Gators (and SEC) in the CFL pt3

Since my Blue Bombers have decided to suck out loud this year, and since I can't watch a Gators game because they never get shown on the national broadcast, I'm doing this early.

I've compiled my annual list of Gators (and SEC, and probably some Florida) players who are now in the CFL. Enjoy!

Montreal Alouettes
Crompton, Jonathan (Tennessee) - QB
Green, S.J (South Florida) - SB
Rainey, Chris (Florida) - RB
Gilbert, David (Miami) - DE (practice roster)
Grissom, Cory (South Florida - DT (practice roster)
Irvin, Corvey (Georgia) - DT (practice roster)
Johnson, Jerrod (Texas A&M) - QB (practice roster)
Note: They'll likely make the playoffs. They're playing better now, having finally found Crompton. Rainey is a late addition, and has been doing some special teams work. He's playing like someone who wants a job. nice to see.

Ottawa Redblacks (Don't get me started on this name...)
Mitchell, Carlton (South Florida) - WR
Hinds, David (Florida Atlantic) - LB (practice roster)
Note: First year for this team, and it's shown. Hopefully, they'll come along for future years. They are a really young team, and have a solid base of fans and good owners.

Toronto Argonauts
Robinson, Jamie (Florida State) - LB
Smith, Brandon (Georgia) - DB
Thomas, Marcus (Florida) - DL
Note: Peaking at the right time. They were plagued by injuries in the early part of the season. Ricky Ray (their QB) is throwing like a champ.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
McGee, Stephen (Texas A&M) - QB
Masoli, Jeremiah (Mississippi) - QB
Norwood, Eric (South Carolina) - DE
Lewis, Jeremy (Miami) - OL
Figueroa, Joel (Miami) - OL
Laurent, Ted (Mississippi) - OL
Ellingson, Greg (Florida Int'l) - WR
Harris, Jacory (Miami) - QB
Dile, Marc (South Florida) - OL
Coleman, Antonio (Auburn) - DE
McDuffie, Quincy (Central Florida) - WR (practice roster)
Ojomo, Adewale (Miami) - DE (practice roster)
Note: Spent the first half of the season getting their butts kicked up and down the field. Masoli is awful, and should never start again, in my humble opinion.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Washington, Demond (Auburn) - DB
Johnson, Bruce (Miami) - DB
Hickman, Greg (Florida Int'l) - DL
Note: Started 5-1, and they just keep losing. Disappointing from every perspective.

Saskatchewan Roughriders
Green, Marshay (Mississippi) - DB
Thomas, Carlo (South Carolina) - DB
Burton, Pierce (Mississippi) - OL (practice roster)
White, Marcus (Florida State) - DL (practice roster)
Note: I hate this team so very very much. I wish them nothing but injuries across the board. That said, they tend to find a way to win (usually with some help from the refs, if you asked me), so whatever.

Calgary Stampeders
Bennett, Fred (Florida State) - DB
Simpson, Juwan (South Carolina) - LB
Fuller, Jeff (Texas A&M) - WR
Bolden, Demonte' (Tennessee) - DL
Note: The powerhouse of the league. Again. Nothing new here.

Edmonton Eskimos
Curran, Rennie (Georgia) - LB
Guyton, AJ (Central Florida) - SB
Sorenson, Justin (South Carolina) - OL
Watkins, Patrick (Florida State) - CB
Note: Biggest turn-around from last year. These guys are playing superb. Real contenders for the Grey Cup.

BC Lions
Clarke, Steven (Vanderbilt) - DB
Taylor, Courtney (Auburn) - SB
Note: Unpredictable. They'll win easily, then struggle against weak teams. They might cross over to play in the Eastern Semi Final (oh, the crossover rule... it's wild), but they'll need Montreal to lose the rest of their games to do it.

