I forgot to include this article in my previous post. The New York Times discusses how foreign athletes are being excluded from training at Olympic venues in Vancouver and Whistler. Part of the game or unsportsmanlike? What do you think?
It took all of three posts for it to happen. I've managed to go off topic. I figure there's a whole wide world outside of sports and maybe I should explore it a little bit. I know I promised to do a training camp roundup for the Canadian NHL teams, but I figured that I'd go in a different direction for this post.
I spent the weekend stuck inside at work on what was likely the last good weather weekend of the summer. As I am a city employee, I had plenty of time to read the newspaper though. Flipping through a few newspapers, I came across some articles that are kind of thought provoking. They not connected in any way and cover a wide spectrum of topics. I thought I'd share a few of these articles from the Free Press and the Globe and Mail that I found interesting.
Margaret Wente hit the nail on the head with this article. University professors spend way too little time in the classroom. The example of University of Manitoba hit home for me, as I am a graduate from that fine institution. If I had a nickel for every unhelpful prof or in over their head sessional instructor that I experienced during my five years there...well I'd have several nickels. Not to say this is true of all the profs I had teach me. Some of the best educators that I have ever had taught me at Manitoba. Yet, the vast majority of the profs in my department(cough...Political Studies...cough) seemed more concerned with their next research paper or their next conference in Ottawa, than reaching out after class to help their students.
Universities need to re-examine the whole teaching/research system. It is obviously in need of an overhaul.
It's good to see that the winners at City Hall can take a proposed development that is extremely beneficial for the City and completely screw it up. Public consultation is always important. These are the people that elect councillors and pay the planning department's salaries. The development idea is great, as it is a method to deal with urban sprawl issues, but the City mishandled it.
At least I didn't go completely off topic. The Eric Tillman sexual assault drama has been dragging on in Regina for quite some time. I know it is innocent until proven guilty, but I think this article is somewhat in poor taste. The article extols Tillman's virtues as a CFL general manager, working behind the scenes, yet only makes brief mention at the end what he is charged with. This article would have been better served if it had been written after the resolution of the case.
The Globe also has a great article by Stephen Brunt on a former American CFL running back, who has taken an interesting football route. Big man on campus
A new week begins, yet things stay the same in Bomberland. Losing in Regina on Labour Day is expected. It's a tradition in itself. The Banjo Bowl was supposed to be different though. The game is traditionally an inverse of the Riders domination of the previous week. It used to be that no matter what the two teams records were, each team would almost be guaranteed to win at home. Times have changed though as the Riders have been asserting their dominance over the Bombers at home, in the "Crotch of Canada", and away, in the "Armpit of Canada". On a beautiful prairie Sunday afternoon and after eight Bomber turnovers, the Riders continued their run of dominance over the Bombers that dates back to the 2007 Grey Cup. I'm not even going to mention the score because I'm trying to do my best to block the game from taking hold in my memory bank.
The obvious magnet for the anger of Bomber fans is Mike Kelly. His offense has been a total failure from jump street. Flip-flopping between slandering the shotgun formation and using it constantly, the non-stop quarterback carousel, and refusing to use a formation with more than four receivers have created what might go down as the worst offense in CFL history. His public relations skills have been questionable from day one as well. But this post is not about Mike Kelly. Yes, it is obvious that he needs to go, but fans need to direct some of their anger towards the higher ups in the organization, most specifically Lyle Bauer.
To keep it short, Lyle Bauer needs to go. He has accomplished some pretty impressive financial feats during his tenure as President and CEO, including pulling the Bombers out of a massive financial hole. Yet his leadership has not translated into any on-field success. Nineteen years without a Grey Cup championship is a long time. Under Bauer's watch the Bombers have lost two championship games and have struggled through mediocre and down-right embarrassing seasons in between. The hiring of Mike Kelly was his decision and it has been reported that no one else was seriously considered. The responsibility for this season and all the turmoil and ugliness that has encompassed it falls squarely on Bauer. The end of the season needs to be a time of change and renewal, starting at the top.
Okay, that's the end of my rant for today. I promise my next post will be much more positive. NHL training camps are kicking off this week, so I'll take a look at how the Canadian teams are looking for the upcoming season.
Welcome to Life on a Couch, a blog that combines two things that one can partake in while lounging on their comfortable sofa: sports and blogging.
My name is Neil Babaluk and I have just started in the Creative Communications program at Red River College. One of our first big assignments for the program, and an ongoing one at that, is to create a blog and unleash it on the unsuspecting blogsphere. Well, maybe unleash it is the wrong phrase to use. More like, my blog has been given training wheels and I’ll tentatively roll out into the blogsphere.
After much intense, deep-rooted soul searching, I finally decided on a topic to structure my blog around. Imagine the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is doing some soul searching out on a pier and when he finally comes to a life changing decision, he takes off running. That’s exactly how the whole choosing a topic process played out for me. At first I wanted to do a free-ranging blog where I discussed things that I came across in my travels or interesting items that I found on the internet. After I lost confidence in that idea, I narrowed the idea down to a general sports blog. That seemed to be too broad of a topic as well. My next idea was to blog about weird sports played around the world. It’s a cool idea, but I decided that it was too narrow in scope. Finally, I had my Seinfeld moment and decided that I wanted to blog about the Canadian sports scene.
This blog is dedicated to the analysis and discussion of sports and sporting events that take place in our fine country. Whether it is the CFL, NHL, and MLB or Olympic sports and other amateur pursuits, it will be discussed here. I can promise plenty of Blue Bomber talk, as my unconditional love for the team has been constantly tested this summer. I actually briefly considered naming the blog "Fire Mike Kelly".
I may stray off topic occasionally to discuss American or global sports, but the main purpose of this blog will be to discuss Canadian sports. I think I will throw in an entry about weird sports though. The chance to blog about elephant polo, wife carrying, and bog snorkeling is too good of an opportunity to pass up. On that note, I encourage everyone to leave comments and let me know why my opinion is completely off base, which it probably will be most of the time.
