This past Thursday, a friend of mine took me to Century Link Field for the Seattle Seahawks fourth preseason game. This is the preseason game that ‘the 12‘ are excited about. The starters all have their places on the roster locked down (they hope), and on the field are the bench players vying for position. Deep bench. Waaaay deep bench.
Even with empty seats, the atmosphere at Century Link beats anything we see at sold out stadiums in Vancouver. Photo by Erin Jeffery.
Russell Wilson came on the field for one play. He threw a touchdown. Then had a nap.
The Legion of Boomwere looking for their swag. Marshawn Lynch was eating Skittles(TM). The guys sitting behind us (who ESPN needs to hire STAT) kept exclaiming things like:
“Is that another one of them Smith boys?”
“Who the…what the…who the hell is THAT guy?”
“Son, you’ve gotta throw the ball sometime.” (See below.)
“Remember, it’s preseason for the refs too. No way they be making that dumbass call during regular season.”
For the last half of the game, the quarterback was this guy.
BJ Daniels. Wide Receiver.
They don’t even list him as a backup quarterback. Also explains why he rushed most of the time.. really well, I must admit. So well that the Raiders sent six guys on him at one point and made a giant Daniels sandwich.
Andrew Harris rushed for 118 yards and caught a few passes for 57 yards more, while Manny Arceneaux led the team with 75 yards reception. They combined for three TDs in a 26-23 comeback win over the Edmonton Eskimos, and did so seven minutes after Erin Jeffery & Kid left the building. CP photo lifted from the Province Sports website.
This past Friday I was at the Lions game with the kid. As games go, it wasn’t our best. The defence was kind of sleepy and the offence seemed to be hurling themselves at the Eskimos like lemmings over a cliff. There were moments of brilliance, but sadly more moments of ‘arrrrrgh’. Sure, Arceneaux scored a spectacular TD, but Jennings got hammered with his short yardage attempt. Harris was dependable, but Lulay just wasn’t finding his receivers. So with seven minutes left, Lions down by five, I looked at my 5 11/12-year-old, our 35-minute ride home, and his 7am wake up the next day and thought, “Well… This game is over… Crazy P has sung… It’s time to head”. The kid was sad, because he wanted to see the Lions win. His Lions win. But I made a choice.
We are not going to talk about the Lions game on Friday. Ideally, I’d like to pretend it didn’t happen. We’re not going to mention losing a three-touchdown lead, or the moderately INSANE decision to go for it on 3rd and 4, or the grabbing of facemasks by defencemen who have NO BUSINESS GRABBING FACEMASKS!
We’re also not going to talk about this most recent loss last night. It’s just salt in the wound.
What we WERE going to talk about was the Felions. Specifically…WTF (or What the Felion?)
However, while I was hammering away on my keyboard about the ludicrousness of the Felions and how they are indicative of the outdated assumption that the only people who attend or appreciate football games are horny straight males who couldn’t recognize good dancing if it hit them on the head with an arabesque, I heard the news that the Arizona Cardinals had hired the first ever woman to coach on an NFL team.
Well now….
Dr Jen Welter has been named the pre-season linebacker coach for the Arizona Falcons, and becomes the first woman to join an NFL coaching staff. Image borrowed from notable.ca
This proves one of my points way better than anything I was going to say. (Although, I’m sure I’ll be spouting off on the Felions at a later date… because SERIOUSLY?)
The trend that was started by Becky Hammon as assistant coach of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs is continuing with Dr. Jen Welter, and I say it’s about bloody time.
This post on Time.com has a lot to say about why getting women into the coaching pool is going to make for better games.
Giving women access to leadership positions expands the talent pool available to organizations. And a wider talent pool improves the quality of candidates a firm can hire.
The history of sports clearly illustrates this point. For example, prior to racial integration in baseball, which began with Jackie Robinson in 1947, the sport had a competitive balance problem. It was not uncommon for a team to win (or lose) more than 65% of their games. This disparity was made possible because the league, which only employed white males from the U.S., could not find enough talent. When it expanded its talent base, the number of talented pitchers and hitters expanded, too. A team has not won more than 65% of its games since 2001.
This rule applies to any organization: The wider your search for talent, the better the talent you are ultimately likely to employ.
Is the male dominated sports world ready for this shift? Yes, I think it is. I see it when I coach my son’s team. Admittedly, I’m coaching six- and seven-year-olds, but misogyny starts early, my friends. Most of these kids have dads. Most of these kids are boys. One of my fellow coaches (another woman), used to play tackle on the very same team we are coaching (GO HYACKS).
I was asked to be a head coach of one of the teams because I know the game. I’m asked for advice by men on the field. I’m given respect by the kids, their fathers and the other coaches. The fact that I’m a woman doesn’t enter into any discussions. What matters is that I know and love football and I want the kids to love it too.
