Canada Day is almost upon us and ESPN2 has a lot of CFL action this weekend. ESPN2 will have both Thursday games as the Ottawa RedBlacks continue their road trip a brief 200 km away in Montréal. Trevor Harris will start for the RedBlacks. In the nightcap, Saskatchewan makes its 2016 debut hosting the Toronto Argonauts.
Canada Day itself has a TSN doubleheader with the B.C. Lions at Tim Hortons Field against the Tiger-Cats. ESPN2 will carry the nightcap with the Blue Bombers in the Calgary home opener.
Edmonton gets to enjoy the holiday by not playing in the bye week.
ESPN2
Thursday
Ottawa @ Montréal, 7p
Toronto @ Saskatchewan, 10p
Friday
Winnipeg @ Calgary, 10p
TSN
Thursday
Ottawa @ Montréal, 7p
Toronto @ Saskatchewan, 10p
Friday
BC @ Hamilton, 7p
Winnipeg @ Calgary, 10p
Bye week: Edmonton
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Hedley lead singer Jacob Hoggard sang O Canada before the Argos home opener with the new lyrics. Well they aren't officially the new lyrics. The bill introduced by Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa-Vanier) to change “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command” was passed by Parliament. The bill has to be approved by the Senate.
This move has been a pet project for Bélanger, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease and can no longer speak. “With my bill, I want to pay tribute to all the women who have worked and fought to build and shape the Canada that we know today,” Bélanger said in a statement. “I want to at long last honour their sacrifices and contribution.”
The English and French versions have different words; the English-language version is adapted from the French version and has gone through several changes.
The reaction to Hoggard was a bit of boos but I heard cheers as well. Given that tomorrow is Canada Day, recognizing the sacrifice of all those who have served, regardless of gender, should be honored.
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Henry Burris will not start for Ottawa this week thanks to an injured pinky finger. Trevor Harris came into the game last week, threw a 71-yard TD pass to Chris Williams on the first play, and helped lead the RedBlacks to a comeback OT win. Burris not starting is a pretty big deal, given that Burris had a streak of 78 consecutive starts.
Calgary replaced Burris for the last 3 games of the 2011 season. That snapped a streak of 69 consecutive starts. The last time Burris missed a game due to injury was 2007, when he separated his left shoulder.
Harris is a great insurance policy for a quarterback that normally doesn't miss action. The Ottawa RedBlacks picked a really great insurance policy.
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We knew Joe Theismann played in the CFL for the Toronto Argonauts in the early 1970s. Theismann spent 3 years in the double blue at the old Exhibition Stadium. In his rookie year of 1971, Theismann got the Argos to the Grey Cup, but Calgary hung on for the win after a late Toronto fumble. He threw for 6,093 yards in the CFL with 40 TD passes.
Theismann went to the NFL with Washington (originally drafted by Miami) where he spent the first 2 year as a punt returner. He didn't become a starting NFL quarterback until 1978.
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We were very curious as to what ESPN2 would do in showing a late game of a doubleheader. Turns out ESPN2 coverage Saturday night opened with Ottawa coming from behind to tie Edmonton on a last-second field goal. We saw the exciting OT win by the RedBlacks and then joined Calgary at BC in progress. In years past, the U.S. audience had to wait until the early game was over before coverage would start. This is an improvement.
For the Canadian audience, the start of the Stampeders-Lions was on TSN2.
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The CFL starts early so that cold and snow aren't an issue, but summer storms, especially early in the season, can play weather havoc. The folks in Winnipeg suffered through a 66- minute lightning delay in the first quarter Friday night. We saw that last year during the Women's World Cup in Edmonton. And who could forget the flooding in Regina in 2014.
I usually allow for an extra half hour in taping a CFL game but it wasn't enough.
ESPN did a nice job with staying with the delay coverage. The channel took time out in some of the delay to show scores and highlights.
We lost the TV feed in the Toronto home opener. The feed was lost from 2:25 in the 4th quarter to 1:15 remaining. Whether the issue was ESPN or TSN was not clear, sometimes TSN loses the feed.
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Montréal Alouettes backup QB Brandon Bridge became the first Canadian QB to score a touchdown in the CFL since Giulio Caravatta in 1996. Often Canadian QBs on the university level are converted to other positions in the CFL, such as Brad Sinopoli, the current Ottawa RedBlack and former Calgary Stampeder wide receiver.
We know the CFL is colour-blind when it comes to quarterbacks, but there is a bias against Canadian quarterbacks.
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We'll try and keep up with the CFL announcers.
Chris Cuthbert, Glen Suitor: Hamilton @ Toronto; Ottawa @ Edmonton
Rod Black, Duane Forde: Montréal @ Winnipeg; Calgary @ BC
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