I went on an epic trip to the 2016 Grey Cup yesterday. I was on one of five buses loaded with Ottawa Redblacks supporters. We headed to Toronto at 9:00 A.M. in the morning and came back to Ottawa at 4:00 P.M. the morning after. It wasn't before 4:30 P.M. when I came home and I didn't sleep until 5:15 P.M. and I had to get up early to go to work but it was all worth it. It was an absolutely memorable, legendary, nearly life-changing experience that I enjoyed from start to finish and I had the chance to witness the most intense sports event I have ever attended which ended with a dramatic victory for my team. If you ever have the chance to go on such a trip, don't think twice about it. It's a blast!

It was indeed a timeless classic of Canadian football! (And not just because our team won.) Only in Canada would this happen: a 8-9-1 team squeezes into the championship, takes a 20pt lead on the runaway best team in the league into the 4th quarter ... then seemingly does everything possible to give it away. Fumbles, interceptions, even dropping an onside kick recovery that would have ended it; and capped off by this not exactly picture-perfect catch https://youtu.be/7k6nEPGG1po
That is the CFL!! The people of Ottawa, wandered the desert for 40 years, now we've returned to the Promised Land and our Cup runneth over
PS I would have loved to join you on the bus to Toronto, but I've only just started eating solid food again after a poorly-timed tooth removal.

Anyone else watch the F1 season finale? I'm massively pleased that Rosberg finally beat Hamilton to the title, even if all of Lewis's fans will put it down to reliability (which is kinda true, but it's also part of the game). Always felt Nico was a bit underrated given his performances for Williams and pre-2014 Mercedes and how he outclassed his other teammates. Just unfortunate to be partnered with one of the best guys on the grid the last few years right when he finally had a shot at the title. I guess beating Lewis makes it all the sweeter for him though now that he has done it.

Plane crash in Colombia kills almost entire football team Chapecoense from Brazil.
The team was going to play in the finals of the Southamerican Cup against Colombian team Atletico Nacional.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... bia-latest

Wait the CFL championship is actually called the Grey Cup? What does the MVP get, the Beige Medal?

We're not much for flashiness up here. We like our trophies Grey, like Ottawa in November.

It's actually named after Canada's governor general Albert Henry George Grey

Tonight, I'm going to watch the second leg of the MLS Eastern Conference Finals between Montreal Impact FC and Toronto FC. I would have almost bought tickets for the game but I didn't want to have two roundtrips from Ottawa to Toronto in less than a week. If Toronto FC makes it to the MLS Cup finals, this game will be played in Toronto though and I might try to go there since it might be a rare opportunity to assist such an event.

How about those Raiders? Carr and Mack are fucking magical.

Did their game against the Chiefs get moved to an actual TV network besides NFL network? Hoping so, because goddamn is the AFC West fun right now.

I have no idea, but TNF always seems to have a Twitter stream now which is surprisingly good.

Cold weather + messed up finger apparently spells doom, because that was easily the worst game of Derek Carr's career. Nauseating.

KC was also off their game but pulled through (two turnovers in two minutes in the third quarter, unbelievable).

Hill was THE MAN tonight, tho, he's gone from chump to champ this season.

I'll say it again: when they're clicking, the Chiefs are Super Bowl contenders. I've maintained for a while that if they'd go for big plays and just air it the fuck out, they could be a top 5 team. If they win out, they've got a first round bye in my mind.

You can say that about half the teams in the league, though. Only the worst teams never have those magical games where everything clicks and they rack up a ludicrous number of points. But come the playoffs, most of those teams can't pull it off for three straight games, much less four. The Giants are practically the only recent exception I can think of - the Giants played "better" teams in the playoffs both times, the Patriots should have beaten them both times, but they managed to "click" for a solid month.

The Chiefs are a good team, no doubt, but they're still a longshot for the Superbowl imo.

lol chargers

It is, unfortunately, going to be New England and Dallas in Superbowl. New England versus Seattle would be a GREAT Superbowl rematch.

Derek Carr is out for the season. What a horribly disappointing end to a magical season. Ugh.

Holy shit, that Steelers-Ravens game was the most exciting game all season. Huge win against a strong team.

Bummed out that wasn't being broadcast in my area. From what I hear, y'all earned that playoff spot

That was a fucking game, dude. Once the Steelers got two touchdowns on sub-three-minute drives I knew they had it in them to pull it out. Brown stretching to reach the endzone is already iconic. I think I was ululating for a good three minutes after that.

I couldn't watch it either, and I live about 40 miles from Pittsburgh :-\ (I don't have cable, so I don't get the NFL network) I ended up listening to it on the radio, and I'm glad I did. Though, as much as I liked the exciting finish, hopefully they'll be a little more consistent throughout games come playoff time...

