Monday Evening Sentimonies: This and That

The brief excitement of mini-camp has given way to the reality that April is generally a slow and boring month football-wise.  Fortunately, NHL playoffs are nicely filling the sporting void and they should pretty much get me to the start of preseason football in June. This 4 months without professional football has been excruciating. I just thank god that the offeason isn’t measured in the same timespans as Hamilton stadium construction or Edmonton Oiler rebuilds. The only known event whose completion is measured in a larger time-frame than these is the construction of the Capital Point building at Vic and Albert. Though to be fair, by not actually doing anything one could argue that Capital Point is ahead of the Oilers who seem to get further behind every year.

Next week I will be beginning my comprehensive CFL Draft coverage. I will have draft primers, team draft needs analysis, mock drafts and other draft related tidbits. I’m hoping to be able to do my Annual Live Draft Day Blogging as well though I have some scheduling stuff to work out first. Seems my kids’ sports events don’t feel the need to schedule themselves around my needs… and Mrs. Prophet is not keen on my suggestion of me sending a cardboard cut-out of myself and recording me saying “Good job buddy” on a loop. Father of the Year right here.

For today, you will have to settle for the trusty Random Quasi-Coherent thoughts on the random scraps of CFL news I’ve uncovered.

-       Only one team was fined for exceeding the salary cap this year and in a shocking turn of events it was not the Riders. The Ti-Cats went $9000 over the “cap”. Had it been the Riders there would have been the usual chorus of “cheaters” being hurled our way. But since it’s the Ti-cats no one cares. Nor should they. I have repeatedly said that if exceeding the cap is what it takes to win every team should do it.

-       The Riders incurred an $18,000 fine on route the 2013 Grey Cup… that tells me the Ti-Cats should cheated a bit more. You’re telling me Eric Tillman couldn’t have expanded that injury list by 5-10 more names with a snap of his fingers?

-       Bombers are holding their minicamp and two former Riders are in attendance: Eddie Russ and Dan DePalma. Russ always struck me as a fast guy with no sense for the ball. He was thrust into the starting HB spot way too prematurely when he was here.

-    As for DePalma, I haven’t decided if he is a good receiver or just got really lucky twice.He caught 6 passes here and 2 of them accounted for pretty much all his yardage. In both cases he made one move and had wide open field in front of him. He apparently got some NFL looks so he must have something. He struck me as a reliable 3rd/4th receiver but not really a star.

-    One last tidbit is that apparently QB Rakeem Cato (Marshall) had an invite to Rider mini-camp but did not show up. He is an interesting guy to keep an eye on provided the NFL passes on him during the draft as some are expecting.