Bombers Release Shabazz

Your hype doesn't last long in the CFL (unless, of course, you're Jesse Lumsden). At the beginning of last season Siddeeq Shabazz was one of the most talked-about defensive players; yesterday he was released.

This is just the most recent in a long line of changes on the defense. First, it was Defensive Coordinator Mark Nelson being replaced by Kavis Reed (uh-oh), then it was Jonathan Hefney, then Gavin Walls, then Barrin Simpson, and now Siddeeq Shabazz.

That is a lot of turnover for a defensive unit that actually wasn't half bad last season. The defense was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise miserable season that saw the Bombers finish 7-11 and miss the playoffs.

Back to Shabazz. The guy is talented, can deliver one heck of a hit and could have been a good player for the Bombers in the future. I really don't understand why he was released. Unless the team is trying to get rid of the players that defined, and I use this term loosely, the "Mike Kelly Era," I don't get why a team would release a player that it just acquired in a trade just over a year ago.

I now begin to wonder, like I do with every good player who gets released, whether or not he'd be a good fit for the Tiger-Cats. While he is talented, I just don't see a spot for him on our roster. He couldn't play Linebacker because those positions are filled by Markeith Knowlton, Jamall Johnson and Otis Floyd. He can't play safety because we got that spot locked up with Dylan Barker and, to a lesser extent, Sandy Beveridge. There really is no role that Shabazz could fill on the Ti-Cat defense.

Obie has a saying, "Better is better," but while I think very highly of Shabazz, I don't think he is better than anyone we currently have at the positions that he plays. I trust if he were added the team would find a place for him, but I will be surprised if he's donning the Black & Gold in 2010.