With it being well into 2007, we thought we'd steal a page from every media outlet/blogger/writer/drunken New Year's Eve partier and take a look back at some of our favourite people of 2006. Some impressed. Some dazzled. Most just amused, and only occasionally intentionally. Enjoy. (And we promise to finish this up before training camps open).

Number 5: Rod Black

Moist.  Glistening.  Clean shaven.

Rod looking a bit more comfortablePrior to this year, none of these adjectives could have been used to describe CFL play-by-play man Rod Black, but one off hand comment to a friend of radio host Barry Taylor at a Ticats-Stamps game, and now they're all in play. Quite frankly it didn't matter what he did for the rest of the season.  For us, 2006 will always mark the year that we became haunted by the image of Rod Black's balls.

With it being well into 2007, we thought we'd steal a page from every media outlet/blogger/writer/drunken New Year's Eve partier and take a look back at some of our favourite people of 2006. Some impressed. Some dazzled. Most just amused, and only occasionally intentionally. Enjoy. (And we promise to finish this up before training camps open)

Number 6: Shake Severs

It would be criminal of us not to recognize the contributions this year of Mr. Shake Severs. Sure, he may have played somewhat poorly at the start of the year.  And, yes he became a big enough distraction on a team that featured Ricky and Bernard Williams that he was released, but he did help the Argos out immensly by choosing his rap career over a stint in Winnipeg.  Given how close the East semi was, a Bomber receiving corps featuring Uncle Milty, Derrick Armstrong and Shake Severs may have put Winnipeg over the top.

The UGA mascot apparently had no love for Shake Severs' rhymes while he was at AuburnOur lone disappointment was that Shake was unable to secure a place on the Grey Cup week bill with Tom Cochrane and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.  Maybe next year.

For thwrating the hopes of the Bombers, and releasing his much anticipated followup to It's Critical (thank you to commenter Big Lou for the heads up), Shake Severs receives the prestigous honour of being number 6 on our top 10 of '06.

With the year quickly winding down, we thought we'd steal a page from every media outlet/blogger/writer/drunken New Year's Eve partier and take a look back at some of our favourite people of 2006. Some impressed. Some dazzled. Most just amused, and only occasionally intentionally. Enjoy.

Number 7: Etienne Boulay

Let the record show that nobody stacked up better this year than the man who put two Ds in defence. Really, there isn't much to say here beyond the obvious: Va-va-voom!

(Okay, here's the problem. Jokes about Etienne Boulay's team photo were pretty much the easiest thing we could do this year. So we'd already selected him to our illustrious Top 10 and written our celebration of his assets when we discovered, to our horror, that the Als have now taken his photo down. We're just going to assume this is because Etienne got back from the Grey Cup, Googled himself and found about 18 Boatmenblog posts pointing to his ample bosom. But as good as that makes us feel, our hearts break for those who missed two of Canada's finest natural wonders.)

UPDATE: Thank you Google cache.  

With the year quickly winding down, we thought we'd steal a page from every media outlet/blogger/writer/drunken New Year's Eve partier and take a look back at some of our favourite people of 2006. Some impressed. Some dazzled. Most just amused, and only occasionally intentionally. Enjoy.

Number 8: The Blue Lightning
No, we do not have pictures from the Regina incident

Prior to starting this site we didn't really pay much attention to the exploits of other cities' dance teams.  So if asked at the start of the year which squad would be featured most prominently on the blog this year, we would have guessed Toronto's own Blue Thunder, or perhaps the Als' cheerleaders. Lesson learned: Never underestimate Central Canada.

In an event that will live on forever in the folklore of the Regina hospitality industry, Winnipeg's Blue Lightning terrorized the patrons of an unsuspecting hotel by singing and occasionally running around topless into the wee hours of prime time. (Unsurprisingly, the title of that blog entry seems to be very popular with the search engines)

Back on their home turf at Grey Cup Week, the Lightning delighted the throngs of inebriated football fans by actually having some fun with their routine and incorporating both football plays (Vegas set the over/under on the number of tight end jokes made during that performance at 200.5) and an unmistakable taunt of Jermaine Copeland and friends with a  fake bobsledding routine. 