I don't really like the Raiders, but nonetheless, that really pissed me off. It looked like a total cheap shot where the guy deliberatly tried to injure him as opposed to just an accidental bad landing. It was similar to what happened to Hyde from the 49ers (the team I DO root for)- a total cheap shot, dirty play that took out their main (and in the 49ers case, ONLY) offensive weapon. Hey at least the 49ers won another game right?? But even as a non-fan, I feel bad for the Raiders, because at least their team had a legitimate shot in the playoffs.

It will hurt tremendously when the playoffs start, but with a fortress of an offensive line, a strong running game and stud receivers, if any team could get it done with a backup QB it would probably be this one.

That is possible, and it's also possible that McGloin could put together a run similar to Jeff Hostetler's when he stepped in for Phil Simms 25 years ago and helped the Giants win the Super Bowl. However, even though the Raiders are not by any means down and out yet as the playoffs are concerned, and Carr's injury is terrible to say the least, the part of this situation that pisses me off the most is that the Raiders' defense failed to clamp down on the Colts while leading them 33 to 7 half-way through the third quarter. If the defense had taken care of business at that point, Carr could have potentially sat for the rest of the game, but no, they just had to let the Colts hang around until the end, and look what happened...

Yeah, the first half of the game was ROUGH. Big Ben threw two really horrible interceptions deep in Pittsburgh territory, both of which turned into scores for the Ravens. Luckily the Pittsburgh Defense did a great job at holding the Ravens to FGs instead of TDs, but they could've been a lot better at stopping Baltimore's running game, and they let Flacco squeak out a completion on way too many 3rd downs.

Really, it was one of those "A Tale of Two Halves" games. Pittsburgh played like the fucking Browns in the first half (after that awesome opening drive), but in the second half they played like serious Superbowl contenders. If they can play like that second half and keep Ben, Brown, and Bell all healthy, we have a good shot at knocking out the Patriots and winning the conference.

anyone else following the cricket? Nice Garry.

I really don't see Dallas making it to the Super Bowl. They haven't gone up against an offense like the Falcons all season, and if Green Bay continues to play like they have the past few weeks, I don't think they can beat them either. Honestly, the Cowboys better hope that they get the Lions again, because there are a lot of bad matchups for them in the NFC otherwise. I can see anyone out of the Packers, Falcons, Giants, and Seahawks making it, but I lean towards the Falcons or Giants.

The AFC is less interesting in my opinion. The Pats historically do very well against teams like the Chiefs and Texans, and not as well against teams like the Broncos and Ravens. Fortunately, the Ravens and Broncos are out, so I think it is going to take a Steelers team firing on all cylinders to go into New England and beat them. I think we will see New England beat Kansas City in the divisional round, Pittsburgh beat Oakland, and eventually New England beat Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship.

I personally want to see New England and Green Bay in the Super Bowl, but I worry about Green Bay having to get through a tough team like the Giants or Seahawks on the way.

I've always said, ever since I was a kid, that if the Super Bowl came down to Dallas Vs New England, I wouldn't watch it. I'd go out and steal cars instead. This year seems to be the year I'm going to need a bigger garage.

Even though I am a Steelers fan, I would pay any amount of money to see a third Pats-Giants, Brady-Manning Superbowl in which the Giants pull a miracle victory out of their asses at the last second. Can you guys imagine that shit happening for a THIRD time? I think Belichick would spontaneously combust if that happened.

Defending world junior hockey champions Finland drop to 0-2 after getting beat - for the first time EVER - by piddly-assed Denmark. Not that it was a triumphant performance by the Danes, who squeezed in their three goals on ten shots then hung on for dear life. They literally killed their own power play in the second period, spent almost half a minute ringing the puck around behind their own net. I love it when totally oddball stuff like this happens!

Very true. I think the Cowgirls are highly overachieving. They got a lot of talent but have faced a very soft schedule. They do not match up well against well balanced teams. Their non-conference opponents is the AFC North. The Bengals are back to being the Bungals. They barely beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh (who had not found their stride) and got the underachieving Ravens at home. The Browns ... lol @ Cleveland.
I believe they can lose against all of those teams but the only two I would bet on are Seattle (Only if healthy at that point) and New York.
I do not see even Pittsburgh winning in Foxborough. This season is all about making Asshole Goodell wear egg on his face.
I would like to see Atlanta make it so that it could at least be someone new. Green Bay may be winning but the only good team they have beaten is Seattle and that was inevitable. Seattle has gotten lucky more often than not, so they were due for a beatdown by the Pack. Would that happen again though, especially if it is IN Seattle? I would say no. The most exciting storyline for current SB possibilities is a Patriots/Seahawks rematch. I would have said Pats/Giants but that lost a ton of its narrative with the departure of Tom Coughlin.

