Bits and pieces from the opening week of the CFL season.
DID-THAT-REALLY-HAPPEN MOMENT OF THE WEEK: Maurice Mann catches a pass, nobody touches him, he goes into the end zone and the stripes blow the play dead and call no touchdown. Pardon?
BRAVO: Replay worked flawlessly. Without a hitch, and remarkably fast. Was terrific in all four games. The new system looks really efficient and accurate -- the latter more important, of course, but it looks like they've got both down.
PLEASE SEND THIS TAPE TO HIS HIGH SCHOOL COACH: Jarrett Payton's extra point attempt should draw a fine from teammates with how ugly that looked. That's Shaq-in-a-one-piece bad; Oprah-in-a-bikini painful. So, so funny at the same time. Stick to running the ball, Jarrett. But thanks for the humour.
RETRO??: The league office, with grand pomp and circumstance, boasted it would have its '60s retro line out by June 15 to have fans get into the spirit of teams wearing the throwback merchandise. Heading into the second week of July, many teams were still without the gear to distribute to retail outlets. The fans, of course, become the real losers because of it.
BEST INJURY DIAGNOSIS: Arland Bruce is questionable to go this week because of, ahem, well he was getting treatment Tuesday for, um, ah... hemorrhoids. That has to be as classic as it gets. If Preparation-H is looking for someone to endorse the product, how about CFL's own Spiderman?
WELL DONE: The league re-launched its web site and it's good stuff. Most notably are the sit-downs that Jaime Stein has done with Jesse Lumsden, Mike Kelly and Bart Andrus. Compelling, insightful, refreshing, informative and without a lot of the usual BS. The CFL will never have its own network -- but with exclusive content and real honest interviews, behind-the-scenes miked up access and the latitude afforded as a site sanctioned by the league -- they're making "dot ca" a much better channel for fans to follow the three-down circuit.
