It was a heart-breaker for Saskatchewan, who blew at 16-point fourth quarter lead, then got called for a penalty when Montreal missed the game-winning field goal as time expired. Too many men on the field. GAhahhh! They moved the spot 10 yards closer—Canadian yards, even!—and the Alouettes won the Cup in the most dramatic fashion possible. That one will sting.

Of course, as you are well aware, Montreal is the Buffalo of Canadian football—having lost four of the last seven Grey Cup finals—so you have to feel good for them. If you're a fan of Regina, however, I suppose you're just going to have make do with booze and porn. Just like every other weekend.

CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League [CFL]
[Picture via the fine folks at Kurtenblog]

* * * * *

Hope you enjoyed the long holiday weekend. Mine was ... what's the opposite of rejuvenating? I now need a vacation from my holidays.

Hockey Canada announced yesterday that the team will wear the green jerseys at next year's world championships as a tribute to the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders, which would be akin to the USA's squad wearing purple in honor of the AFL's Milwaukee Mustangs.

Specious justifications aside, you might have noticed that green isn't one of the colors on Canada's flag. This has a few people upset.

"Pretty much the stupidest idea ever. So the crowd will be in red and white but the team will be green?"

"Great idea: use Canada's junior hockey team to honour a football team with 23 Americans on its active roster.
That'll be sure to capture the spirit of Canadian hockey."

"Why didn't anybody tell me the Toronto St. Patricks were making a comeback?"

"Well the other colour is yellow and they couldn't go with that as it conotates cowardice."

"If we make the gold medal game whoever we play will respect us about as much as dirt. In our red and white thats a simbole of power and superiority we might win because our opponents will be rolling around on the ice laughing"

It's breaking down to the point where commenters are trashing the newspaper's site for flagging "colour" as a misspelling. There's some serious Canadian pride on display this weekend, so avoid your local Tim Horton's and TD Banks should riots break out.

Canada Unveils Green Jersey [Globe and Mail]

•Fed up with the Ducks' — and LeGarrette Blount's — performance on opening night, one Oregon alumnus sent coach Chip Kelly an invoice for his ticket and travel expenses. He received a personal check from Kelly for $439. Getting a refund for an awful product? I hope Jerry Jones has $1.3 billion in his checking account.

•Do you know there are 1-year-old children who've never seen the Yankees make the playoffs? New York rectified that, clinching at least a wild card spot with a 6-5 win in Anaheim. And if Derek Jeter is so valuable to his team, why couldn't he will them to the playoffs last year without Sabathia and Teixeira?

•The dreaded swine flu is running rampant through Gainesville; six more Gator players and an assistant coach have come down with H1N1. Expect Tebow to lay his hands on them, and cast the disease out into a herd of pigs, who drown themselves in the Galilee.

•Zack Greinke shut down the Red Sox, and somehow lowered his ERA. Anyone who says he doesn't deserve the Cy Young should be dragged out into the street and shot. He's never going to have a chance to win anything ever again.

•Curt Schilling announced on "Joe Buck Live" that he won't run for Massachusetts' vacant Senate seat. Expect him to show up on election day with a bloody petition that puts him on the ballot.

•Perhaps after seeing Kim Clijsters win the US Open, former no. 1 Justine Henin will be making her return to tennis. She's missing something though. If only she had read every single goddamn article about Clijsters she would know that having a baby during her time off was a key component of her comeback.

•Thanks to SportsbyBrooks for bringing this to our attention: in America, crazy drunken fans run across the field. In Canada, they climb the goalposts. I believe that's called a rouge and is worth 2½ points.

Yes, the story takes place in the Edmonton, but Canadian criminals are very mean. Kitwana Jones, who played college ball at Hampton and is now a defensive end for the CFL's Eskimos, was driving to a pancake breakfast on Tuesday morning (seriously!) when he spotted an old woman screaming for help and chasing after a man carrying her purse and laptop. Then the thief knocked down an old man who tried to get in his way and Jones sprung into action. He jumped out of his car, took off after the suspect and then leveled him with a blindside tackle.

"It was mad early in the morning. I was upset. For real," Jones said. "I didn't even get a good stretch in or nothing. I had to chase this guy, and I'm mad, and I'm like ‘Why you out here trying to rob old women who are really trying to make an honest living going to work?' And he just laughed."

Jones gave him another arm to the head, and a kick to the side.

HA HA! Justice, Eskimo style! Why couldn't we have a shaky, out-of-focus video of that?

Edmonton Eskimo sacks suspected serial purse snatcher [The Globe and Mail]

Game officials had handed Bruce an objectionable conduct penalty on the spot. The 30-year-old slotback went on to have his best game of the season, catching 10 passes for a game-high 149 yards. “What did I think about it? I kind of laughed about it,” Argos coach Rich Stubler said of the display. “But for us, it cost us 10 yards. He can run over, stand next to me and put the Spider-Man mask on — which is what I asked him to do.”

Bruce, who played for the University of Minnesota and for the 49ers in 2004, is the cousin of former Rams wideout Isaac Bruce. He led the Argonauts in receiving in 2005 with 1,205 yards and 11 touchdowns. The Spider-Man move is causing quite a controversy in the Great White North. Bruce was fined for the incident, but has already made the move his signature, placing the video on his web page.

