Matt Cauz
CFL.ca
For me the unofficial start to the CFL season starts with the draft.
As an eternal optimist and a sports fan I love drafts, all drafts. Seriously I can (and do) watch seven straight hours of the NFL version and if TSN had broadcast more than two hours I would’ve spent all of Sunday listening to pick after pick of players I have never seen before. They are all about fresh starts, budding new careers and the belief that with just the right picks even your team can improve from last season’s stink bomb.
Now I’m not going to grade all eight teams performances on Sunday, quite frankly I don’t possess the breadth of knowledge to analyze whether or not Shomari Williams can help address the RoughRiders need for new pass rushers or whether or not Joe Eppele can make the jump to the CFL with such little collegiate experience. If you’re looking for that, the gentleman at CFL.ca and TSN.ca, do an excellent job of breaking down all the picks. Duane Forde has always been my favourite for that.
That doesn’t mean I don’t have some thoughts about the draft and this past off season. And since the good people at cfl.ca have allowed me the privilege to write about this league for 2010; I figured I’d share some of them with you.
I can’t promise my columns will be shorter this year since no one likes a liar but I will do my best to try to edit myself more effectively.
Here are my favourite moments from the draft that have nothing directly to do with football:
(1) It doesn’t take two minutes before the TSN crew starts busting on Chris Schultz about whether or not he can keep up with all the pre-draft trades. I rarely say this, but poor Schultz. He could win a Pulitzer (Alright that’s about a likely as Don Matthews being re-hired to coach the Argonauts) and he would still be the go to target for dumb jokes. That said all good broadcast crews need one of those guys — and that job usually falls to the former offensive lineman.
(2) Is there a smaller War Room than Saskatchewan’s? It looked about as cramped as one of those “second bedrooms” in a 650 square foot condo that MLSE keeps churning out. It would take one semi-bad fart to clear out that room.
(3) The two biggest winners from the draft were Tim Horton and Concordia. Every time TSN cut to a War Room there were always multiple shots of some Head Scout’s double-double. I hope TSN was collecting some sort of royalties. Meanwhile the 2010 draft was basically a recruiting video for Concordia. Three of the top nine picks (Cory Greenwood, Kristian Matte and Cory Watson) were Stingers.
(4) Only in the CFL can a kicker go as high a 5th … and you know what, it’s not totally indefensible considering just how much kicking actually goes on in one game. The Argonauts never win the ’04 Grey Cup without elite level Special teams play. That said, I’m sure I was not the only one to giggle a bit after Calgary took Rob Maver with the 5th overall selection. What is even funnier is Maver isn’t even the highest drafted kicker in the past five years. That honour goes to Warren Kean who was taken 2nd overall by Edmonton in 2007. Of course that didn’t work out to well for the Eskimos as Keane has played in a grand total of one CFL game. Coincidentally, Kean is currently on Calgary roster.
(5) The best moment of the draft by a long shot was the 9.5 second handshake between Rod Black and Maver. At about the 4 second mark it looked like Maver was trying to disengage but Black wouldn’t let him go until commercial.
(6) The handshake only gets the Silver Medal for most embarrassing moments of the draft. The gold goes to the video footage of Ben Cahoon dancing during the Alouettes Grey Cup parade. It looked like Mark Madsen dancing after a Lakers Championship mixed with a dollop of Elaine Benes. If I was Ben I’d instruct my agent to get TSN to burn every tape. Is it politically incorrect to suggest that white guys be banned from dancing during these events?
(7) Roger Goodell has had a great off season but I give the nod to Mark Cohon over Goodell for draft performances. Cohon took a risk with the three piece suit and it paid off. Goodell was stuck all night on Thursday while Cohon only had to put in two hours of face time.
(8) As a former alum I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t one McMaster Marauder taken in the draft. I miss the good old days of Lumsden, Koch, Botterill, Donnelly … etc. I’ll stop here before I start waxing poetic about Ben Chapdelaine to Ryan Janzen.
(9) It was nice to watch an entire football draft and not hear the words “Tim” or “Tebow” uttered once.
