Harvin is back disguised as Rainey!!!

[DRU2012]

Hah! DRU, you brought up that one thing that so many Canadian NFL-only fans mention: the two "Riders" teams. See: Ottawa Rough Riders were named after the loggers who rode the timber down the river, and were a part of the original CFL. The Saskatchewan Roughriders were named after cavalry groups like Roosevelt's Roughriders, and kept the name when their league joined the CFL. So... yeah, we had two teams with almost the same name. I thought it was cool that neither team was willing to sacrifice their history (the Sask Riders have been around 103 years, now).

I should have just started a "Why the CFL is awesome" thread....

ANYTIME, man! Come Grey Cup-season, at least post your analysis of the last 4 teams involved before the Eastern and Western finals, along with a list of any alumni from SEC programs (especially Gators, of COURSE), if you would.
I already get updates re the games, but with the (to us) fairly idiosyncratic scheduling plan (or lack thereof--it seems I get overnight scores from games played on any day or night of the week), I don't keep up with it very well, I'll admit--and I NEVER see live games down here until the playoffs--and then not-on-tape-delay only if we're lucky, at least until The Big One itself...sucks.
(Oh yeah--and thanks for the background info. on the two 'Riders--always wondered, never knew...LOVE that stuff--keep it coming...)

 

[FrozenGator]

I'll do my best to remember to do that, sir!

Also, you can often find CFL games on Friday nights on the NFL Network. Keep your eyes open!

 

[DRU2012]

I'll do my best to remember to do that, sir!

Also, you can often find CFL games on Friday nights on the NFL Network. Keep your eyes open!

YEAH--and Time/Warner has that on-going dispute with the NFL down here re where/how they place and offer their Network in the "Tier System" (its a stupid corporate-spat that only matters to them and a few people who MIGHT not want to pay an extra few cents-per-month to get it--Don't ask!)...the upshot being that I USED to get it when I lived on the other side of town and chose GrandeCom as my provider, but over here we don't have that choice. I'd consider going to satellite (yes, I'm that crazy/picky when it comes to what I want in my home-ent.-access), except this place CAME with full "Total Deluxe All-Movie-Channels"/internet/phone (all inter-connected and inter-accessed, for eg. I get ESPN3.com and all the games ESPN carries ANYWHERE on my phone through SPRINT 4G OR WiFi as part of this package), and at a pretty good all-inclusive price...and yet there've been issues, and that supposed "full access" let me down the one time it counted so far this season: the second Gator game at home when I was out, and outside of Fla. the ONLY place to see it was ESPN3 as pay-per-view OR whatever arrangement one had to access ESPN3.com--which I am indeed supposed to HAVE, but YOU try arguing with an automated call-answering system on a Saturday...we'll see what happens NEXT time).
I guess I shouldn't really complain...Here's how silly things can get down here in the name of "commerce":
You've probably heard of "The Longhorn Network", its part in Texas' perceived overbearing arrogance, and resentment among its Big 12 rivals--especially A&M and their finally jumping over to the SEC (or is this another Texas-centric local self-obsession that really doesn't matter to ANYONE north of the Red River?). Well, with all the planning and advance hype, including its arrangements with ESPN, since they are a CABLE-network you'd think they'd have had the details of their availability to the majority of fans in Austin, home to the University of Texas itself, all squared away...but NO!
On the literal eve' of their "lights-up" inaugural broadcast they had NO contracts in place in Austin, in fact just one with a relatively minor Verizon carrier somewhere in northwest rural Texas. They managed to make an arrangement to be carried on campus in the dorms, and Grandecom signed on later that week, but practically no one saw their opening; Grandecom represents MAYBE 10% of the already-wired (Time-Warner plus satellite-carriers) subscribers in the HOME of the Longhorns and much less than that statewide, and here it is a third of the way into the season and they STILL haven't gotten this settled. I don't care, myself (E- can tell you about how Gators like us view "the 40 acres", and what we go thru' in this "State of Over-Compensation"), if anything I find it funny (it's about time THEY get to feel what it's like to feel cut off and preempted--for eg., like when you're listening to the local sports station--nominally ESPN-affiliated, but nonetheless--in, say, the fifth inning of the deciding game of the National League Championship series while you're driving around, and suddenly in the middle of the announcer's call of a throw-to-the-plate there's a flurry of trumpets and a voice-over telling you "THIS, is Texas Highschool Football!!!" taaah-ta-ta-ta! "Tonight, Middle-of-Nowhere's "Fightin' Sh*tstains" meet the "Throbbing Lizards" of St. David Crockett High here in Stinky--oops, I mean STICKY Oilpatch, Texas!" I'm hardly exaggerating, swear to God--this can and WILL happen any Thursday or Friday in Fall here in "Tejas--I wasn't born here but I got here as soon as I could!")...but after all that "storm und drung" (longtime wife and still-best-friend is German, some words and expressions just BETTER than anything we have in American-English) you would THINK they could get this ironed out in a timely manner, but apparently ESPN is "playing hardball" for the sake of "precedent" and (the REAL reason) long term cash-flow. So it goes.

