The 2012 season in the Canadian Football League is shaping up as one to remember for Jon Cornish of the Calgary Stampeders.
The New Westminster, B.C., native, who played his collegiate ball at Kansas but was never drafted by a National Football League club, has been the talk of the CFL through the first half of the season and is zeroing in on some end-of-season awards.
Top Canadian? The league office can almost start inscribing his name on the trophy. He won the weekly top-Canadian award three consecutive times, which gives him a huge leg up on the competition in that category.
Most outstanding player? Has to be considered. Cornish leads the CFL in rushing yards and will almost certainly become the first back to the 1,000-yard plateau after his 67 against Saskatchewan Sept. 23 gave him 947. His rushing total is about 130 yards ahead of the No. 2 back, Kory Sheets of Saskatchewan. No Canadian has won the CFL rushing crown since 1988 - almost a quarter of a century.
Grey Cup champ? Why not? The Stamps are certainly in the mix in the West, with Cornish and receiver Nik Lewis leading the offence and a solid 7-5 record through 12 games of the 18-game schedule.
Cornish told Allan Cameron of the Calgary Herald that he's all business on the field. There's no such thing as friendly banter between the lines once the game is under way, he said. "I play my best when I don't engage with the other team," he told Cameron. "I have absolute appreciation for the things other teams are trying to do. There's nothing disrespectful. But on the field? It's not my prerogative to interact with the other team. I have goals far grander than any single game, so why get caught up in something like that?
"They can tackle me and say whatever they want, and I'll just get up and walk away."
It's all adding up to 2012 being a season Cornish won't soon forget. Neither will the CFL record book.
R. J. Currie of sportsdeke.com: "If the White Sox merged with the Red Sox, would they be the Pink Sox?"
Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: "July 2012 was the hottest month ever recorded, according to the Weather Channel. Try telling that to the Astros. They went 3-24."
Headline at TheOnion.com: "Fireworks now go off every time Astros make an out."
Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: "Roger Clemens said he only wanted to pitch for the Astros in 2012 if he could pitch against a 'contender.' So he can 'knock them right out of the playoffs.' And Barry Bonds is thinking - 'And they thought I had a big head?'"
Another one from Currie: "The Ocean (N.J.) high-school football team may forfeit their next game because six players have impetigo (an itchy skin infection). For now, the boys are listed as healthy scratches."
Gregg Easterbrook, ESPN.com: "The Washington Nationals shut down Stephen Strasburg for 2013, too, saying, 'We want to be sure his ragweed allergy doesn't act up.'"
Norman Chad, syndicated columnist: "I feel badly for the (NHL players') union. The league is attempting to cut back the players' share of revenues, abolish players' rights to salary arbitration and limit free agency. It is as if management is trying to turn back the clock. But it's one thing to turn back the clock, and it's a whole another thing to buy a case of sundials on eBay.
Headline at SportsPickle.com: "NHL owners say they can't afford to give players the huge contacts they've been giving them."
Brad Dickson of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, after Savannah State was listed as a 70- and 67-point underdog in its first two games - and lost 84-0 and 58-0: "I'm not sure what Savannah State's problem is this year, but we can rule out overconfidence."
Vancouver comic Torben Rolfsen, after Falcons RB Michael Turner was charged with DUI just hours after a recent Monday night win: "He must have been really out of it, because he asked if a replacement official could administer the sobriety test."
Dwight Perry again: "An army vet fishing for bass near Springfield, Mo., reeled in a sock with a live hand grenade in it. It's already being hailed as the fastest catch-and-release in angling history."
Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, on Oregon instituting random drug testing of athletes after reports that 40 to 60 per cent of its football players use marijuana: "The Ducks apparently will abandon their two-huddle system - smoking and nonsmoking."
Janice Hough again: "NFL teams are furious with the replacement refs. They can't wait to get back to being furious with the regular officials."
Another one from Rolfsen: "Patrick Kane being interviewed by attractive on-ice female sportscasters is like Prince Fielder being interviewed by pizza."
NBC golf commentator Gary Koch on the narrow 16th fairway at East Lake Golf Club: "It's like trying to hit it into a double car garage."
Care to comment? E-mail brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca
