Everyone wants to talk about the Grey Cup. Well, you did on Sunday night and Monday morning, didn't you? So here I am with a belated take on the event.
Pregame hype - Marty, the horse in the Royal York, was probably the highlight as contrived as it turned out to be. B+ for effort and persistence.
Halftime stuff - Marianas Trench - Great name, average to good voices. Lead singer does great knock-kneed pose, nice sneakers. They obviously took advantage of the Clinique sale on eyeshadow and good for them! C+ but I again remind everyone, I mark tough.
Gordon Lightfoot - Icon now reduced to a whispy whisper. I couldn't hear much of what he sang, but recognized the famous tune and the video in the background was great. C- . He doesn't get a failing grade because he actually wrote and then sang the song.
Carly Rae Jepson - Nice hair, limited stage presence, decent voice, not spectacular, but cute. B-. She's taller than I thought she was.
Justin Bieber - Average voice, getting better, but me thinks I detected that this was lip sync stuff he was handing us. We know Shania did the lip sync thing a few years ago, but it was announced she was going to have to do that because it was minus 30 degrees in a storm. Why the Biebs would have to do it, is beyond me. Fairly good dance moves, nothing outstanding, but he loses marks for not having a band and that questionable lip sync thing. If he wasn't lip syncing B-. If he was, C+.
Actual football game.
Kevin Glenn, D, for being bewildered, but he wasn't the only one.
Calgary's offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson forgot the game plan in the locker room, D-.
John Hufnagel gets a D- too, for not knowing what to do when changes became necessary. Shades of Danny Barrett.
Jon Cornish B- because he tried.
Calgary's offensive and defensive lines E+.
Argonauts - Ricky Ray gets an A-. Opening throw that was intercepted wasn't pretty. Otherwise, damn good. Just a thought ... the man is 33-years-old now. Shouldn't we be dropping the Ricky moniker by now? Rick Ray it is.
Toronto offensive and defensive line and defensive secondary, A, and that's well deserved. They made the Stampeders look unco-ordinated and silly.
Chad Kackert - A and maybe an A+ if I weren't such a tough marker. The guy was an animal out there. He out Cornished Cornish by a long leap. He should buy the offensive line lunch this week.
Television coverage. Average at best, too much filler and unlike Super Bowls, we got exactly two new commercials. One for a car, another for a hamburger. They were new commercials at 5 p.m. They were very, very, very old commercials by 7:45 p.m.
NHL lockout update:
Gary Bettman has stated they can still salvage a season if they reduce it to an 11 game schedule followed by a best-of-three Stanley Cup final between the top two teams.
Sidney Crosby has just announced he's the new governor of the Bank of Canada seeing as how free agent Mark Carney is leaving to run Britain.
Patrick Kane is going to drive cabs and Alexander Ovechkin will take over from Putin in 12, 14 or 22 years. In the meantime, he'll sharpen skates in Moscow.
And that's how it is heading into the last week of November, boys and girls.
