-Rob Pettapiece has a nice piece at The CIS blog about the decision to suspend the entire Waterloo football program because nine of the team's 62 players were found to be using drugs.
Pettapiece uses a great term "drive-by media" for a case like this. Indeed, the Waterloo scandal was the lead story on CBC's "The National" Monday night, and it seems the only time Canadian Interuniversity Sport gets into the news is because of a scandal, whether it's steroids, hazing, or Mike Danton.
I'll add onto this, since Pettapiece obviously missed Marg McGregor's quote on the National. McGregor, (for you future university sports reporters, has a lovely answering machine) the CEO of the CIS, said that "we are not taking the view that this is an isolated problem at the University of Waterloo exclusively, and in fact our former testing results have shown that we have had positive infractions not just in football."
Waterloo suspended the whole team team. No dumb humour here. This is a pretty serious situation. Whenever the CIS gets any press, it's usually negative. Perhaps the lack of media support factors into why so few fans come out to watch CIS teams, and thus why some players need to resort to drugs.
From my knowledge, testing policies in Canadian collegiate and university sports vary on a team-by-team basis. In Kamloops, our local university spent $1.4 million on its athletic department (not including athletic scholarships) in the 2009-2010 season, without a single dollar being explicitly dished out to testing or medical treatment of players.
This will be something I will be looking into, due to my recent history of having some bullshit bone to pick with people who are bigger, stronger and more influential than myself, but I've always advocated for cleanliness in sports, since my baseball career ended when I learned that many baseball players at this school were juicing when I was considering a tryout.
-In more positive, hilarious news, Calgary cast-off Dion Phaneuf has officially donned the "C" in Toronto, and the Leafs finally brought back tail-stripes to their otherwise naked jerseys from last season.
Wendel Clark, George Armstrong and Doug Gilmour were all on hand at a private ceremony at Real Sports Bar & Grill Monday as Phaneuf put on his brand-new shirt. The shirts will be available exclusively at Real Sports Apparel for the next week. Both entities are owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, so I have a slight suspicion that Phaneuf isn't really the best candidate for a new captain, but he's the one who will sell the most jerseys and promote their new sports bar.
So really, nothing has changed in Toronto.
-Now that unfounded Jason Spezza rumours have died down, The Ottawa Citizen has decided to break the news that Jonathan Cheechoo will be bought out today. Remember back in 2006 when you needed a good goalie to win the Stanley Cup and Cheechoo/Spezza would have been the best line in hockey?
-An earthquake tremor hit during the 8th inning of the Blue Jays/Padres game. In equally likely news, Aaron Hill got three hits and Kevin Gregg managed to save a game.
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In honour of BTO guitarist Tim Bachmann being charged for having sex with a girl under the age of 15...
...and go watch some soccer. The late game today (2 EST) features Brazil, which means it will be your best chance to see nudity on midday network TV.
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