The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have a lousy football team. No sense trying to sugarcoat it. The local 12 isn’t very good and head coach Mike Kelly needs to do some deep, critical thinking.
His offensive line is weak and he has no quarterback. Defensively, he had a better team earlier in the year when young Dan Oramasionwu started at nose tackle instead of the then-injured Doug Brown. Since Brown returned, the defence has been average, at best.
Friday night at Canad Inns Stadium the offence was put on display for all to see. It was, in a word, dreadful. The final score was Toronto 19, Winnipeg 5 (the Bombers were 3 1/2-point favourites), and there was a dearth of action — by either side – for the final 25 minutes. For a lot of Bomber fans, it was just a good night to get really shit-faced. Extreme drunkenness probably took the sting out of the ineptitude.
On the upside, starting quarterback Stefan Lefors finally completed 50 per cent of his passes. Unfortunately, he was seven-for-11 for 30 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. He put three points on the board.
He was replaced in the third quarter by Bryan Randall who went one-for-five for six yards, one interception and an headache.
Ritchie Williams replaced Randall and was three-for-10 for 30 yards and got the Bombers down to the Toronto two-yard line, but like his colleagues, he couldn’t get the ball in the end zone.
Because the defence wasn’t absolutely horrible Friday night, it’s permissable to believe that the Bombers have some hope. The 42-30 win over Calgary was pretty good. Obviously, there is some up-side to this mess.
But after four games, this team have failed head coach Mike Kelly in one important way. Kelly guaranteed that this team would be entertaining. It’s not. It’s dull. The offence is sleep-inducing.
And that’s even worse than being 1-3.
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COYOTES LOSE $60 MILLION IN 2008-09
For a number of years, we’ve been reporting that the Phoenix Coyotes have lost as much as $60 million a year on operations. We’ve taken a great deal of criticism for making the claim even though we’ve been able to document our reports.
However, in case you don’t want to believe anything until it shows up in the Globe and Mail, it showed up on Friday. The Globe reported that the Coyotes lost $60 million in 2008-09. Hate to say, I told you so…
Documents filed in Arizona bankruptcy court reveal that the Coyotes lost more than $27 million last season on hockey operations and with interest payments and other costs, the Coyotes lost a total of $67 million last season. On operations alone, the Coyotes have lost more than $20 million for each of the last three campaigns.
Coyotes owner, Jerry Moyes, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May and had a solid offer for the team from RIM president and CEO Jim Balsillie for $212.8 million. The NHL refused to accept that offer, however, because it would have meant moving the franchise to Southern Ontario. So now, while the creditors will be shortchanged by millions, the bankruptcy judge has called for an auction for bidders to keep the team in Phoenix. That auction is scheduled for August 5th.
Keeping that franchise in Phoenix is a stupid mistake. After stiffing the creditors, would you do business with an NHL franchise in Phoenix, Ariz.? I’d certainly want my money up front.