Adios Casey Creehan

And now we can say it is official. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are in the market for a new defensive coordinator as Casey Creehan is off to Winnipeg.

When the rumours started to swirl back in November, I touched on some of the guys I thought would be candidates for the job. The list included Greg Marshall, Gary Etcheverry, Mike O'Shea, Orlondo Steinauer and Chip Garber. We can now add Jeff Reinebold to the list as well.

I won't go into detail on each of them, but I will say that Marshall, Etcheverry, O'Shea and Steinauer would be fine candidates. All of them have coordinating experience and that is something I would like to see in the next defensive coordinator. The last two hires the team has made, Casey Creehan and Corey Chamblin, cut their coordinating teeth with the Ti-Cats and neither had much success. I would pass entirely on Reinebold and Garber. They may have experience, but they haven't had success.

And if Dee Webb has his way, Orlondo Steinauer will be the guy. Webb took to Twitter earlier today to stump for the Argos defensive backs coach.

"Bring Orlondo Steinauer back to the jungle," Webb tweeted out at 9:35 this morning.

Of all the possible replacements I've named, Steinauer has the least amount of experience. He was the Argos defensive coordinator in the second half of the 2011 season after the Argos fired Chip Garber and moved back to DB coach when the Argos hired Chris Jones. I think Steinauer would make a great defensive coordinator and would support his hiring fully. He may lack the experience of the other potential candidates, but if you look at the work he did with Toronto's secondary this season, you can't help but be impressed.

Another name to remember is Tim Tibesar. He was named the defensive coordinator in Montreal last year before abruptly leaving that position to take up the same one at Purdue University. But with the firing of Purdue head coach Danny Hope, Tibesar is free. He might be a long shot, but he has CFL experience, so keep his name in the back of your mind.

Unlike last year's head coaching search, I don't expect this coaching search to last almost six weeks. The Ti-Cats will do their due diligence, but they probably won't drag this out. I don't know when a new defensive coordinator will be named, but I'd be surprised if we didn't know who he was before Santa comes down the chimney.

Renewing Seats for Guelph

By now, Tiger-Cat season seat holders have had their renewal information mailed to them regarding what the procedure is for renewing season seats for the 2013 season in Guelph. This information has been out there for a while, but I wanted to wait until I received my annual renewal form in the mail before commenting on the rumours.

The rumours are now indeed true: Tiger-Cat fans will be paying an extra five dollars per game for seats next season. The surcharge is to help offset the cost of erecting temporary seats at the Alumni Stadium.

There has been a lot of uproar about that, with many angry that they will be paying higher prices when promised no increase and that they will pay more for worse facilities. The increase when none was promised bugs me a but, but not all that much. I understand why others would be angry, since the team promised one thing and gave us another, and that does anger me, but paying the extra five dollars does not. The idea that fans will pay higher prices for worse facilities is, to me, a non-issue. I didn't pay my money, and I doubt any of you did either, at Ivor Wynne Stadium because of the world-class amenities. I paid my money so I could watch a football game live in person. I paid more money to watch games in Moncton and Montreal, and neither of those places had great facilities. Moncton was a bunch of portable toilets and food tents, while McGill's bathrooms and concession lines were no better than Ivor Wynne's. So paying more to get less isn't a big deal for me in this situation. If others are bothered by paying these prices at Guelph, I understand; however, it doesn't bother me.

That said, there are a couple of things that do bother me, and bother me quiet a bit. The first thing is asking us to renew by December 14th to ensure 2012 prices for our seats. That falls 10 days before Christmas, which is not exactly a time when many people have extra cash floating around. But that's just a small quibble about the timing. The bigger one is that they are asking for our money before we know when the games will be played. I know that is standard operating procedure, but nothing is standard about this upcoming season. The team should have given fans a chance to see the schedule before forcing anyone to make a commitment. With the extra commuting time, some who will put down money might wish they hadn't when the schedule is released sometime in February.

The other thing that bugs me is the tiered access to seats at the new stadium in 2014. When we all reupped in 2011 for 2012, the promise was that 2013 would have no impact on 2014; now they've pulled a bit of a bait and switch and are now tying 2013 purchases to 2014. This annoys me on a couple of levels. For starters, newer season seat holders could jump the queue over those that have held season seats for decades simply because they have no problem travelling 10 times to Guelph. Secondly, I sit in a large group, so if one or more of us do not decide to purchase seats for 2013 (which I am still on the fence about) we cannot be guaranteed seats with one another the following season. I'm more annoyed by the former than the latter, because I will simply not buy tickets in 2014 if my group cannot sit together. But people who have been loyal patrons of the Tiger-Cats for three, four, five decades shouldn't need to worry about whether or not they will have their seat in the new stadium.

