Skip to content

Ticats and Argos to battle it out for East title

Another season of Canada’s game begins this week with the start of the 2013 CFL season. The CFL exists in no other country on the planet, so we can truly call it our own. I want to sort out the order of finish in the CFL East and West with a cautionary note that my opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect actual football acumen.
RichardsHarleyMugMay23jer
Array

Another season of Canada’s game begins this week with the start of the 2013 CFL season.

The CFL exists in no other country on the planet, so we can truly call it our own. I want to sort out the order of finish in the CFL East and West with a cautionary note that my opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect actual football acumen. I also want to remind readers that my predictions are based upon the continued good health of key football players on each team — a long shot at best in an ultra-violent game.

The CFL East will have two Ontario rivals duking it out for first place because I believe the Montreal Alouettes are not a factor in this division. Instead the Guelph Tiger Cats will claw away at the Toronto Argonauts for first place in the East, but the Grey Cup champion Argos will finish on top in that division.

The Argos have the CFL version of Cool Hand Luke behind center with quarterback Ricky Ray and he is now a second year student of Toronto head coach Scott Milanovich, a very good coach who will likely follow Marc Trestman to a future NFL head coach position. Both quarterback and head coach play crucial roles in the success of the team and the Argos will have plenty of success this year.

The Tiger Cats would be a shoe-in for number one in the CFL East this year if the Argos played in the CFL West, but the Cats will be a great second place team in the East Division. Kent Austin will be around the CFL just long enough to make a big impact on the Ticats because Austin has a very checkered past of loving ‘em and leaving ‘em when it comes to CFL teams.

However, you can expect ageless Ticat quarterback Henry Burris to have an amazing season once again this year under Kent Austin’s guidance, plus Hank will have help from an actual ‘Cat defense.

Last year Burris put up amazing numbers that would have looked great if opposition offenses had not been able to score at will against the toothless Tiger Cat defense. Make no mistake about 2013; the Cats are back in the hunt, even if they are not back at home in Hamilton this year.

The Montreal Alouettes are destined to begin the big slide toward the basement in 2013. They have an aging quarterback who can no longer play at the brilliant level he enjoyed as an under-40 football player in the CFL. Als quarterback Anthony Calvillo has defied the odds and managed to extend his career and success well past an age when his peers have moved onto life after football.

I have admired Calvillo’s ability to play a highly demanding game and position for many years, but I doubt whether the man can pull any more rabbits out of the hat in 2013.

Calvillo simply cannot avoid the cumulative effects of a profession where other guys want to inflict serious physical damage on you on every play. This may well be the season where AC resembles Ali at the tail end of his boxing career and it may not be pretty.

Last place in the East will still be the home of the woeful Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The biggest highlight for the Bombers’ 2013 season will be their new stadium because they are a very bad team led by a very fragile and unlucky quarterback named Buck Pierce. He has been blindsided by everything but an unexpected paternity suit and Pierce has paid a huge price to be a pro quarterback. Pierce’s career has been a slow-moving train wreck filled with multiple injuries and I still admire his guts but question his sanity. It may be time for him to begin a post-football career as a motivational speaker for people who are about to enter war zones.

Tomorrow: The CFL West