Twelve men on the Field

Thursday, July 02, 2009

The final Snap -- July 2009

We review the quotables from the CFL for the month of July and archive our findings below.

July 4-- "When I think about where we are (as a league), I’m really thinking about not just this year but for the next 30 to 40 years"
July 3-- "It was just one of those nights -- it was ugly"
July 2-- "You saw a lot of Canadians rallying to our league and we're just continuing that momentum"
July 1-- "We’ve got to keep on hitting him and staying in his face"

Labels: The final Snaps July 2009

// posted by KP @ 1:22 AM

The Opening Kickoff-- July 2009

Another season opened on July 1st as the CFL once again began the long march towards Grey Cup Sunday in November. We'll track our three top stories of the day from this location, providing a snapshot of the CFL in July.

July 4-- Lumsden tries to stay positive after suffering setback
July 4-- Riders take advantage of Lions' turnovers
July 4-- Bombers not at loss for taking the blame
July 3-- Esks start juggling with Lumsden injured
July 3-- Tillman out of sight, but top of mind
July 3-- No quarterbacking controversy here
July 2-- CFL fines Bruce for TD dance
July 2-- Esks beat Bombers 19-17 in opener
July 2-- Lions' running game flexible
July 1-- Als gain revenge against Stamps
July 1-- Argonauts maul Tiger-Cats in season opener
July 1-- Five-minute gridiron guide

Labels: The opening Kickoffs for July 2009

// posted by KP @ 1:10 AM

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Week one (July 1--3)

The 2009 season kicks off with a return engagement by last years Grey Cup competitors and a long standing pair of rivals.

With a few new coaches, a few new rules and a few new players, the summer passion for Canadians begins its march to Novembers Grey Cup.

Action for week one includes:

Wed, July 1-- Toronto 30 at Hamilton 17 (23,211)
Wed, July 1-- Montreal 40 at Calgary 27 (35,600)
Thur, July 2-- Winnipeg 17 at Edmonton 19 (30,650)
Fri, July 3-- BC 24 at Saskatchewan 28 (30,066)

All games on TSN

Labels: Week one review

// posted by KP @ 9:26 PM

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Ground control to Major Tom...and over to Commander Jake!

The CFL launches its new command centre with the Wednesday kick off to the 2009 season.

This year, the on field reviews of officials calls will be made in Toronto at a state of the art command centre, where CFL officials will use high-tech and high-definition to make sure that each and every challenge call is reviewed properly and made correct.

Tom Higgins, the league's Director of Officiating introduced Jake Ireland as the leagues lead command centre official, he will bring his 557 games of experience to the replay office, helping the new crop of CFL officials perform to the top of their profession.

Ireland will be watching the same replays that those of us at home will see from our TSN broadcasts, however he will have access some toys and tools that the most dedicated football cans could only hope to have on hand, DVSport has developed computer technology that will slow down and isolate images in order to get the right perspective on any calls in question.

The system put in place for the CFL will mirror what DV Sport provides for NCAA football in the United States.

Ireland will have a light workload during his nightly watch, under CFL rules coaches are allowed to challenge two calls made by on-field officials during each game, if they are successful on those two challenges they will be allowed a further third challenge, but only if the call in question falls into one of three categories; including catch/no catch, down-by-contact, and whether the ball crossed the plane of the goal line .

Deciding whether to request a challenge is one of the strategy points for all CFL coaches, a successful one can change the direction of a game, while an unsuccessful one or poorly chosen one can leave a team empty of chances when one may be needed most.

Labels: Instant replays go high tech for CFL

// posted by KP @ 8:02 PM

Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes (NFL plans for Canada 2009)

The NFL's toe tipping exercise into a Canadian beach head in Toronto continues on in 2009, as the Buffalo Bills continue their showcase of America football at the Rogers Centre.

We'll follow the latest developments on the Bills and any other Canadian plans for the NFL through the year and post our findings here:

June 28-- Bills owner in no hurry to add games in Toronto

Labels: The NFL threat

// posted by KP @ 7:05 PM

Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Expansion Grapevine for 2009

It's not uncommon for trial balloons to be floated each year, with many suggestions for a ninth and, tenth CFL franchise and beyond.
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For years we've heard of a return to Ottawa, a move to Halifax or most recently the prospect of tapping into the Renaissance of football in Quebec with a Quebec City franchise.

We'll track this years crop of rumours and hopeful ambitions from our portal.

July 2-- OTTAWA/MONCTON-- CFL commish stays the course
June 25--OTTAWA--CFL's return to Ottawa takes an interesting turn

Labels: CFL expansion plans

// posted by KP @ 7:58 PM

Monday, June 22, 2009

Mr. Braley's Bank machine

The last week has been pretty well dedicated to the examination of David Braley's philanthropic nature when it comes to the Canadian Football League.

Braley who owns the BC Lions , apparently helped facilitate the ownership of the Toronto Argonauts for David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski, providing half of their down payment and additional cash when things got tight it seems.

In addition to that development, also relayed in the last week was the fact that he has also at times provided money for other CFL franchises, though those in need were not named, nor if the allowances have continued.

And while you have to at least admire his dedication to the game of Canadian football, is not his financial assistance somehow not a signal that all may not be well.

If one owner is having to bankroll a number of franchises at the same time to different degrees, in an eight team league that would not be considered good optics.