Next problem: How to top it. That Iron Man suit is going to be a bitch.

CFL: Arland Bruce Fined For Comic Book Homage [National Post]

As Sports By Brooks points out, could all of this be due to the Bills moving some of their games to Toronto? Don't worry Canada; we're not invading you. The NFL can't even get a team established in Los Angeles ... you think they're moving on Winnipeg? Although I can never speak for Al Davis.

Canada Day!

Seriously, he really wanted that Heisman.

Warrick has a tattoo on his left arm of the Heisman with the words ‘Can't Take This' inscribed. "It had nothing to do with the way I played. Every Saturday, I gave my all," he said. "The Heisman is supposed to be for the best athlete. And they robbed me of the Biletnikoff. That hurt the most. It was wrong," Warrick charged. "I felt I was the best (player and receiver) that year. I haven't said anything until today, but I want it to be known."

Way to take a stand, Peter! And timely too! Of course, the real reason Warrick lost the Heisman because of an arrest that got him suspended from the team. Another player arrested with him was actually kicked off the Seminoles roster. Name was Laveranues Coles. Wonder whatever happened to that guy.

Warrick Brings Right Attitude To Alouettes [The National Post]

Apparently, a radio station in Canada was encouraging fans to break the all-time streaking record, which is something the security force for the Stampeders just loved to hear. We count four in this video, though, frankly, there are really just three; that wuss who just ran around shirtless absolutely does not count.

This Streaker Had A Better Weekend Than Jamal Lewis [100 Percent Injury Rate]

The Canadian Football League is already eight weeks into their 19-week — seriously? 19 weeks? Sweet — season. Having been exposed to the Canadian take on football, it's (surprisingly) grown on me. Beyond some of the quirky rule differences (12 men on the field, three downs instead of four, you can actually receive a single point on some plays), the gameplay isn't exactly worse than the NFL.

Granted, it's not like any CFL team could necessarily beat an NFL team (exception: one with Rex Grossman handing off to Reuben Droughns, all while protected by the Raiders offensive line) but I'm sure many NFL teams don't have the collective speed to beat CFL teams in this wide-open style of football. In essence, the CFL is just as exciting as college football, only the players get paid and there's a playoff system.

Perhaps, rather than have the NFL waste everyone's time with the Pro Bowl in February, the two leagues could organize an exhibition where the NFL All-Stars battle the CFL All-Stars in a CFL game. The NFL players may not care, and nobody may watch it on TV, but that's still considered, by all intents and purposes, and improvement over the current Pro Bowl.

CFL vs. NFL The Box J Boys

Charles Rogers, Millen's most famous draft mistake (though he's hardly the only one who thought Rogers would be great), appears CFL-bound. Perhaps it's because he has gotten a bit, oh, slower.

The Kansas City Chiefs worked out Charles Rogers Friday. The same #1 draft pick Charles Rogers, who at the 2003 combine or pro day, allegedly ran a 4.28....According to reports, Charles clocked in at 4.83 in the 40, and the Chiefs terminated the workout. See, cuz three of the Chiefs D-linemen can run a sub 4.8.

Rogers is said to be considering a spot with the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. Is weed legal in Canada yet?

Charles Rogers To Learn A New, Cheesier Anthem [Sports Review Magazine[

You might think this was an extreme reaction by Gass. But then again, you didn't see what happened before Gass' outburst.

"[Opposing lineman Jeff] Pilon literally had my entire package in his hand and squeezed," Gass told the Edmonton Journal. "People think I flipped out for no reason, but I took the ball crushing. He violated me. I tried to walk away, and then he gave me a shot in the back so hard that I fell. When Comiskey came at me, I just couldn't take it anymore."

As far as bottom-of-the-pile terms go, "he violated me" isn't quite on a par with "he was giving him the business down there" ... but it's close.

Eskimos' Gass Suspended One Game [TSN]

Winnipeg Blue Bombers slotback Milt Stegall scored a touchdown in the second quarter to officially become the league's touchdown leader with 138, moving past legendary running backs George Reed and Mike Pringle. Yes, legendary. It was an emotional night:

"I wanted to break the record, I'd be lying if I said I didn't," Stegall said afterward. "Somebody was saying that was 'your drive.' I made some big plays on it.

"I think what made it so emotional was I was in front of a sellout crowd that was screaming my name, screaming my number. I'm not one to cry, I just sweat a lot, so that covers up the tears."

Emotional Stegall Sets CFL TD Record In Win Over Ticats [National Post]

When it was pointed out that it will be his first playoff appearance since he was a New Orleans Saint, Williams clearly was irked. "Who cares what happened seven years ago?" the NFL star said, his voice rising.

It's all in the name of a story, the reporter replied.

"Well that's a horrible story," countered the man whose next loss will be his last as an Argo. "What does it matter that I was hurt seven years ago? Me today has nothing to do with me breaking my ankle seven years ago."

You can see the video here. It's not a historic blowup, but it is entertaining to watch, if just because it's impossible to ascertain which person is being more of an idiot, which one is making a good point and which one is just being a jerk. Hey, in an exchange like this, we're all winners. Though that Toronto media can be pretty brutal.

Ricky Williams Video [Sportsnet]