By Labour Day weekend, the CFL usually has a lot more games already played. Still, the weekend is a good marker to see where we are as a key point in the season.
The CFL is smarter to have 8 of the 9 teams playing this weekend. The BC Lions and Atlantic Schooners rivalry will hopefully, someday be a reality.
Thrilled that the Highway 417 rivalry with Montréal in Ottawa starts out Friday Night Football for the long weekend. This rivalry game needs to be permanent on the holiday weekend.
The prelude to the Banjo Bowl: the Sunday Prairies game with Winnipeg in Regina will have a loud crowd.
The Battle of southern Ontario and Battle of Alberta are on time and in that order on Labour Day 2021.
ESPNews will have both of the western CFL games on this long weekend.
ESPNews
Sunday
Winnipeg @ Saskatchewan, 6p
Monday
Edmonton @ Calgary, 4:30p
TSN
Friday
Montréal @ Ottawa, 7:30p
Sunday
Winnipeg @ Saskatchewan, 6p
Monday
Toronto @ Hamilton, 1p
Edmonton @ Calgary, 4:30p
Bye week: BC
The Calgary-Winnipeg game promised to be a truly great football game. If you are feeling less than thrilled with the CFL level of play, hope you watched Sunday's game.
Winnipeg kicker Marc Liegghio was cited to be the goat (not GOAT) of the game for a missed extra point. Rene Paredes kept putting Calgary in front by that missing point. Liegghio missed the field goal that would have put the Blue Bombers on top. A whistle. Time count violation: 10 yards back (at that point in the game). Liegghio makes the field goal and puts Winnipeg in front.
Paredes barely missed a 52-yard field goal attempt at the end of the game to keep Winnipeg undefeated at home. The last Winnipeg home loss was September 27, 2019 against Hamilton.
Calgary quarterback Jake Maier started with 17 straight completions.
Andrew Harris played for the first time since winning the Grey Cup MVP trophy. Harris ran for 81 yards on 17 carries. Brady Oliveira filled in for the Blue Bombers, starting with 126 yards in Week 1. Oliveira was held to 57 combined yards in the 2-game set with Toronto. Harris and Oliveira, both from Oak Park High School in Winnipeg, would be a prime 1-2 running punch especially when the weather turns colder.
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The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are the last CFL team to open at home, playing its home opener on Labour Day.
The Tiger-Cats have had a rough travel start. The reward: the team will not leave Ontario except for one game for the rest of the season.
Hamilton will travel to Edmonton on October 29 to take on the Elks. Otherwise, the Tiger-Cats are at home with road trips to Toronto and Ottawa. Hamilton is in the best position for unvaccinated players who may not be able to fly.
The Tiger-Cats finally won a game last week so every CFL team has at least 1 win. Toronto is at 2-1 with the "extra bye" last week while the rest of the East is 1-2. The East has only had a single division game so far: the Tiger-Cats win over Montréal. We have 2 division games just this weekend.
No CFL team wants to identify with penalties: The Montréal Alouettes are starting to get that rep based on the last 2 weeks. Both the Alouettes and the RedBlacks lost their home openers. Montréal had 14,753 while Ottawa had 15,000. Attendance in the east is limited due to regional COVID-19 restrictions.
The RedBlacks loss to the BC Lions showed their missing offence wasn't under the cushions of the couch at home. Ottawa had plenty of time down 22-12 but you didn't feel like the team could move down the field. The RedBlacks had a similar concern in Edmonton but got a lucky bounce on an interception run back for a touchdown.
The home opener loss was the first time for the RedBlacks in its team history going back to 2014. Previously, Ottawa went 4-0-2 in home openers with ties with Calgary in 2016 and 2017.
The Ottawa Renegades won the home opener in 2004 and 2005. The ill-fated team lost their other home openers in 2002 and 2003.
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Fact: All 9 CFL teams have a plan to have spectators be fully vaccinated or provide negative COVID-19 tests for admittance. The catch is that there is a long learning curve.
Saskatchewan has a September 17 target date with Toronto in town for the new policy. That isn't too bad with Sunday's game being the only home game between now and the new policy. The Edmonton wait is so long you will be buying Halloween candy without a speck of irony. The new protocol for the Elks starts October 15 with Winnipeg in town. Ouch.