This picture of Dr Jen Welter as the first woman to play a non-kicker position in a pro football league was given the respectful name “female-player.jpg” by the New York Daily News.
So hooray for the Arizona Cardinals in continuing what I hope will become a trend in professional and high level competitive sports. While it may be a while before we see women on these teams, or an interest in legitimate professional women’s teams that aren’t wearing underwear as uniforms, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be coaching.
Coaching is teaching. It’s instructing. Does the coach need to have a thorough understanding of the game they are coaching? Oh hells yes. Should they have played it at a high level at some point in their lives? Absolutely. Do they need to have corresponding genitals to be able to guide the team to victory? Nope. Balls do not make the calls.
It started like any other. Running around the house like a crazed maniac, saying ‘It’s time to go, it’s time to go, it’s time to go’ about 800 times to get my six-year-old and his friend out the door to soccer camp. Doing volunteer work at the Arts Council of New Westminster, picking up my kid and his friend after soccer camp, watching them go all Lord of the Flies in the forest, running home, eating dinner, running out of the house, once again yelling ‘It’s time to go it’s time to go it’s time to go!’
It’s time to go to football practice.
Nick Hebeler, eat your heart out. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Today I stood in front of 30+ six- and seven-year-old boys and two girls (YES) and talked to them about football and about bleeding orange (GO HYACKS! GO LIONS!). Today I got to start them on the road of a lifetime of passion for the greatest sport in the world.
Hi, I’m Russell Arbuthnot. You may remember me from such blog postings as “A Rennie Saved is a Rennie Earned” and “Band-Aids and Berber.” Typically, my audience (thanks to both my mom and my editor) is used to reading my cogitations on football, but like, the European kind. Here in North America, the colloquial term for the sport is “soccer”, yet our local “soccer” team denotes itself as a “football club” despite playing in Major League Soccer.
It just so happens that we also have another football club in town, which actually plays what is commonly referred to as football in this here continent. The BC Lions F.C. kicked off the 2015 season this past Friday night, providing the first opportunity for the team and fans alike to experience the purported new and improved atmosphere at BC Place.
A general feeling of over-crowding is exactly what the Lions are looking for this season after closing off the upper deck at BC Place. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Now, fair reader, you may be asking yourself, “Why is this dolt writing about CFL football?” Good question. Jason asked me to produce a preview for the Whitecaps game versus Kansas City in a limited time frame. Me, being the social butterfly that I am, had committed to a variety of good times the likes of which you would never be invited to, so I just couldn’t make it work. One of these events was the aforementioned Lions home opener, hence the revised assignment request. I was there. I got a free hat. Bonus.
It’s been twenty-two years since Canadians have had a domestic soccer league to call their own. In 1992, the semi-professional Canadian Soccer League folded after only six seasons. Since then, the Canadian soccer landscape has been dotted with mostly short-lived teams trying to make their way as part of dodgy American leagues. Yesterday, news broke on Canadian Soccer News that the long winter of domestic soccer in this country may finally be drawing to a close.
The report, somewhat limited in details, says that the Canadian Soccer Association is in talks with the Canadian Football League and the North American Soccer League (current home of FC Edmonton and the Ottawa Fury) to bring domestic soccer to Canada as early as 2016.
If accurate, this could be the most important moment in Canadian soccer since the men’s national team qualified for the ’86 World Cup. Canada is one of an incredibly small number of countries to have qualified for a World Cup without a domestic league, and a Canadian league is seen by many as an important step towards getting back to that stage. The establishment of a stable league would be a massive coup for the oft-maligned CSA.
The viability of a Canadian league is certainly not a given. Historically low soccer attendance figures in many major markets, combined with the huge distances teams necessarily need to travel in this country, make the financial prospects far from rosy. That’s why it’s encouraging to hear that the CSA may be enlisting the aid of the CFL.
The report says that the league will initially comprise seven teams, each associated to a CFL team. A CFL partnership makes sense for a few reasons. First, if anyone knows how to run a nationwide league without going broke, it’s these guys. Second, having respected institutions like CFL teams (well, CFL teams not nicknamed Argonauts) using their marketing muscle to support a fledgling league would be just what the doctor ordered. Third, there is the very real possibility that they can bring TSN — a network that almost single-handedly saved the CFL in the not-too-distant past — along for the ride.
TSN is in an odd place right now, having recently announced that they’re expanding their channel lineup while also being outbid for National Hockey League rights by Rogers Sportsnet. They already have easily the best soccer production crew in the country, so it makes some sense that they might look to the most popular game on the planet to give their subscribers something to watch.
