Ticats Sign Linebacker, Timmy Chang Charged

The Cats have signed linebacker Jamall Johnson, who played for BC last year. Last year he had 33 tackles, with six sacks, which is interesting. He played his university ball at Northwestern State, which apparently is in Louisiana, although you wouldn't know it from the name. I'm wondering if the experiment with Dennis Haley starting at linebacker is over after a single game. So much for training camp and preseason evaluation.

Jesse Lumsden apparently intends to be back this season. I assume that's the football season, not the bobsledding one.

In other news, former potential Ticat savior Timmy Chang was arrested in Hawaii on a fairly lame charge. The meth addiction can't be very far in the future. I suppose I dodged a bullet not buying a Chang jersey.

David Naylor's Football Blog

David Naylor has a new football blog (both CFL and NFL) over at the Globe and Mail. He has an interesting post about how the backers of the Lansdowne Live proposal to bring back the CFL to Ottawa (again) are also backing the return of CIS football to Carleton. This is a good plan, both for optics and for increasing the amount of Canadian talent available in the CFL. Frankly, the CFL could do more to support CIS football, including trying to start more university programs (funding more minor football wouldn't hurt either). In Ontario, Brock doesn't have a football team currently but has a decent number of Hamilton students. Maybe the Cats and the CFL could get involved in trying to start a team there, although admittedly it wouldn't be easy.

Naylor has another post asking if there is another team in pro sports where the fans consistently wear jerseys of past players rather than current stars. Certainly I think Ticat fans wear such past player jerseys, but I think part of the reason is the crapitude of the team over the recent era and the massive turnover even among good players. Case in point, a Zeke Moreno jersey. Good player, good nickname, good candidate for getting a jersey, suddenly gone. Picking a current player on the Cats is a real crap shoot and frankly a Setta jersey as mentioned in the post does have more certainty that he will stay around for a few years than other players. How many Timmy Chang or Casey Printers jerseys were bought and then cast aside?

Timmy, we hardly knew ye

So erstwhile Ticat saviour Timmy Chang has been released by the Cats. And then immediately picked up by Winnipeg. Having seen the Riders smothering Kevin Glenn in their victory over the Bombers, it is probably only a matter of time before the call starts to go out in the Winnipeg fan forums to give Timmy a chance. Good luck Timmy. For a Cat who never really did anything, I always hoped you and your superlative NCAA stats would do something.

In other news, perhaps a little more surprising, offensive tackle Marko Cavko was released (and totally too, no practice roster bullshit) before the Labour Day game. I guess we're going with Jonta Woodard and Charles Thomas at the tackle spots and I have no idea who is backing them up. No one really seems to know why Cavka got released. Seems odd considering how mediocre Woodard and Thomas are. I guess we will get the Cavka equivalent for this year when another tackle joins us after the NFL cuts are done, only to get cut half way through the season next year.

I watched a bit of the Riders game today and Bishop does what Bishop does: ride a good team defence to victory with less than a 60% completion rate. I really thought the Riders would bomb out the rest of the season with Crandell in charge along with all their injuries, however Riders GM Eric Tillman made a surprisingly good move. Don't look for Bishop to do much in the playoffs though. Hopefully the Riders will beat the Bombers next week in the Peg, giving the Cats a chance to break free from fourth place. Timmy!