Photo by John Griffiths. The CFL is a league of second chances. And, more than most teams, the Argonauts are willing to grant an opportunity to players who've discovered how unforgiving other leagues can be towards injuries and indiscretions of personal conduct. With the new season kicking off this evening, the Argonauts look to improve on last year, when the team finished first in the East, but fell apart in the playoffs. Despite an......

Many of you have sat behind, beside, adjacent to, or perhaps even in front of (on a particularly unlucky day) that one doofus at the ball game who will not shut up, constantly exhorting his precious "team" to "win the game." He is only able to continue this abominable behaviour due to a combination of the celebrated Torontonian reserve and mild inebriation of his fellow fans. You've probably seen him at the Leafs or......

Stéphane Dion says that Canadians are smart enough to accept a carbon tax, and he seems willing to bet the next election on it. It's awesome that we have an opposition leader too naïve to recognize that however revenue-neutral and environmentally beneficial his plan is, this may not be the most politically savvy time to hike gas prices. Senator Larry Campbell, concerned about the future of the Canadian Football League, is preparing a bill......

An up-close look at the Grey Cup trophy reveals countless dents and scratches attesting to the long and colourful life of probably the most disrespected and abused trophy in sports. Since being donated by Canada’s 9th Governor General, Earl Grey, the trophy has been head-butted, sat on, and snapped in half. It’s been abandoned for years at a time in bank vaults and hall closets. It’s been forgotten in empty stadiums and hotel rooms......

The Toronto Argonauts can turn this Sunday’s Eastern Final into the perfect kickoff for the upcoming Grey Cup festival. If the Argos beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to reach the championship game, it'll give a huge boost to the week-long party, also known as “Canada’s national drunk.” Brad Watters, general manager of this year's Grey Cup, says that the team winning the 95th Grey Cup at home "would really turn the town on its......

Hey, remember Nuit Blanche? You know: that all-night cultural art thing a little over a month ago that maybe wasn't all that great. That thing. While the city did a pretty spectacular clean-up job, they've missed a spot: a sign sturdily attached about ten feet up a pole outside the Isabel Bader Theatre at Queen's Park and Charles Street on U of T campus still welcomes visitors to Zone 3, and invites them to......

The NFL is coming, sort of, to Toronto—and already, rumours of the CFL’s imminent demise are being greatly exaggerated. News that the Buffalo Bills—an erstwhile powerhouse languishing in competitive irrelevance and financial uncertainty—are planning on playing a couple games a year in Toronto isn’t surprising; if anything, what’s surprising is that it hasn’t happened already. Toronto has been courting the NFL for decades, and the Bills, whose long-term survival in Buffalo is in jeopardy,......

Photo by Flickr user captiveight from her Rider Nation album. One of Toronto's invisible expatriate communities will emerge this evening for a sporting event and cultural celebration rolled into one. While other immigrant communities can anchor themselves in cultural festivals, community groups, or neighbourhoods, ex-Saskatchewanians have a football team: the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders. The team squares off tonight against the Toronto Argonauts at the Rogers Centre. The Riders are coming off a string of......

The Over The Top Festival starts today—the real one, not the CFL event. The next four evenings will find bands, films and dance performances filling various downtown venues. Having originated in 2002 as the "Toronto Indie Pop Festival," past festivals have line-ups have included Grizzly Bear and Amy Milan. The 2007 line-up continues in this vein, most notably bringing singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston, subject of the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. The full schedule......

Over The Top Festival organizer Eric Warner has issued a letter to the Canadian Football League to cease and desist use of his festival's name. Warner's annual event, featuring diverse programming in music, film, and theatre, is now entering its sixth year in Toronto, while the CFL is promoting its fall Grey Cup events also as "Over The Top Festival". Warner's "Over The Top Festival" arrives on May 3rd, bringing acts such Daniel Johnston......