- An aside: Not sure of your knowledge of football history but since a championship game has determined the champs of the league (1933), two teams meeting for the NFL title(Be it a Superbowl or not) three times with the same coach and QB for both has only occurred one other time. When that happened the team who was clearly inferior overall(both in the seasons they won the title and during the era) won said title against the clearly superior team. The Patriots have clearly been the superior team to the Giants (in 2007, 2011 & since Eli entered the discussion[2004]) but have not been on those two Sundays.
- - The last time that happened? 1952-1954. Cleveland Browns (Paul Brown & Otto Graham) vs. Detroit Lions (Buddy Parker & Bobby Layne).
- - - Bobby Layne's overall record in 9 years? 80-48-4 & 3 NFL Titles. Otto Graham's overall record in 10 years? 114-20-4 & 7 NFL Titles. Ironically, of Otto's 3 championship losses, there was one fluke catch by the other team (so while on the sideline) in two of them, costing him a sure victory, so could have - maybe even should have - been 9-1 in what we now refer to as the Superbowl.
- - - - The third meeting saw Cleveland post the largest margin of victory (46 points) since the 1940 NFL Championship, 56-10. The largest margin in a SB is 45 by San Francisco, 55-10. So Cleveland still has the second largest victory in the 82 years of what we now call the Superbowl.
- - - - - Since history has repeated itself in this point I am making thus far, maybe the Patriots would destroy the Giants - which I admit would be awesome to see Goodell have to hand Brady the trophy with such a resounding victory - but, still, a Patriots/Seahawks rematch would be a great rematch.

I think I love football too much

Seattle's been pretty inconsistent this year, and there hasn't been a late-season run like last year. I'd be legitimately surprised if they made it to the bowl again; they're just not as good as they were.

I'm thinking the NFC comes down to the Cowboys or Falcons with the Packers and Giants as the dark horses.

I'll reserve my predictions until after the regular season is complete. Like I did in 2012 when I picked the Ravens-49ers Super Bowl and everyone laughed... yet it came to pass. Every other year I've jumped the gun and been way off.

If my Pack wins the Super Bowl I'll become a Yankees fan. Because if we beat Detroit on Sunday night, we have to host the Giants, and the Giants always seem to suddenly be perfect when the playoffs start. We've never fucking beaten them in the playoffs in the Eli Era.

Dallas vs. New England seems more likely at this point.

Junior hockey update: Canada slaps Latvia 10-2. Latvia switches goalies in the second period, and the new guy allows goals on each of his first four shots against I just expected better from a goalie whose name is Mittens.

Also a big-ass lol at this: Slovak couple on the kiss-cam, boyfriend chugs beer instead. Poor girl

Rousey is really getting a lot of bad press from all angles. They built her up into something she couldn't possibly come out of on top.

Also, she acts like she can't even take a hit, her reactions are almost cartoonish.

She is the Royce Gracie of women's MMA. I respect what she has done for the sport, but you can only be one dimensional for so long before other competitors become much more well-rounded and relying only on Judo doesn't do you any good.

It's been a long time since I really kept up with MMA, but I used to be really into it. So with my outdated view, it seems like Rousey is becoming well acquainted with the Lyoto Machida Planet. Dominated for a long time, got to her head, people figured her out, now she's not only losing but losing HARD. What I remember of her before I fell away from the sport is that she excelled with the ground game and submissions. According to a buddy of mine who is still closely following the sport, she recently got a new trainer who has been steadily moving her away from her strengths. That's why twice now she's abandoned that sick ass armbar she's got and tried to stand up against better strikers, and why twice in a row now she's been punched into the shadow realm. I'm not sure how she could recover unless her star power really is that strong still, because even the best fighters only need one or two bad losses before nobody is scared anymore.

Lyoto Machida is another one too. No one knew what to do about his karate style, and he was able to frustrate his opponents easily with his movement and technique. Then people started to figure him out and he was much less effective. He still hung in there for quite a while though. His title fight against Chris Weidman is one of the best back and forth middleweight matches I've ever seen, and that was four years after he lost the light heavyweight belt.

Ronda's problem is that the way everyone talked about her being the most dominant athlete ever convinced her that she was invincible. I think most of her cockiness stems from everyone constantly telling her she's the best. She's probably done fighting now. There is no reason for her to stick around, because she is going to have a lot of trouble against the top competition and it would be pretty demoralizing to go down and fight some nobody.

In unrelated news, Oakland is down to their third string quarterback now? How unfortunate to have gone from the projected #1 seed in the AFC a few months ago to the #5 with no quarterback? Oakland-Houston is going to be one of the saddest playoff games ever.