I have been pretty supportive of the Ti-Cats in every stage of the stadium mess, but this I cannot support. The tiered access to 2014 seats and forcing fans to pay before knowing what the schedule will look like is just wrong. The promise going in to 2012 was that those purchases, not any potential 2013 purchase, would be the determiner for 2014 seats. Now they are saying something else. And by making fans pay six months in advance, they are treating this season as if it is no different than any other season. The problem is, that 2013 is completely different. I understand that paying for seats before the schedule is out is standard operating procedure, but there is nothing standard about this upcoming season in Guelph and the team needed to recognize that and adjust for it.

I am disappointed in the Tiger-Cats for what looks like outright lying to their fan base last season. When they didn't know what 2013 held, they were fine with making promises to their fans; now that they know where they will play in 2013, it seems is if they are fine with breaking those promises. They are acting as if this season is like any other when it is very clearly not. Circumstances changed and the team needed to be more flexible when asking for season ticket commitments. They did not and I find that very disappointing.

My Grey Cup Weekend

When it was announced that the Grey Cup would be in Toronto, I knew I was going. When tickets went on sale in May, I got them immediately. And when this past weekend rolled around, I was excited to take in some of the Grey Cup festivities more than I was to go to the game.

I attended events on two days, Saturday and Sunday. My weekend kicked off by going to Nathan Phillips Square for the pancake breakfast. A pancake and sausage round was given to everyone in line (and a cool paper cowboy hat, that I wore with no hesitation). It was exactly what you'd expect, but it was still good.

After that I headed down to the Royal York to attend Mark Cohon's Fan State of the League address. It was an hour and a half sit down with the commish, hosted by Rod Black. The place was packed and Cohon said that this was the most well-attended of his four Fan State of the League addresses. For the most part, Cohon seemed to have fun and the questions were mostly good – save one really odd one about keeping the footballs at a certain temperature – and Tom Higgins, the head of officiating, even came up to answer a question about the refs (and he made a comment that will definitely come back to bit him in the ass today, at least from my perspective). I had a question to Cohon about new media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, podcasts, etc.) but didn't get to ask it. This might have been my favourite part of the weekend because this was the one thing that was most hardcore football thing there. The rest of the stuff was fun, but it was more geared towards the casual fan or families, whereas Cohon's powwow with fans was about the nitty gritty of the CFL.

After that finished, I went to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to see the Scotiabank Fan Zone. This wasn't bad, but it was very obviously set up for families. That doesn't bother me, but it wasn't football-y enough for me. I checked out all three floors and the Hall of Fame memorabilia was probably the coolest stuff I saw. The stuff in and around the convention centre would have been great if you had little kids, and that is exactly what I saw there Saturday afternoon.

I didn't, as originally planned, hit any of the team parties. As much as I hate to admit it, those things just aren't my bag. I'm not much of a party guy. I don't drink, I don't really like the style of music that these places play and I'm not much of a mingler. It just isn't my thing. From what I've read and heard, people who went had a blast, which is great.

So Saturday ended and Sunday arrived, which meant heading to my old stomping grounds at the University of Toronto to take part in the Grey Cup Fan March. While I was milling around before things got started, I was interviewed by CityTV. I was asked a couple of questions and answered them as best I could. I was caught off guard and maybe stammered a bit (I was literally tapped on the shoulder and interviewed live on TV), but being interviewed on TV was pretty cool. I also got a chance to get a picture taken with Steve Paikin (as you can see above). Everyone knows him mostly from moderating the federal leaders' debates, but I found out something that people might not know (or at least I didn't): he's a huge Tiger-Cat fan. He was wearing a blank gold jersey underneath his jacket (again, as you can see) and opened it up to take a picture with me. He chatted with me for a couple of minutes and he couldn't be a cooler dude.