@FrozenGator,
Rainey seems a good fit up there...Wish there were MORE Gators playing North (always wanted to see TT up there--thought he'd be a star AND potentially some city's future "beloved icon", not to mention HE'D have loved it too, imo). It's a speed league, and kicking is a big deal, of course, so I doubt these Muschamp-teams'll be sending too many more your way (our WRs don't belong at the COLLEGE level)--but it'd be SOMETHING I could root for without qualification. (And as far as TV telecasts, clearly you are missing little but frustration and disappointment THIS season)
Btw--what IS "the crossover rule"? I've heard it referred to, even details "explained--but can't quite believe it is what I understand it to be. What is its purpose? More eligible teams=more games-to-show on TV?

TT would be amazing up here. But, he only wants to play against the best, which means NFL or nothing. If I were to have one criticism about his character, that would be it - he won't accept the best available right now, even if it means having nothing. It's myopic and, I think, selfish. Even arrogant. And since I love TT in a way approaching man-crush, it pains me to say it.

The crossover rule is for the playoffs. It allows the teams with the best record to appear in the playoffs. So...
If the Blue Bombers (currently in the West) had a better record than the 3rd place team in the East, they would cross over and become the 3rd place team in the East for the purposes of the playoffs (or vice versa, if the Eastern team was stronger than the 3rd place Western team). See, in a 9 team league, it's possible that the 3rd place team in a division could have a 5-13 record. It was seen as unfair for them to get into the playoffs, but a 9-9 Western team miss out because of the division's strength.

What's weird is that, in theory, the BC Lions (the Westernmost team) could go to the Grey Cup to represent the Eastern division. I don't like that.

An alternative would be to do away with divisions. Just the top 8 teams make the playoffs. It's how the AFL (Australian Football League) does things. The issue there is that the Grey Cup has a rich tradition of being an East-West rivalry. It does no one any favours to lose the tradition.

And then there is the fact that Toronto seems indifferent at best about football. Yes, even the NFL. So, if the Argos have REALLY bad seasons and don't make the playoffs, fans quickly lose interest. They're basically like the Dallas Stars of the NHL - if they don't make it into the playoffs, it's hard to find people in their city who really care.

Thanks for the update. I had lost track of Gators in CFL.

That reminds me...can you imagine Timmy Tebow in Australian Football? That would be awesome! I just do not know how well he can punt.

To be honest? I don't think he'd do well in the AFL. It's SO different from our football... the ball is weird, they punch the ball to pass it, they have to dribble it every 10m.... it's nutty. Plus, taking a mark is at times inviting grievous bodily harm.

(I love the AFL. Unlike the Gators, I actually GET AFL here... weird, right?)

I used to see more AFL games on ESPN than I did FSU games. Now the world has gone to crap I cannot watch a single, dadgum sports channel without seeing Forced Sex University on the TV. If this is what the NCAA wants out of its student athletes, then we should switch out our disciplinarian coach for a lying, cheating, snake in the grass that gets away with everything on the way to winning national titles. To that end, I would rather watch AFL, which is exciting and is free of all the drama of NCAA football, and is more exciting than the NFL. I would love to see Timmy making marks and running through other players in AFL.

FrozenGator said:

TT would be amazing up here. But, he only wants to play against the best, which means NFL or nothing. If I were to have one criticism about his character, that would be it - he won't accept the best available right now, even if it means having nothing. It's myopic and, I think, selfish. Even arrogant. And since I love TT in a way approaching man-crush, it pains me to say it.

The crossover rule is for the playoffs. It allows the teams with the best record to appear in the playoffs. So...
If the Blue Bombers (currently in the West) had a better record than the 3rd place team in the East, they would cross over and become the 3rd place team in the East for the purposes of the playoffs (or vice versa, if the Eastern team was stronger than the 3rd place Western team). See, in a 9 team league, it's possible that the 3rd place team in a division could have a 5-13 record. It was seen as unfair for them to get into the playoffs, but a 9-9 Western team miss out because of the division's strength.

What's weird is that, in theory, the BC Lions (the Westernmost team) could go to the Grey Cup to represent the Eastern division. I don't like that.

