Sign #542: They signed receivers that graduated from Duke and the University of North Carolina on the same day.

It's nearing that midpoint of the season when we start to go into potentially dangerous CFL withdrawal. So it's entirely possible we were hallucinating tonight when we saw a report about two hot prospects the Argos are auditioning.

After all, we were in a bar...and the sound was off...and Pinball was wearing a pinstripe suit inside a practice bubble. But so far as we could tell, that was Mike McMahon throwing the ball. And the guy catching it was Freddie friggin' Mitchell.

Honestly, we don't know what to think of this. On one hand, this is not exactly the combo we were hoping would lead the Argos into their Grey Cup-hosting year. On the other, we've been a little starved for material lately. And around the point The People's Champ is shocking the world by not knowing the names of the Saskatchewan Roughriders' secondary, we're going to have material to spare.  

Update: On the bright side, at least Freddie's learned to stop trying to "boil the ocean." He's also the oldest-looking 28-year-old we've seen in a while - unliike McMahon, who has "charm and charisma" and thus a place in Adam Rita's heart. 

The question I was asked the most during this week at work was whether or not Indy would cover the spread (it should be noted that prior to Grey Cup my co-workers just asked who I was cheering for without the spread being mentioned, but that's a rant for another time).  In any case, it brings up a good question.  If you are an Argo fan, without a gambling interest, who do you cheer for tomorrow?

Well, Indianapolis has two key things going for it. 
Federekeil - who we selfishly hope is an Argo ASAPFirst, as every media outlet has reported this week, Indy employs the Argos first round pick from last year and argofans.com member, Dan Federkeil.  Secondly, the Colts did CFL fans an enormous favour by using Kerwin Bell as a backup QB for a year.

That being said, Indy is also the team that cut former Argo Mike Vanderjagt, and they employ Peyton Manning, which cancels out the positives.

With that in mind, I think that we'll simply steal a page from the Baltimore fans who come to Grey Cup every year.  This year we're cheering for beer. 

Most teams have scouting departments; as far as we can tell, the Argos just print off a list of former Heisman winners and go from there. Of the past 22 guys to be named college football's top player, five have turned up in Toronto at some point - from the thrilling (Doug Flutie) to the less so (Rashaan Salaam, Andre Ware). And just to cover their bases, they've also picked up a couple of the runners-up, most memorably Rocket Ismail.

With last week's re-signing of Michael Bishop, though, the Argos have achieved something truly unique. With Bishop  combining forces with Ricky Williams to form the league's most overqualified cheerleading squad, we now have both the 1998 Heisman winner and his runner-up. Which leaves only one question: When does that year's illustrious third-place finisher get here?

When you think about it, it's a perfect fit. Pinball loves reclamation projects, and Cade McNown - identified by his Wikipedia entry as "one of the biggest busts in NFL history" - is a beauty. Enough with drug abusers and former gang members; let's see what Pinball can do with a guy who, as chronicled rather neatly here, was busted for using a handicapped parking pass, quarrelled with toll booth operators, skipped out on charity events, fought with fans, claimed a crazed Vietnam vet was trying to kill him, was banished from the Playboy Mansion, and stole Tim Couch's Playmate girlfriend.

Actually, those last two are kind of impressive. Sadly, though, Cade is now married to a woman who apparently thought he was Wayne Gretzky's driver, which may preclude him from taking over the Spergon Wynn role. And to be honest, we really only would have wanted this guy around if Robert Baker was still available to punch him in the face.