Then it was the march itself. When I saw how many people were there, I didn't think there was any chance I'd get to hold the Cup and I was OK with that. It was still cool to be involved in something so massive (there were a ton of people there). But around the ROM, a man approached me and handed me a wristband to go hold the Cup. That was where the fun of the march ended for about an hour. The march was very unorganized and getting to the front to to hold the Cup was ridiculous. You needed a wristband in order to hold it and they didn't make that well known, so people were pushing to the front without wristbands in the hope of carrying the Cup. And you were trampled, pushed out of the way and you basically needed to be a jerk in order to actually get your turn. Lucky for me, I am a jerk and got to the front to hold the Cup. Another friend of mine got to as well, while the two other people I was with were constantly thrown around by security and other fans. It was a complete mess, and as cool as it was to carry the Cup down Yonge Street, I wouldn't do it again. The people at Sun Life (who organized the event) really need to do a better job in future years of organizing things. It was a mess and took a lot of fun out of actually getting to carry the Cup. Not all the fun of course, but the abuse I took and knowing the abuse that others took really put a downer on what should have been one of the coolest things I will ever get to do.

And that was it for the festivities for me and I headed to the game. And boy was it a let down. I was bummed that Calgary didn't win, didn't like that Toronto did, but I was disappointed more by the sheer dullness of the game itself. It was sloppy football all around and it looked like neither team wanted to actually win the thing. Calgary's play calling left a lot to be desired, and the Argos continued their year-long campaign to be considered the biggest goons in the CFL. Seeing the biggest buffoon of them all, Adriano Belli, get kicked out of what is hopefully his final CFL game was a highlight for me. I have made it no secret that I despise everything about Belli and think he is everything that is wrong with professional sports. He gives the league and the sport a bad name and no one deserves the ignominy of being ejected from the Grey Cup more than that a-hole.

But my biggest beef was with the absolutely terrible job the officiating crew did. I made mention of a quote from Tom Higgins at the Fan State of the League address and how it would bit him later. This is that later. During a question about how bad the officials in the CFL are, Higgins said that the crew that would do the Grey Cup were "the best of the best." If Sunday's crew is the best, I'd hate to see the worst. Not watching at home makes it hard for me to comment on certain penalties, like a facemask call on a dump-off pass to Chad Kackert in the first half that I didn't see (the facemask was obviously not on the guy who tackled Kackert), but there were two that will stick out in my mind as horrendously botched calls, both of which benefited the Argos. The first was a non-roughing call on the big Nik Lewis catch and run. Lewis was tackled by his neck and had his helmet ripped off his head, yet no call was made. Later in the game, a similar tackle took place on Jon Cornish and the refs did call it. I am fine with mistakes, but inconsistency has always bothered me. Usually, it is game to game, but this was within one game. Either they missed the first one or incorrectly called the second one, but it is clear that they did not get both calls right and that is something I cannot stand.

The second missed call still boggles my mind almost a day later, and that was the controversial Dontrelle Inman catch. Inman caught the ball and landed at the one-yard line. Toronto challenged that he crossed the goal line before being down, but the call was upheld. The problem with that call, however, is that Inman didn't catch the ball. He never had control of the ball and when he hit the ground, the ball came loose and landed on the turf. That's an incomplete pass and I don't understand how it could be ruled any other way, yet it was. The officials in this game should be embarrassed by their performance and if I hear Tom Higgins ever say that the CFL's refs are the best in North America, I will find a way to smack him in the mouth.

And because I was so disgusted by the product on the field, both by the two teams and by the officials, I did something I had never done before: I left the game early. I walked out of the Rogers Centre SkyDome at the three-minute warning as a personal protest to the garbage that took place on the field during the game. And my walking out early paid off as I was interviewed once again, but this time by a radio station that I could not identify (if you heard a guy blasting the officials, but praising the way Toronto hosted the event, that was me).

And I'd be remiss if I didn't touch on maybe the worst part of the whole weekend (and I think this will be universal): Burton Cummings' rendition of O Canada. That was probably the worst national anthem I have ever heard (yes, worse than the O Tannenbaum guy). He held the end of the French part way too long and he messed up the words! "We stand on guard, we stand on guard for thee"? No, you egotistical idiot, those aren't the words. He forgot "God keep our land, glorious and free" as well. The crowd was singing along and that is not the time to decide to take liberties with the anthem. Check that, there is never a time to take liberties with the anthem. Sing it the way it is supposed to be sung. Burton Cummings was a complete disgrace last night.

