Results tagged “cfl”

"The way I've approached it, to make it right in my head, is you start a series off at 2nd-and-10," Bart Andrus, the former NFL assistant hired in January to coach the Toronto Argonauts, told the National Post. "That's my thought process." It might just be a throwaway comment, but it might reveal deeper implications that the fifty-one-year-old California native is approaching the season with assumptions that are fundamentally at odds with the Canadian game. Argos fans have heard it before.

Anticipating the arrival of the NFL's Chicago Cardinals for a pre-season exhibition game against the CFL's Toronto Argonauts on August 5, 1959, The Star's Jim Hunt asked the obvious question: "Argos against the Chicago Cardinals—the mismatch of the century or a football game?" The Argos, who'd dominated the CFL for most of the early twentieth century, were now in the early years of what became known as The Dark Ages. The league's perennial bottom-feeders between 1953 and 1983, the Argos went nineteen years between Grey Cup appearances and thirty-one years between Grey Cup victories. As if to make up for their on-field futility, according to Jay Teitel's The Argo Bounce (T.H. Best Printing Co. Ltd., 1982), the franchise simply tried to play with big league style by signing one big-money player after another. In this, the team seemed to reflect Toronto's post-war insecurity and its ambition to prove itself a world class city. With the huge success of the 1959 exhibition game—with 27,770 fans in attendance, it was the largest crowd to watch football in Canada at that time—the Argos hosted similar exhibition games in 1960 and 1961.

Two months after Cito Gaston returned to the dugout for the Blue Jays, Don Matthews is back in double blue as head coach of the Argonauts. Can it be long before Pat Quinn's back with the Leafs? Let's hope not, but like Gaston's return, Matthews's third stint in Toronto will likely have a positive impact on the team.

Not so many of those bright red packs would be seen at an Argonauts game nowadays due to legislation, unless one pokes out of a fan's pocket.

Photo by John Griffiths.

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 Jays game—in fact, we know you have. Know why? Because he was paid by the Leafs and Jays to be there.

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.

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.

Photo by Flickr user captiveight from her Rider Nation album.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Baker and Prefontaine got into a heated argument on the sidelines as the receiver made his way off the field, with both players clutching each other. As teammates and head Clemons tried to get between the two, Baker threw a left-hook that hit with such force it knocked Prefontaine back several steps and sent his hat flying.

Continue reading "Fists Fly Between Angry Argos"

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.

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.

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 in the $5,000 - $10,000 range for subsequent months. Although the lockout pay will be appreciated, a year’s salary will only amount to $65,000 or so, and this isn’t the CFL. What kind of player can realistically live on that kind of money these days? Wade Belak? With the Holiday Season just around the corner, it’s lucky these guys have millions banked away.

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 Boatmen all the way to the final against the B.C. Lions this Sunday in Ottawa, the first time since 1997.