An alternative would be to do away with divisions. Just the top 8 teams make the playoffs. It's how the AFL (Australian Football League) does things. The issue there is that the Grey Cup has a rich tradition of being an East-West rivalry. It does no one any favours to lose the tradition.
And then there is the fact that Toronto seems indifferent at best about football. Yes, even the NFL. So, if the Argos have REALLY bad seasons and don't make the playoffs, fans quickly lose interest. They're basically like the Dallas Stars of the NHL - if they don't make it into the playoffs, it's hard to find people in their city who really care.

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I must say I agree with both your reasoning and "judgment" re TT--"pains me" too. He even had a chance to PLAY in the NFL, at least to "get a shot" with the Browns, and didn't take it. Never explained, but it was his "last gasp chance", anyone could see it, and personally I thought he must have found that particular "offer", with it's less-than-optimistic, "no guarantees", "player-to-be-named-later" vibe surrounding it, somewhat demeaning, or at least less than he figured he deserved and/or would get if he stuck to his guns. I even agree with a good deal of that assessment (everything but the last part--again, any objective view screamed, "Last chance, kid!")--but what difference does "what's right and just" make when it comes to pro-football, or life itself, when all's said and done???
Speaking of "Gators who could tear up the CFL"--and here's a guy with REAL and MANY "personality issues"--what to make of the whole Percy Harvin saga? Thing is about the Seahawks, while I'm surprised by their decision (it must have resulted from some pretty raw incidents, AND a lotta stuff we know little or nothing about), they ARE maybe the one team that has the depth to even consider cutting loose such a talented player (he's still a one-man game-changer, when he gets in there, doesn't have SOMETHING keeping him off the field--and when his HEAD is in the game) plus a coach who's always thinking about perfecting what he's got AND looking towards a future he's confident will be his, if he so chooses. Meanwhile, the Jets are desperate, Seattle didn't even USE him as a WR, and must see it as a net gain for THEM. Still, Harvin's ability to repeatedly "catch lightening in a bottle", do it at just the right moment, isn't something you can just "replace". On balance, it still surprises me..."principle" counts for nothing in the NFL (or successful college football programs either--let's face it, friends), so he must have really have f'ed up, regularly, for them to dump him, no matter WHAT the needs-filled/perceived-potential of the "they got WHO?"-level group of players they gathered in return.
Finally, thanks for that clear and succinct explanation of "the crossover rule" in the CFL. Makes sense--well, seemingly not as much as simply pitting the best "x-number of teams", record-wise, as you note, but even that makes sense in its own terms as you explain them. The CFL has its own rich traditions, "tradition" and the long history of "The Grey Cup" and doing things a certain way being a big part of the way the CFL/"Canadian-rules Football" distinguishes itself from its American counterpart. Big part of how and why Canadian society in general, in many ways small and large (spelling, Thanksgiving--belated "Happy T-Day" to y'all, btw), continues to keep from being more diluted, even DROWNING in the sheer power-of-numbers (of people and DOLLARS) of its loud, over-bearing southern neighbor. (Sooner or later, though, that absurd scenario you fear WILL come to pass; Ridiculous, with Canadians no doubt groaning AND laughing at themselves when it does...)

I do not mean to derail the conversation, but this site has never been very favorable to my comments on Percy Harvin. So, here it is again: I am not a fan of Percy Harvin. There. I said it. He is the most electrifying football player on the field for the 10 minutes of production you can get out of him, but for the other 50 minutes of the game you can guarantee that he is a distraction, a nuisance, or a drag on the team--whether that team is wearing Florida orange and blue, Seattle "college Navy and action green", or any team colors.

I will stand on my soapbox for hours and show you 10,000 ways that Timmy Tebow was the star of the Gators and not that pansy, Princess Harvin. Harvin has earned this treatment from the NFL due to his poor behavior on and off the field.

Escambia94 said:

I used to see more AFL games on ESPN than I did FSU games. Now the world has gone to crap I cannot watch a single, dadgum sports channel without seeing Forced Sex University on the TV. If this is what the NCAA wants out of its student athletes, then we should switch out our disciplinarian coach for a lying, cheating, snake in the grass that gets away with everything on the way to winning national titles. To that end, I would rather watch AFL, which is exciting and is free of all the drama of NCAA football, and is more exciting than the NFL. I would love to see Timmy making marks and running through other players in AFL.