If I have one major concern about the report, it’s the tidbit that teams will be playing in CFL venues. This seems like an awful idea at first glance. Even the smaller stadia like Ottawa’s TD Place Stadium and Hamilton’s not-yet-completed Tim Horton’s Field seat upwards of 20,000 people, when division two soccer in this country has always hovered around 3,000-5,000. The biggest task for the league will be to find a way to get attendance high enough that the atmosphere doesn’t suffer.
One day before the Blue Bombers blew a 10-point 4th quarter lead in their season opener against the Montreal Alouettes, Jim Chliboyko wrote up his thoughts on the 2013 CFL season in Winnipeg.
Bombers start 2013 with cracks in the foundation. Literally. And Investors Group Field has no apostrophes
by Jim Chliboyko
A fish eye view of the brand spanking new Investors Field in Winnipeg. Photo by Jim Chliboyko.
It’s become part of a classy tradition in modern-day Rupert’s Land; the Blue Bombers let go of a seemingly loyal soldier mere weeks before training camp, thus ensuring that said cut player won’t be able to get any work elsewhere in the approaching season.
This is the second time in three years that this has happened in Bomberland. In 2011, utility fullback and versatile Canadian Jon Oosterhuis was released in June by Bombers GM Joe Mack, a move which was whispered to have been particularly malicious at worst, unfeeling at best. He evidently failed his physical, but there was chatter that the release was a classless move, coming after an earlier re-signing, with the failed physical (old knee injury, which had been cleared many times before) used as an excuse to cut the player.
This year, back-up quarterback Alex Brink was released in April. Evidently, this is a late point in the off-season to release a quarterback, and it followed the earlier cutting of Joey Elliott (who was then scooped up by the BC Lions), a pivot who alternately posts award-winning weeks (getting Player of the Week honours twice in a couple years), followed by an interception-laden furball the next week.
Brink did get a look from Toronto, for a quick try-out that lasted only a few weeks. So, stay classy, Winnipeg.
We at Pucked in the Head would like to introduce our new BC Lions correspondent, Sam Anderson. Located on the mighty Twitter at @SamelaAnderson, this football gal represents everything that is right about football fandom. Beer, check. Permasmile, check. Large collection of BC Lions paraphernalia, check. So much enthusiasm you can’t even imagine watching a game without her, check.
Football’s Back! by Sam Anderson
Ahhh I’m getting so excited! The return of preseason football is the equivalent of Christmas for CFL fans. While I’m bummed that TSN opted not to televise the preseason games this season (BOOOOOOOOOO!), and happy that our boys eked it out vs the Stamps last Friday night, it’s being back in my seat at BC Place that I’m really looking forward to. This Friday night can’t come soon enough.
More, including Grey Cup and Fan Fest reminiscin’, after the jump.
Sam Anderson (@SamelaAnderson on the mighty Twitter) cavorts with Leo the Lion at the 2013 BC Lions Fan Fest in Kamloops. Photo courtesy of Sam’s Facebook page.
The BC Lions conference room features a table painted like a CFL football field, life-sized photos of Grey Cup winners and assorted team legends, and — wait for it — actual AstroTurf flooring painted like centre field. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Pucked in the Head had the pleasure of chatting with folks over at the BC Lions about an upcoming fundraiser today. No, I’m not letting the cat out of the bag about the event just yet, so hold your horses — but I thought I’d share with y’all just how freakin’ awesome the BC Lions War Room is. The offices moved from BC Place to the location of the Surrey Practice Facility a few years ago, and I’ve got to say I love what they’ve done with the place.
This is where Wally Buono & Co. hold their strategic meetings for football operations. The mural of the 2011 Grey Cup celebration could have been expected, I suppose, as could have the myriad photos of Lions legends. Note the head shots of guys like Lou Passaglia and Jim Young — he’s the one with the shaggy hair and bushy mustache, and just happened to be the first player I admired as a wee lad.
BC Lions quarterback Travis Lulay was named the MVP of the 2011 Grey Cup in a 34-23 home win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. CP Image ripped ungraciously from the interweb.
The BC Lions have defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Grey Cup 20-14.
No, wait, I read that press release wrong. Let me try again.
The BC Lions will host the Grey Cup in 2014, a game the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were supposed to host. Construction delays in Winnipeg have delayed the Blue Bombers move to the new Investors Group Stadium, and the club doesn’t want to chance hosting the big dance without significant time to work out the bugs in the new building. It’s the second time in four years that BC Place will be home to the CFL’s biggest game.
What the Slurpee Capital of the World loses, the City of Vancouver reaps. (That’s how the saying goes, isn’t it?) YVR will receive all the financial perqs that go along with the Grey Cup party, including street parties, hotel bookings and restaurant lineups. Of course, VanCity hosted in 2011 after Hamilton’s Ivor Wynne Stadium was deemed no longer fit for human consumption, and saw their hometown Leos win their sixth championship with a 34-23 win over — you guessed it — the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