So while there were both highs and lows, I think my first Grey Cup experience was an overall enjoyable one. I think Toronto did an excellent job of hosting the event and if the Argos winning sparks new interest in the CFL in that city, then I guess that's a good thing. If the game had been better, I'd likely not be as negative as I am likely coming off, but it was a fun weekend and one that I will happily do again when the Cup is played in these parts (Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, maybe even Montreal) in the future.

Williams Named Top Special Teamer

In what should come as a surprise to no one, Chris Williams was named the CFL's Most Outstanding Special Teams Player for 2012.

Williams was outstanding in every way in 2012 and he was especially so on special teams, where he set a league record for return touchdowns in a season with six. He is the first Tiger-Cat to be named the league's top special teamer.

Williams was thrice named the CFL's special teams player of the week and twice named the special teams player of the month. Picking Williams was a slam dunk... except for one person.

Williams received 56 of a possible 57 votes, which means just one person voted for BC's Tim Brown. I am curious who the joker was that voted for Brown. No offense meant to him, but seriously? Williams was the best special teams player by a wide margin (and I'd argue that the second best played on the same team, Tiger-Cat kicker Luca Congi). This strikes me as the same silliness as when a baseball player isn't named on 100 per cent of Hall of Fame ballots even if they are undeniably a Hall of Famer. Whoever didn't vote for Williams knew that Williams would win, so instead cast a pity vote for Brown. If there was ever a player who deserved to be an unanimous selection, it was Williams this year.

The league handed out their other awards as well. JC Sherritt was named the league's top defensive player, Jon Cornish was named the top Canadian, Chris Matthews took home the top rookie prize, Jovon Olafioye was named the best offensive lineman, Brian Bratton won the Tom Pate Award and the most overrated player in the CFL (whose name will no longer be mentioned here) was undeservedly named the Most Outstanding Player.

While Williams was great on special teams, I'd argue that he should have also been named MOP (instead of you know who). The argument against Williams has been that he played on a 6-12 team that didn't make the playoffs, but I don't think that criticism has a lot of merit in an MOP race. An MVP race, absolutely, but not an MOP one. Williams was more outstanding in every measurable way to the guy who won (and to Cornish) that it is stunning he wasn't the winner of the award. The guy that won the award put up a paltry six touchdowns to Williams' 17, had just 11 more catches and 30 more receiving yards than Williams, and only got as much publicity as he did because he broke what is one of the most meaningless records I can think of (after QB wins): a total yards record.

That player had over 3,800 total yards, but a whopping 1,588 came on kick returns. Getting a lot of return yards is not impressive. All that record proved was that the Argos gave up a lot of points and that allowed that player to put up those numbers by returning so many kickoffs. He had more kickoff returns than any other player, so even if he had a mediocre year returning the football (which he did, since he had no return touchdowns) he had more opportunity to put up yards. Yet somehow he is the MOP and Williams is not.

There is no question in my mind that Williams was the most outstanding player this year and I honestly don't believe that No. 2 was even close.

Panthers Cut Medlock

After missing his last three field goals, Carolina Panthers decided to part ways with former Tiger-Cat kicker Justin Medlock yesterday.

Medlock started the year going seven for seven after beating out incumbent Olindo Mare in training camp, but a sputtering Panthers offense rarely gave Medlock a chance to be a difference maker. Of his seven field goals, five came in one game against the Chicago Bears. Medlock's recent misses were the least of the Panthers' worries, but it is far easier to cut a first-year kicker making than it is to release expensive running backs and quarterbacks.

Now the inevitable questions will come up as to where he will kick next. One place we can rule out: Hamilton.

You will find no bigger fan of Medlock's than myself, but there is no way that he ends up back in Hamilton. Another CFL team, sure; maybe even another NFL team. But he won't be the Tiger-Cat kicker/punter in 2013.

The team moved on from Medlock last season by replacing him with Luca Congi and Josh Bartel. Congi had an all-time great season and Bartel was named the team's top rookie. Both filled Medlock's shoes extremely well and the team has no reason to replace either player. Both being non-imports helps as well. As much as I'd like to see Medlock back booting kicks for the Ti-Cats, we can put a pin in that right now. It ain't gonna happen.

So where Medlock ends up next is anyone's guess. But even if he doesn't land another NFL gig and does come back to the CFL, he won't be doing it as a Tiger-Cat.