The Ides of March Strike the CFL and hey, how about televising pre-season games on Facebook?
In this CFL off-season, after some pretty good bursts of energy, you can see why in mid-March the Romans killed Julius Caesar. They were desperate for some action with the CFL training camps about 79 days away and Mark’s CFL Week in Winnipeg starts March 23.
Marcus Thigpen of the Riders made the news for testing positive for a performance enhancing drug, dehydrochloromethyltestosterone, in November. While you can shake your head at the stupidity of taking a steroid, considering Thigpen was out of football and getting older, he probably thought anything that could help would be worth it.
Well, he was suspended for two games and while there are those who like to point to the Riders and say cheaters, steriod use is not unknown in the CFL as other players have also been caught. With the CFL now doing drug testing and having a policy, players will have to learn to do it the right way or not get paid because missing game cheques in the CFL hurts in the pocket book.
Potentially bigger news will come on Thursday when the Supreme Court of Canada is expected to announce whether former CFL player Arland Bruce will be granted leave to appeal British Columbia court rulings in a concussion-related lawsuit against the CFL and former commissioner, Mark Cohon. Bruce filed a suit about four years ago looking for compensation for what he said were brain injuries as a result of concussions he suffered during his 14 year CFL career.