An audit of litter on Toronto's streets shows that Mayor Miller is on to something. The amount of litter on our streets is down 40% from 2002. The Mayor credits investment in city streets (ie. garbage cans, street cleaners) and you, dear citizen. High-profile lawyer Peter Shoniker is spending 15 months in jail for money laundering. Shoniker is well known among many of the city's powerful and during his court case received words of support......

With Torontoist's past two "sports" entries being titled "Toronto Bike Posts Both Strong and Vulnerable" and "We've Got a Thing 'bout The Post-and-Ring" (the first installment of the two-part series on our city's bike posts), the Adorable Sports Writer feels like it's time to re-capture the floor. And what better time for a comeback. Whether good or bad, not one of our city's pro teams has been without its fair share of headlines over the......

This Torontoist is slowly becoming a sports fan (as if.) After watching 1.5 Stanley Cup games, (my first hockey games ever,) and with plans to go to a baseball game, I'm a changed man. The plans are to see at least one game of each sport... Yes, even the CFL. But now to the NBA. They had their draft on Wednesday and our cuddly Raptors had the number one pick! Who did they choose.........

As mentioned previously, this Torontoist knows nothing of sports. Despite this setback, the willingness to learn (and report on) a thing or two is there. This Saturday, The Argos are battling the Tiger-Cats in the 2006 season home opener. This marks the beginning of their journey... no, not to the Golden Fleece, but to the Grey Cup. This is, of course, what The Oracle has told Torontoist. While the kickoff is at 3pm, the......

Watching or listening to the CBC right now is painful for Torontoist. We quite like our nation's public broadcaster and seeing all these unfamiliar faces, anchors with British accents and endless repeats is making the news and Cancon junkie in us really depressed. And what's with the game with no commentary, granted it is just the CFL but I don't know if we can watch an entire hockey season like this. It also seems that......

Even Torontoist, not normally one for football, had to laugh about yesterday's Argos-Stampede game in Calgary. It was your everyday CFL affair until Argonauts Robert Baker (pictured) and kicker Neil Prefontaine got involved in a little bruhaha on the sidelines. Prefontaine gave Baker a quick "how-do-you-do," which Baker responed with a close-up look at his knuckles. Maybe TSN can describe the event a little better: Baker and Prefontaine got into a heated argument on the......

Two things you may not know: The Toronto Argonauts won the Grey Cup last year (go team!), and a select group of coaches and players (the Argos are a diverse group, counting disgraced NFLers, tireless vets and All Canadian sports studs among their roster) are offering sports-dumb women a unique service: a crash course in the rules of the game and initiation into the eternal mysteries of the CFL. So ladies are you interested? No,......

Craig White, Graphic Designer...

With the year coming to an end, Torontoist takes a look back at the sporting highs and lows of the past 12 months. Here's the best, the worst, and of course, Vince Carter at his wimpiest in 2004. 1. Argos Win the Grey Cup What else can we say about Mike Clemons’ pinballs? With no hockey and a worthless NBA team, the CFL gave Toronto something to cheer about. 2. Ron Artest & the Indiana......

With the NHL lockout dragging on, its players have been adopted as the starving students of the sporting world. Gentlemen, you can put down the Kraft Dinner, relief is on its way. Bob Goodenow and the Player’s Association have announced plans to help their members’ stuff their pockets back inside their pants. 730 locked out players will be receiving compensation in the amount of $10,000 for the months of November and December, with additional payments......

The Toronto Argonauts won the Grey Cup last night, beating the BC Lions by a lot of points. Expect weeks of celebrations by the city's "argonuts", beginning with a victory parade on Tuesday at 11 A.M., from Union Station to Nathan Phillips Square. AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGOS!......

At first, it seemed a little odd that Toronto Argonauts' coach Mike "Pinball" Clemons was left off the CBC's "Greatest Canadian" search. This man has devoted his entire playing career to the CFL's Toronto Argonauts, and now has led the team to the Grey Cup final as a head coach. The case for Clemons as the "Greatest Canadian," however, is quickly derailed by the fact that he's from Florida. Still, Clemons has taken the underdog......