Being fully vaccinated requires 2 weeks after the second COVID-19 vaccine shot. While Edmonton is more progressive than the rest of Alberta, the delay gives some breathing room for Elks fans and employees.
The Elks were back at practice on Wednesday after several days without more positive COVID-19 results. The team ended up with 14 (ouch) positive COVID-19 cases, though one turned out to be false positive. We will be curious if more players get vaccinated as a result. Mortal human beings have had side effects after the inoculations but perhaps players in shape won't be impacted as much.
Edmonton released offensive lineman Jacob Ruby for breaching the team's COVID-19 protocols. The CFL reportedly issued a directive not allowing any other CFL team to sign Ruby for the rest of this season.
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We have a CFL schedule update so get those proverbial erasers out where we can see them. The changes are designed to be minimally invasive to the teams that aren't Edmonton.
Saskatchewan and Edmonton switch destinations on November 5 and November 13. The Winnipeg-Montréal game on November 13 and the game later that day now in Regina move up 3 hours earlier.
The Edmonton Elks will play 42% of the team's road games in 7 days: November 13 (Regina in Saskatchewan); November 16 (Toronto); and November 19 (BC in Vancouver).
Toronto plays home games on that Friday (Hamilton) and Tuesday (Edmonton) but draw a bye in the league's last week.
The CFL and the Canadian Football League Players Association agreed that both teams can add 5 extra players to their active rosters for the Edmonton games in Toronto and Vancouver.
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Montréal sports fans had a tough dilemma Friday night. CF Montréal played Toronto FC at Stade Saputo at the same time Friday night.
Rod Smith and Glen Suitor talked with the new owner Gary Stern (his father-in-law and business partner Sid Spiegel passed away before the 2021 season).
The Alouettes struggled without direction in the last few years. Now the Alouettes are aligned throughout the management. Wasn't too long ago when Kavis Reed was the GM and Mike Sherman was the coach.
The Alouettes talked about playing a game in Olympic Stadium in 2018. That feels so long ago. The last game the team played at Olympic Stadium was the 2012 East final.
Montréal has hosted 8 Grey Cups: Molson Stadium (1931); Autostade (1969); and 6 championship games at Olympic Stadium. The last Grey Cup in Montréal was in 2008.
There is theoretically a 2022 Heritage Classic, hopefully in Montréal. The speculation is the The Olympic Stadium roof is a concern over snowfall, even for CFL playoff games, including the Grey Cup.
We are curious what the new ownership thinks about incorporating Olympic Stadium into plans for the Alouettes.
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Tomorrow morn on 'The Eh Block' I'm joined by none other than my partner Saturday night in Ottawa @DuaneFordeTSN!
— 🇨🇦 Marshall Ferguson 🏈 (@TSN_Marsh) August 27, 2021
We talk about the @CFLonTSN process, @CodyFajardo17's 2021 MOP campaign and get Duane's five fav foods to cook.
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Marshall Ferguson made his CFL on TSN debut in Ottawa with Duane Forde on Saturday. Ferguson has done work for TSN and has experience calling the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on radio. Combining the two is a different experience.
Ferguson's debut went well enough. Ferguson and Dustin Nielson will get a lot more experience, especially with Rod Black only calling the opening game of the season.
Ferguson did note during the telecast that Black would be back next week.
Been listening to Ferguson on podcasts; he has a good voice and knows a lot. Turns out Ferguson was a quarterback at McMaster University in Hamilton.
Rod Smith and Glen Suitor were in Montréal on Friday night. Suitor was likely in Montréal for the Gary Stern interview. Nielson and Suitor were in Winnipeg on Sunday night.
Smith got a chance to sit at the CFL on TSN desk filling in for Kate Beirness on Saturday and Sunday.
Suitor kept up his 2:1 ratio of games vs. Duane Forde: now at 10-5.
As for the Labour Day weekend, Dustin Nielson will call both western games. Rod Black should be in Hamilton on Monday.
photo credit: CFL
logo credit: CFL
Twitter capture: @TSN_Marsh
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