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Breaking Down the CFL Product Review

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Thanks to the diligence of Rosanne Nelson and the rest of the crew at Keep the 55, they were able to get in touch with Chris Morris, president and CEO of the Edmonton Elks. They had a phone call , a video call, and several emails back and forth. Morris followed up one of the calls with an email containing a document called the "CFL Product Review" and some added context explaining what the document contains and why its content is important. This document is different from the CFL Game Analysis Report and the CFL Statistics Report , both of which are readily available on the CFL.ca stats tab. It is generated weekly by the league's football operations department and circulated internally. In the words of Steve Daniel , CFL Associate Vice President of Football Analytics, the CFL Product Review exists because "you want to be able to advise with something objective. There is nothing subjective about this whatsoever." He adds a caveat that the selection of which da...

Email to the CFL's media relations professionals and Board of Governors

From: Matthew Birt <b******@gmail.com> Date: Thu, Oct 15, 2026 at 5:11 PM Subject: Questions for the CFL BoG To: Cc: Matthew Birt <b******@gmail.com> Bcc: [all emails for CFL media relations personnel, as well as Board of Governors] Good afternoon – As an ardent opponent of next year’s forthcoming changes to the CFL field and rulebook, I have been writing and releasing an article that voices my displeasure with the new rules as well as the Board of Governors. An upcoming part of my article, which I plan to publish sometime between October 22-31, involves background research on everyone who was a member of the CFL Board of Governors during the 2025 season, when the changes were announced by Commissioner Johnston. In an effort to bring balance to the piece, I am reaching out to as many members of the board as I can find contact information for (if you are not a board member, I politely request you forward this message to the board members within your organization). I am seek...

The proposed changes make the CFL less Canadian

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The Canadian flag is displayed at centre field prior to a CFL game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field on June 14, 2025. Introduction "This episode is going to require a fair amount of digression. Patience, grasshopper." - Malcolm Gladwell On September 22, 2025, an earthquake in Toronto sent shockwaves across Canada. More than a year later, the aftershocks are still being felt.

The CFL Doesn't Need to Move The Uprights

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CFL Commissioner Stewart Johnston and the league's Board of Governors want the public to believe that moving the uprights off the goal line and out of play in 2027 will open up the middle of the end zone, allowing teams to use more of the field to score. They are wrong, intentionally misleading, and being blatantly opaque about all the massive changes coming to the Canadian Football League next year.

Making The Case For: Loganberry Bash

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Western New York is rightfully proud of its contributions to the culinary world. When our local favourites turn into world-renowned cuisine, we deserve to celebrate that. In 1985, the first BurgerFest was held in Hamburg to celebrate a century of burgers. Hamburgers – which owe their name to the town in which they were created – are widely believed to have originated at the Erie County Fairgrounds when the sausage stand run by Frank and Charles Menches ran out of pork, so they sold ground beef patties instead. Although locals know to just call them “wings” (or at most, “chicken wings”), 2002 saw the inaugural National Buffalo Wing Festival come to the city to celebrate its most iconic dish. Inspired by Bill Murray’s insatiable character in the film Osmosis Jones , Drew “Wing King” Cerza acted fast to make the then-mythological event a now-spectacular reality. Of course, we have other foods that are uniquely ours and widely appreciated (at least regionally, although the presence o...

TLDR: Upon Reflection, I Am A Blue Jays Fan

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This isn't the first time I've said something like this. As a result of my foray with FC Buffalo and getting my first taste of soccer experience as a high schooler, I decided to more closely follow several other squads as well: Bedlington (RIP), Liverpool, Western New York Flash, the U.S. National teams. And in Major League Soccer, I chose to adopt the Portland Timbers as my favourite. Inspired by their decades-long history in the NASL, the vocal and vibrant Timbers Army, the tifos and chants that adorned Jeld-Wen Field, and their built-in hatred for fellow MLS-newcomers Seattle and Vancouver, plus the fact that they'd existed for nearly 40 years with no trophies seemed like the perfect fit. And for a time, it was. But along came Minnesota United. Entering league play in 2017 (in a 5-1 loss at Portland, may I add), the "Loons" didn't carry the same weight of tradition as the Timbers. However, the colours, nickname, logo, and my personal familial ties to the st...

Ohio Bobcats Considering Stupid Move to Sun Belt

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Good morning, and welcome to hell. Yesterday, a report emerged that Ohio University has initiated and engaged in conversations with the Sun Belt Conference about the possibility of exiting the Mid-American Conference to join the SBC. Before we go in-depth as to why that’s an asinine idea to think, let alone say out loud, let me make my stance on this crystal clear: This is a bad idea.