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God, ain't it the truth???
I mean, I don't think it's "cognitive dissonance" or anything: When we were "up", few years back, seemed to me we were FINALLY getting the kind of coverage/attention that the other "big programs" get all the time, had ever since I can remember. Now FSU wins a Championship after YEARS of relatively somewhat floundering (getting virtually equal-billing with us the whole time, btw), and suddenly they're like, EVERYWHERE. 'Course, Jesse Palmer doesn't have quite the podium someone like Lee Corso (FSU "Homer/grad" who competes with "the leprechaun", Lou Holtz, for "where's it on his sleeve"/high-profile "Irish" nutcase) has on "College Game Day, and Jesse (being a nice guy, "typical level-headed All-Canadian Boy" anyway) isn't that kind personality to begin with--AND actually tries to be fair, impartial, "even-handed", and if-anything errs on the side of taking pains to NOT lean towards his alma mater during telecasts (more's the pity).
(Btw--weird how Holtz himself, the man who BROUGHT Steve Spurrier to USC during his time there as AD, has chosen to ignore that portion of his career, has managed to virtually ERASE it from the (TV-)record, in favor of this cartoonish persona he now wears...Guess its "good for biz", for himself, ESPN, everyone concerned, so they all go along for the ride...Just a side-thought that irks me some)
Back to "Forced Sex"-U (and that continues to be a strange "parallel-track" issue that they AND Winston are allowed to continue to finesse--and meanwhile the whole "follow-on to Free Shoes", the same kid now caught following the program's long tradition of key-players breaking NCAA payment/reimbursement rules and the NCAA doing back flips trying to give them room to wriggle out of it, or at least not let it break 'til AFTER the season)...
If you wanna understand why the HELL so many of the major programs still HAVEN'T formed up and walked AWAY from the NCAA, which seems more and more in their own best interests in so many ways (above all FINANCIALLY), you have to start right there--at "the cover" they get from this "ruling body" SEEMING so "upright" and strict, but on closer inspection, makes sure it's powerful "connected favorites" are given every opportunity to minimize the effects of transgressions and the time to MAXIMIZE successes. Somehow, the media have gone along, seemed to have by now vested interested in success for the very same schools.

Back on topic, what the heck is a "Redblack"? I can make fun of the team, since there are no Gators on that one.

Escambia94 said:

Back on topic, what the heck is a "Redblack"? I can make fun of the team, since there are no Gators on that one.

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@FrozenGator, Your response, bra'? (I LOVE all this minutia, coming as it does from the long "tradition" you mention above, that distinguishes the Canadian Game from ours down here--vive la difference!--and is likewise part of why it is so tightly held onto up there.)

Escambia94 said:

Back on topic, what the heck is a "Redblack"? I can make fun of the team, since there are no Gators on that one.

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I said don't get me started... and here you are, getting me started....

Ottawa was called the Rough Riders (not to be confused with the Sask Roughriders - the former referred to the logging industry that built the Ottawa area, the latter to cavalry people viz Teddy Roosevelt), then the Renegades. Throughout, red and black were their colours (a brief dalliance with gold notwithstanding). That's the history.

With the announcement that Ottawa's team was returning, speculation ran high about what the name would be. And when I say "speculation," I mean it in both senses: wondering and financial guessing. People started to register all the best ones they could think of, knowing that if the team wanted it, they'd have to pay.

Also, given that the population of the National Capital Region (which includes Ottawa, and Gatineau in Quebec across the river) is 88% bilingual (67% of people would suggest I made that stat up, but it's a bunch), they wanted a name that would easily translate into french - Rouge et Noir. A few college teams in Quebec have names similar (Laval Rouge-et-Or, for example), and it seems to work.... but whatever.

So, Redblacks. A name not even a 12 year old would have considered. I think it's perhaps the most moronic name I've ever encountered in professional sports, but no one owned it already, so there's that. I hope future generations will forgive us this travesty, but that'll only happen if they start winning.

FrozenGator said:

I said don't get me started... and here you are, getting me started....