 

[Escambia94]

Here is my take on Texas high school football--it is no more a religion here than back home in Florida. The difference here is that Texas schools have a larger population and they get more money, so they build bigger stadiums. Other than the Miami, FL area, I do not see overcrowded schools in Florida like they are overcrowded here in Texas. Rather than building more schools, they keep them big so they have a reason to make big schools with big stadiums. They are no more crazy about football here than they are anywhere else. They just brag about it and get TV shows made about it. They also have better equipment than anyone other than California high schools. California high school football looks like some college football teams and stadiums, but it does not make the players any better.

As for the Shorthorn Network, I HATE hearing the stupid commercials. I HATE having my SEC football games pre-empted by Little 12 games and Tejas square dancing. Come on, guys. Not everyone buys your stupid myth about everything being bigger and better in Texas. To be honest, when it comes to high school football, California wins hands down. Florida would beat out Texas if the per capita income were higher in Florida.

 

[DRU2012]

Oh I don't buy into ANY of that "Don't Mess With Texas"/"Everything's Bigger and Better Here"-crap (you should have heard my DAD go on about it--when he was a Colonel in charge of an Air Wing, including at Eglin back when I was a kid, he would bait and dress-down ANYONE from Texas, and he had a seemingly bottomless "bag" of dryly funny jokes and snide stories about Texans and their humorless , swelled-head pride in the self-superiority they were so certain of), least of all how it applies to Florida and the relative merits of highschool football, in terms of talent-per-capita OR in local importance and/or interest. The evidence is clear, cut and dry; you've named the top 3 states in terms of raw numbers, but when it's figured by any measure that takes into account the CONCENTRATION of talent, Florida is tops. As for the rest, well, California reflects more local wealth, Texas sheer across-the-state obsessiveness, self-promotion and hype, while Florida just goes on producing the most with the least of everything BUT talent and fan support.

 

[CaliZona_Gator]

actually Ricky Williams is currently sitting at #28 on the list of career rushing leaders.

Who's that guy at the top of the list?

 

[DRU2012]

I was just surprised he was as high as he is, and now in crowded company in a clot of guys near that top 5-or-10...
Isn't #24 the all-time, still? I should obviously look it up instead of operating from (way imperfect) memory (the joke in my family was always that my dad and I were "blessed with PARTIAL-recall").

 

[Escambia94]

actually Ricky Williams is currently sitting at #28 on the list of career rushing leaders.

Who's that guy at the top of the list?

The best running back of all time! Escambia Gator. Florida Gator. Dallas Cowboy. NFL Hall of Fame!

 

[DRU2012]

The best running back of all time! Escambia Gator. Florida Gator. Dallas Cowboy. NFL Hall of Fame!

Sorry, E-...I hit the "2" twice when I MEANT to hit the "4"; I corrected it above. (Not like it isn't there in front of me whenever I'm here at GE--no excuse...)

 

[Escambia94]

Sorry, E-...I hit the "2" twice when I MEANT to hit the "4"; I corrected it above. (Not like it isn't there in front of me whenever I'm here at GE--no excuse...)

Look at my avatar. He will always be #24 to me. That was his number since he was a little boy coming up out of Attucks Court, and into Escambia. He had to switch jerseys at Florida to #22 because safety Bill Lang had #24.

 

[DRU2012]

I THOUGHT so--about Emmit wearing #22 with "us"...didn't know about that switch 'cause of Lang; tell the truth, I didn't remember LANG 'til you brought him up here--considering how Emmit eclipsed just about everyone else on our whole offense practically from the time he got here, I think I can be let off the hook for that one. Hell, we started hearing about him 2 years before he GOT here (eg. how other schools were going after him HARD, but his mom wanted him to be a Gator--Thankyou Mama Smith!).
Hey, E-, maybe you can clear something a bit cloudy in my memory: I know he left UF to go into the Supplemental Draft (snapped up by Dallas without a moment's pause, happily sacrificing their next year's high 1st-round pick to get him) before his senior year, but I forget the exact timing and sequence there. Did he go after his sophomore or his junior year? I know he would have been the leading candidate for the Heisman going into that year, but in my recollection, possibly he WASN'T considered a serious candidate the previous season because he was only a sophomore--and until Tebow, of course, no underclassman was given more than a nod as a "promising also-ran". He got VOTES that previous year, I remember, but his "time" was penciled to begin the NEXT season--the one he missed when he allowed his name to be entered in that Supplemental Draft. I don't think he redshirted, and I KNOW he went early (and came back and got his degree a couple of years later, having promised his mom that he would do so), but did he have one or TWO tears of eligibility left when he went pro? Just want to get it straight, once and for all.

 

[Escambia94]

He only left a year early. He heard that when Spurrier came in that he would lose carries in the pass oriented offense. Under Galen Hall, not only was he the featured back, he was the entire offense. Kyle Morris barely had a 100 passer rating before he got benched for gambling, stop 1989 was an excellent running year for Emmitt. Emmitt did not want to risk looking bad in a new offense in his senior year before the draft. His stock was at its peak, so it was time to go. Remember, Spurrier joined the team right around New Years. Emmitt did not have an opportunity to learn about Spurrier. All he knew was that Spurrier liked to throw in the USFL and at Duke. Somehow it all worked out. Emmitt got picked up by the right team, and Spurrier got to start fresh with Errict Rhett.