- Quick, name the only professional team to currently sport two Heismann trophy winners on the same roster. Eric Crouch played the role of a perfect backup all year, and played decent in his first chance this past weekend, going 4-9 and helping the Ricky Williams-less Toronto Argonauts to a 26-23 win. Williams meanwhile, before breaking a bone in his arm that will sideline him for a few weeks, was putting up some average numbers. Where he really impressed was is in his receiving numbers, an 8.3 yard average in 7 catches, improving on every snap.

- Speaking of the CFL, with the improved officiating and addition of instant replay this year, call me crazy but I’m now among the believers who say that the CFL has the best framework for professional football. It’s no secret that the CFL rules and field dimensions are geared towards a smaller, faster player. The game is built for the stereotypical athlete, and punishes the overly large, exclusive to football big man. The absence of a 4^th down stretches the field on the vast majority of plays, adding to the excitement, emphasizing the stars. The CFL lacks the parity of the NFL, but allows its star players a much more significant amount of time to shine.

It’s a contention that can never really be proven of course, because the CFL will never attract enough talent to test it, and the NFL knows that the value of the ‘fat man’ in its marketing is too big to make the 400lb lineman obsolete by playing a pass first, 3 down game. That said, who wouldn’t like to see Payton Manning put up 7 touchdowns and 5 interceptions a game?

-Jazil is out of the Traver’s Stakes, having picked up a hind leg bruise in training. Unfortunately that means my oil-and-water Jazil vs. Bernardini dream match up looks to be down to the Breeder’s Cup Classic, or not at all. UPDATE - sorry, thats not entirely true, if Jazil heals well he could match up against Bernardini in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 7, a month before the Breeder's Cup.

-Who knew salary arbitration would be the rally killer to the string of good luck the NHL had been seeing the past 12 months. How long it will take before the league can correct the problem of rulings like Daniel Briere’s $5.1M award is unclear. When team’s like Chicago and Tampa Bay, (who can’t do the math and figure out that $5M for anyone short of Wayne Gretzky is a cap nightmare) are setting precedent in arbitration hearings, expect to see more and more teams walking away from the awards.

-Even with the Twins in the mix, it says here the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees have a better chance of catching wildcard leaders Chicago than AL East leaders Boston.

It was nice to see 50 thousand plus fans at a ball game in Toronto again, even if a quarter of them were there to see the Yankees. Here’s hoping more Western New Yorkers start supporting the local team, the same way Southern Ontario helps keep the Bills afloat. As long as they keep their 45mph driving minivans out of the left lane on the way to and from that is. Seriously, I’m talking to you Tony from Amherst with the Rush Limbaugh bumpersticker, you don’t need to learn metric, just learn to get out of the way. You can't drive any slower unless the mayor is on your roof throwing candy.

I must admit, I’m very intrigued by the arrival of Ricky Wiliams to Toronto. In my eyes Ricky is great entertainment. Talent and drama rolled up into one. He’s engaging, well spoken, and an unapologetic flake. And now that he’s all of about 3 blocks away from my office over at the Argo’s practice facility, I’m all the more interested in what he’ll say or do next.

Sure, Ricky has brought all his troubles onto himself, I accept that. In many ways though I also accept his explanations. I too would have an incredibly tough time conforming to the intolerant model of the NFL player. I’d want to push my luck, look for an outlet, a way to express myself as an individual. I understand the notion that without this outlet, this sense of individualism, you’ll wind up doing some pretty strange things, which Ricky certainly has.

In day to day life people with low pressure jobs get themselves fired all the time, it’s not that rare, nor is it all that difficult to understand. Why then is the idea of him doing the same thing in a high pressure situation all that unimaginable? The only real difference is that no one bets billions on our job performance.

It comes back to the culture of professional football. For some reason an NFL job is treated like it’s the clergy, it’s considered a divine devotion. And don’t tell me the job is different because of the money involved, there are numerous other professions, including most of the other professional sports, that make significant money but don’t have the culture of restraint the NFL does.

Look at what Joe Theismann, a former Argo himself, had to say about Ricky’s arrival in Toronto:

"I don't ever want to be mentioned in the same breath as Ricky Williams as a football player. He's a disgrace to the game. The man doesn't deserve to play football. He should go on with his life and treat his drug addictions or go do whatever he wants to do. He's been suspended from the NFL on multiple occasions. Doesn't anybody have any class anywhere?”

Need I say more? This is the ugly face of the NFL, the intolerant, opportunistic, kick-em-while-they’re-down mentality. What Theismann said is by definition classless.

Ask yourself, would Ricky Williams excel outside of the NFL? Wouldn't he make a great baseball player? He’s Bill Lee, trying to play in a league that hates spacemen. In the NFL, there’s no time for say Ricky to be Ricky the way Manny can be Manny, and that’s disappointing. For as great a product as the NFL puts out, its culture sure has some rotten elements.