Going beyond that even in a larger league, to have one owner intertwined financially with a number of other teams does tend to cloud some lines of objectivity and competition one would think.

A number of years ago the idea was floated of one investor purchasing all of the member teams of the NHL and operating it in a corporate franchise plan, at the time the concept was dismissed and never even explored.

One wonders if perhaps someone didn't dust off that blue print and move it over to the CFL, all be it without sharing the details with any of the non compensated owners and league officials.

While you have to salute Braley's love for the game and his willingness to put his wallet where his heart is, perhaps seeking out some more solid financial investors might help to smooth out these occasional dips and spikes in the money flow.

CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon was busy trying to put that fire out last week suggesting that there was a need for improved transparency in such matters, vowing to work with the league owners to make sure that such events are more clearly identified in an open manner.

Better yet, perhaps the league should find a way to make sure that the member teams are on a more secure financial footing without having to tap the Bank of Dave...

Anybody have the phone number for Jim Balsillie?

Hamilton Spectator-- The Braley conundrum

Edmonton Sun-- Braley's the money man

Canada.com-- Buono never felt compromised by Braley's loan

Vancouver Sun-- Lions’ Buono stands up for owner Braley

Toronto Star-- No harm, no CFL foul, so lets all move on

CBC-- Lions owner Braley did nothing wrong with Argos loans: CFL

Globe and Mail-- Braley secretly helped broker deal

Globe and Mail-- Braley’s involvement raises red flags in CFL

Labels: David Braley league financier

// posted by KP @ 1:28 AM

Sunday, June 21, 2009

New US league could impact on CFL this fall

Despite the past history of failed efforts and a rather worrisome economic picture, a new band of football enthusiasts has launched yet another football league in the United States.

Something called the United Football League held it's first draft last week, stocking some of the spots on their four team rosters for a hopeful launch this fall.

Apparently not fearing to tread where the USFL, WFL, XFL and even the currently suspended Arena Football league went before, the United League has introduced its four member franchises, which will play in seven American cities this fall. Teams will be based in New York, Orlando, Las Vegas and San Francisco, the three neutral site locations apparently will be Hartford, Los Angeles and Sacramento.

The four debut teams selected some of the players for the inaugural season on June 19th. Former NFL head coaches Dennis Green, Jim Fassel, Jim Haslett and Ted Cottrell have all been tapped to run the four league franchises this year and assessed and selected the first batch of United Footballers.

The league will play an eight game season on either a Thursday or Friday evening starting in October leading up to the Championship game played on the American Thanksgiving Weekend.

And that is what will make things interesting for the CFL, clearly the United Football League will be waiting for the NFL cuts to filter through the system, a situation which could provide an impact on the CFL as they will perhaps have to compete for a key player that they have had their eyes on through an NFL camp.

There probably won't be a huge fallout for the CFL this year, after all, as much as it has had a troubled past at times, in the end a CFL pay cheque may be a tad more reliable than the first year UFL might be able to offer.

But if the new league should get its footing in place, next year could be a most interesting experience for the CFL especially the NFL camps begin to shed their cannon fodder, anxious to carry on a career but suddenly with a bit more leverage in negotiations

Arizona central-- Upstart United Football League moves forward

Daily Advertiser-- Fenroy decides to play in Las Vegas instead of CFL

ESPN-- Big 12 alumni Woods, Moore selected in UFL draft

Newark Star Ledger-- New area United Football League franchise to play in New York, knows it can't compete with NFL

Associated Press-- Former NFL exec Rick Mueller to serve as GM of all four UFL teams

Philadelphia Daily News-- League of their own

Labels: United Football League

// posted by KP @ 11:35 PM

House cleaning complete as the regular season approaches

The weekend renovations on the twelvemensite are complete, with a tweak here and a delete there, we're ready for the 2009 season. We'll call it the Redesign for 2009...

For those that visited our site last year you will find that the right hand info column is more streamlined this season, not as much clutter, more of our items condensed into archives or dedicated spots.

We weeded through many of the dead links and got rid of them, created some new headings to better reflect the information provided and moved our CFL team notes to the top of the page. This will allow readers to get the latest on their favourite CFL team quicker and in more detail.

Each team's link provides a variety of information from the team website, to local newspaper articles, links and bloggers that dedicate themselves to one team. This will provide the blog with frequently update information (for those times when my blogging slides) and will hopefully keep the blog more current than in the past.

I will still blog items of interest on the CFL as well, archiving them in the Team Notes or CFL notes as would be the case.

With a bit of luck the new re-design will make following the league a little easier, though we will probably tweak things as we go along. If you have any suggestions, links or other items just drop us a line at pressbox101@yahoo.ca.

Thanks for following the blog, hope that we can keep up with it through the season, making it a reliable archive for the season to come.

Labels: Re design for 2009

// posted by KP @ 10:05 AM

Saturday, June 20, 2009

CFL Notes for 2009

From this spot we log all items of interest about the CFL the 2009 season.

From web page information, to radio links, news service sites, Twelve men archive items and any other forms of content, we'll list items of interest on a league wide basis here, a quick reference spot for CFL fans wherever they may be.

Individual team reports can be found on the blog as well, which highlight details and information specific to individual franchises.

CFL home page

CFL Schedule

National Media links: