail to poison Pinball, shrink Pinball or deploy some other dastardly tactic to level the playing field. How does Pinball do?*

Rusty's Pick: Pinball 73,463, Lions 0 (not even close)

A-Rad's pick: 76,246, Lions 0. (Stupid Lions.)

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

Originally this preview was going to be an ode to Jim Popp’s hair, but apparently Herb Zurkowsky of the Montreal Gazette already beat us to the punch on that one.

So besides the head coach growing out his hair, the second biggest development in Montreal was the announcement of a charity concert hosted by the Als for the Sainte-Justine Hospital and Garde-Manger Pour Tous featuring a performance by the OSM and conducted by Kent Nagano. (The OSM would be the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, for the unitiniated and clearly uncultured.) Obviously this a very worthwhile event and we're sure that everyone involved will have a wonderful time. But like every other football-related event, odds are required for recreational purposes:

-Will the Als host the event on a non-game night because they learned from the Argos’ mistake that big name acts like Shaggy and Kent Nagano don’t boost football ticket sales? 5 to 1

- Will the OSM perform Hey Baby (Will you be my girl?), widely recognized as the most popular song in the history of Montreal? 1 to 3

- Will it be a cellist or a percussionist who receives a seductive dance from a cheerleader? Cellist –130

- Over/under on number of people who will mistakenly believe that the conductor has signaled a first down when he raises his baton: 2,500

- Over/under on the number that will yell “First down Monnnnnntreal”: 2,498

Man, we're really glad we don't live in Edmonton. And not just for the usual reasons.

Apparently, twenty new Eskimos are now wandering the city without a home, unable to find an affordable place to stay.  While a little depressing, this initially seemed harmless enough - we're not talking about the Roughriders, after all. But then we realized that among the homeless Eskimos is one T.J. Acree.

In the Canadian Press report, T.J. plays a starring role as the loveable husband and father looking to provide for his family. But we recall a slightly different side of him from his days in B.C. - the one who somehow got so plastered inside a sushi bar that police had to subdue him with a taser gun on the way out.

If that's what some raw fish did to him (cue your inappropriate Eskimo joke here), we can only imagine the mischief our man will get into trolling the mean streets of Edmonton.

On a happier note, there's been copious mention through the pre-season of this being the year Danny Maciocia - rewarded for last season's last-place finish with the addition of "director of football operations" to his job description - really puts his stamp on the team. This can only end well...unless you're this guy, in which case it will probably end up with you in prison.

It's rare to see a CFL player featured in the newspaper outside of the sports section, so we were delighted by the Globe's decision to run a piece on all-star defender Byron Parker in the Auto section (they've also provided a photo gallery of Byron's ride). 

It's nice to see that Byron is thinking about fuel efficiency when choosing a car; however, it should be noted that he totally copied the "number 28 in rhinestone studs" idea from my 1998 Toyota Camry.

In any case, Parker has indicated that he's only been pulled over by the police because of his car once and we suspect that probably won't happen again.  Unless of course he's driving in Montreal. 

It's time to gaze into our crystal ball and answer all of the pressing questions about this year's Bombers.

By the end of the year, will (not the real) Greg Marshall have the finest mustache in the CFL?

It certainly seems like that'll be the case. Which reminds us, when we were at the Grey Cup launch party a couple of weeks ago (thanks again to the Argos for the invite), we noticed that Chris Schultz had...make sure you're sitting down for this... shaved his mustache. So, no 'stache for Schultz, none for Suitor and a clean shaven Rod Black... there's only one conclusion that can be reached here: George Steinbrenner is running TSN.

But back to the question at hand. The only CFL personalities who seem to be giving Marshall a run for his money are Jim Barker and Paul McCallum... at least until we start publicly demanding that Danny McManus grow a fu machu. 

How will Troy Westwood insult Rider fans this year?

None of us can ever think quite like Little Hawk. But most likely, he'll probably be amazed that no one has mistaken Eric Tillman for a gopher and tried to fornicate with him. That is, if Westwood would use the term "fornicate." 

What city will the Blue Lightning "go wild" in?

As documented extensively on this site, the Blue Lightning had a little bit of fun in Regina last year. Unsurprisingly, they were also easily the most entertaining dance/cheer team at the Grey Cup last year (Blue Thunder excluded). And let's face it - these girls are perfectionists. "Fun" in one CFL city led to a great cheer team, therefore "fun" in every CFL city will equal the greatest cheer team of all-time.

When will the Bombers finally erect a giant statue of Chris Walby?

Probably not for a while, considering how much bronze or concrete or, um, whatever statues are made of it would require. Inexplicably, the federal government decided to provide Winnipeg with funding for a new human rights museum instead of this. Shame.  
 

We know little about Mike Pearson (the football player, not the former prime minister), except that he makes Greg Mohns "elated." We have a hard time picturing that, but nevertheless it seemed reason enough to find out what we could about the newest Argo.

The best we could find is this interview from the Miami Dolphins' website, which is about as hard-hitting as you'd expect a team-sponsored interview to be. But it does contain two valuable pieces of information.

First, Pearson apparently has no sense of smell - a curious affliction, but one that will be quite useful for games at Ivor Wynne.

Second, it seems he's a devout Christian - but possibly more the Old Testament kind. Or, in his words: "I want to show them that sometimes that being a Christian, you might get a kind of a ‘Oh, this guy isn’t tough’ or something. But you can show them that just because you’re a Christian, doesn’t mean that you’re not out on the field pounding heads."

We don't want to say it totally made up for last year's East Final, because that might be overstating things ever so slightly. But, you know, it's pretty obvious that the Argos made a big statement on Saturday.

That statement, obviously, is that we absolutely own the Als when they're starting Marcus Brady. Also, that our third-string guys are so much better than their third-string guys that we don't even need a real kicker to beat them.

Seriously, though, there were some encouraging signs, mostly on offence. Things we learned on Saturday:

• Michael Bishop is capable of playing a strong first quarter, not just coming off the bench (although it still disturbs us that this guy's 31 years old).
• Mike McMahon is good enough to help us get over the all-too-short Tom Arth era.
• Eric Crouch still throws like a girl.
• With Steve Buratto in and Kent Austin marooned in Regina, the Argos may run more in the first game this season than they did in the entire first half of last season. On the other hand, they'll have at least 50% less awesome car-related advertising
• It's never too early in the season for Jonathan Brown to demand some noise.

We'd go on, but we're too busy lamenting that there's no longer somebody named Woodly Telfort on the roster. On the bright side, Woodly is presumably consoling himself at his summer home in the Hamptons.