Ottawa was called the Rough Riders (not to be confused with the Sask Roughriders - the former referred to the logging industry that built the Ottawa area, the latter to cavalry people viz Teddy Roosevelt), then the Renegades. Throughout, red and black were their colours (a brief dalliance with gold notwithstanding). That's the history.

With the announcement that Ottawa's team was returning, speculation ran high about what the name would be. And when I say "speculation," I mean it in both senses: wondering and financial guessing. People started to register all the best ones they could think of, knowing that if the team wanted it, they'd have to pay.

Also, given that the population of the National Capital Region (which includes Ottawa, and Gatineau in Quebec across the river) is 88% bilingual (67% of people would suggest I made that stat up, but it's a bunch), they wanted a name that would easily translate into french - Rouge et Noir. A few college teams in Quebec have names similar (Laval Route-et-Or, for example), and it seems to work.... but whatever.

So, Redblacks. A name not even a 12 year old would have considered. I think it's perhaps the most moronic name I've ever encountered in professional sports, but no one owned it already, so there's that. I hope future generations will forgive us this travesty, but that'll only happen if they start winning.

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I really thought it was a joke, that "Redblacks" thing...I mean, I'd MISSED that whole ERA of "Renegades", then no team at ALL, then The Return To the Capital and the whole Naming Debacle--just scanned through it all NOW online before responding here. Geez--but it IS all SO "Canadian": Second largest country-by-landmass in the world, what, at least 30 million people by now (even if they are rather sparsely sprinkled outside that "200 mile band" near the US border), and you all STILL manage to do everything, at least act and make it SOUND "small town". But it's also done with out-sized style and panache, frostback-style of course--I mean, there's a lotta BUCKS among a handful of (mostly old-moneyed) families and individuals up there, so (what most Americans don't grasp) all the funny little rules of "cultural and national self-protection" and the crazy characters the media up there revel in covering, it all plays out in a big, expensive, "First Class Sandbox". These are expensive toys they are playing with, often played on a lavish stage--and when its not, it's 'cause of "tradition" and the love a particular region and proud, insular regional-population of fans have for "the old place", etc. That's my impression, anyway.
Which brings us back to "red and black"="Redblacks", which also begins with an "R"...and after that, I mean, there are "reasons", and then there is "reasoning". Sometimes ya just gotta step back and say it aloud, whatever "it" is, see/hear it, and realize, "No, that's DUMB!" Apparently, no one did. Or at least, not near enough.
My Dad had a saying (he had a few, but they WERE good ones) that seems to apply here:
"A camel is a horse designed by a committee."

(On a SIDE-note to the above, regarding GATOR football--which we're ALL doing our best to make THAT a "sidenote" to OUR lives at the moment--the better to wall off the pain of it all, and the outright terror of finding ourselves plunging in freefall thru' darkness, wondering when we'll hit bottom and how BAD that is going to be when, IF it ever comes...)
You are in fact SAVED the full brunt of this pain in NOT being able to watch these games--The reality of us being in the WILDERNESS of media-coverage, part of our rapid return to ignominy since the Championship and TT years. If you wanna get a FEEL at least for how IT feels (Short "Lowlight"-sequences--we don't HAVE "highlights" anymore--on Saturday "TSN" wrap-up shows don't even BEGIN to do justice to our Suckdom, nor to the results of a Coach's colossal failure) to be more "plugged in", connected to our team and program right now, I recommend you at least scan thru' the "Groundhog/GAME Day" thread we bummed our way through this past Sat evening here at GE--and be GLAD you are NOT getting the full, 1st-person "effect", FG. There are sites online where you COULD watch an edited-to-45 minute version of each game--but I can't recommend such self-abuse to a fellow Gator. Likewise, you CAN now get the WRUF, live-from-The Swamp telecast of our homeboy announcers' play-by-play each week on your mobile phone, and again...well, I'll put the link up again if you need and want it, but...well, you know...

Yeah. For fun last week, I watched CFL with the kids and played a game of AFL with some Aussies at the park. For punishment for not doing the dishes this week, I made the kids watch the Gator game.