Jermaine, we highly encourage you to avoid retaliating until after Danny Mac has retired, because the Lightning's brand of terrorism might very well kill him.

With the year quickly winding down, we thought we'd steal a page from every media outlet/blogger/writer/drunken New Year's Eve partier and take a look back at some of our favourite people of 2006. Some impressed. Some dazzled. Most just amused, and only occasionally intentionally. Enjoy.

Number 9: Jack Todd

There is, we acknowledge, no shortage of competition for the most unintentionally enjoyable columnist covering the CFL. And even though none of them are Rod Black, most have at one time or another been in possesion of a genuinely outstanding mustache. But one man truly rose above the pack.

We had some inkling of how truly craptacular the Gazette's Jack Todd could be a couple of years ago, when we saw him on a panel the weekend of the '04 East Final (which ended rather unfavourably for the Als, as we recall) predicting that the Argos didn't stand a chance because they had a "cheerleader" on the sidelines while Montreal had Don Matthews. But either he didn't go all the way off the deep end until this year, or it just took us a while to notice.

Ironically, much of Jack's best stuff revolved around some sort of feud with that same Don Matthews. Whereas at the start of the year he was waxing poetic about The Don's "impassioned" speeches to the team and gleefully predicting a Grey Cup win, by mid-season he was explaining that Matthews should be fired because scalpers were having a hard time selling tickets. When The Don finally was replaced, he wrote a triumphant column explaining that he had to go because he wasn't nice enough to reporters - which, as we all know, is the primary consideration for most fans.

To cap off the year, there was his insightful pre-Grey Cup column, which apparently involved Jack falling asleep with his mustache pressing down on the "o" key. But what really earned him this illustrious spot on our list was his brilliant coverage, much earlier in the year, of the Als' blowout win over the Argos at Molson Stadium.

See, like most middle-aged sportswriters, Jack was clearly excited by the opportunity to bust out a bunch of pot jokes when Ricky Williams was signed by the Argos. But cruelly, by the time the Argos played their first game in Montreal, Ricky was hurt and out of the lineup.

Now, a lesser columnist would've set aside those jokes and written about the guys who were actually on the field. But not our man Jack. No, sir. Or, as he would say, nooooooooooooooooo sir! Undaunted, he cranked out an entire column that existed solely to let him work in zingers about the munchies, second-hand-smoke, Ricky's "burnt-out roach of a career" and the Argos competing for "the Grey Hookah."

That's gold, Jack. Gold. And yes, we know that if you repeat that to anyone, you'll tell them it was "Mexican gold." Because that's just the crazy kind of guy you are.

(Is it too early for New Year's resolutions? Because we're pretty sure we have to make one never to write this much about Jack Todd again.) 

With the year quickly winding down, we thought we'd steal a page from every media outlet/blogger/writer/drunken New Year's Eve partier and take a look back at some of our favourite people of 2006. Some impressed. Some dazzled. Most just amused, and only occasionally intentionally. Enjoy.

Number 10: Lesley Stewart

We start our list with the person who got us the most Google hits of the year (it came as a mild shock to us that more people look for photos of Lesley Stewart than Scott Coe).  This was a banner year for Lesley, who:

1. Took two former Argos cheerleaders with her to Hamilton, which started the biggest controversy in the CFL in 2006: Cheer-gate 

2. Was possibly the most senior member of the Ti-Cats organization not to be fired in 2006

3. Instructed members of the Prowl to remove their jackets during the team's routine at the Grey Cup, delighting the crowd and giving three girls frostbite.

Now, as for all of the people who come hear looking for photos of Lesley, we'll throw you a bone... so to speak.