Sports Articles

2009-08-31 | Jim Murphy

While it’s unwise to put too much importance on NFL preseason performances, it’s hard not to be impressed with the New Orleans Saints’ offense. In particular, it’s impossible to not be impressed with the play of starting QB Drew Brees. Brees played only three series against the Oakland Raiders on Saturday night, but that was enough—by the time he left the Saints led 21-0 en route to a 45-7 thrashing on their hosts. New Orleans improved to 3-0 on the NFL preseason, while the Raiders dropped to 1-2.

2009-08-31 | Jim Murphy

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira left a lot of questions unanswered in the wake of his UFC 92 loss to Frank Mir. He had been dominated in his defeat to Mir and in the process suffered the first stoppage of his career. After the fight it was revealed that he’d suffered from a staph infection during training, severe enough to land him in the hospital for five days. He insisted that the loss was entirely attributable to his illness.

2009-08-31 | Jim Murphy

The Edmonton Eskimos showed a flair for the dramatic in Saturday night CFL action. Trailing 30-21 late in the fourth, Edmonton came all the way back to defeat the visiting Hamilton Tiger Cats 31-30. Noel Prefontaine kicked a clutch 48 yard field goal in the final minute to provide the margin of victory. Edmonton’s Jonte Buhl intercepted the football with 15 seconds left to put the win on ice. Edmonton improved to 5-3, while Hamilton dropped to 4-4.

2009-08-27 | Jim Murphy

Fedor Emelianenko will make his debut for the Strikeforce MMA promotion this fall, facing undefeated prospect Brett “Grim” Rogers. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker made the announcement at a Showtime promoted Fedor open workout in New York City. The promotion has yet to announce a date or a venue, though the event is expected to take place in November with San Jose or Fresno being likely locations given their strong support of previous Strikeforce events.

2009-08-27 | Jim Murphy

Portland, Oregon has long been considered a hotbed of mixed martial arts. The area is home to numerous MMA gyms, the most famous being Gresham’s Team Quest. It has produced many top notch professional fighters including Randy Couture, Matt Lindland, Ed Herman and Ryan Schultz. Regional MMA promotions like Lindland’s SportFight and amateur MMA draws good crowds, and there’s few markets in the country that have such a strong mainstream acceptance and understanding of mixed martial arts.

2009-08-27 | Jim Murphy

Allen Iverson is one of the most high profile NBA free agents left on the market, though his future plans may be determined in the next 48 hours. On Wednesday, Iverson sent a Twitter update indicating that the Memphis Grizzlies had made him an offer. Later that night, that information was confirmed by Memphis GM Chris Wallace.

2009-08-25 | Jim Murphy

The New York Giants weren’t the only losers in their NFL preseason game against the Chicago Bears. The Denver Broncos and their fans had to watch as their former franchise QB Jay Cutler carved up the Giants’ defense and think of what might have been. After a rough opening week, Cutler looked to be in regular season form and the Chicago Bears went on to win 17-3. Both teams are now 1-1 in NFL preseason action.

2009-08-25 | Jim Murphy

The San Francisco 49ers nipped the Oakland Raiders in the NFL preseason ‘Battle of the Bay’, winning by a 21-20 final score. Shaun Hill also won the starting QB job in San Fran as he outplayed Alex Smith, who is still trying to play himself back in shape after losing much of last season due to injury. The Niners improved their NFL preseason record to 2-0 while the Raiders fell to 1-1.

2009-08-25 | Jim Murphy

Backup Mike Bell made the most of his opportunity, starting in place of Reggie Bush and helping the New Orleans Saints romp to a 38-14 road victory over the Houston Texans. Bush was held out of the game with a strained calf, and Bell filled in admirably rushing for 100 yards in the easy victory. New Orleans improved to 2-0 on the NFL preseason, while Houston evened their record at 1-1.

2009-08-24 | Jim Murphy

The Miami Dolphins unveiled their version of the ‘wildcat’ single wing offense for the first time in the NFL preseason and it worked like a charm. Starting QB Chad Pennington went 8 of 11 for 105 yards and a touchdown pass as the Dolphins’ first team offense played well in a 27-17 victory over the Carolina Panthers. The Dolphins improved to 2-0 in the NFL preseason while the Panthers dropped to 0-2.

2009-08-24 | Jim Murphy

The good news for the Cleveland Browns was that their offense came out swinging on Saturday night, scoring 20 points in the first quarter en route to victory. The bad news—it was against the NFL’s worst team and their struggling rookie QB. Browns QB Derek Anderson played well, while the Detroit Lions’ rookie signal caller Matt Stafford struggled mightily as the Browns easily took a 27-10 decision in NFL preseason action. Both teams are now 1-1 in the preseason.

2009-08-24 | Jim Murphy

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers managed to escape with a win at Jacksonville on Saturday night, but by the narrowest of margins. The Jags gave up the opportunity to tie the game after a last minute touchdown, and decided to go for a 2 point conversion and the win. The attempt failed, and the Bucs survived to win by a 24-23 final score. The victory evened Tampa’s NFL preseason mark at 1-1, while Jacksonville slumped to 0-2.

2009-08-22 | Jim Murphy

The Montreal Alouettes withstood a tough challenge from the Saskatchewan Roughriders to win their 7th game of the season by a 34-25 margin. Montreal remained atop the CFL with a 7-1 record, while the Roughriders slipped to 4-4. Als’ rookie QB Chris Leak scored the winning points, flawlessly converting on a third down goal line situation that also happened to be the first play of his CFL career.

2009-08-22 | Jim Murphy

It may only be preseason in the NFL, but the Atlanta Falcons are making a statement that they’ll be a factor in the NFC. The Falcons starters behind QB Matt Ryan were almost flawless, and left the reserves with a 14-0 lead before eventually beating the St. Louis Rams 20-13 at the Edward Jones Dome on Friday night. Both teams are now 1-1 in NFL preseason action.

2009-08-22 | Jim Murphy

After two straight wins gave the BC Lions hope that they’d turned the corner on the CFL season, they’re officially back at square one. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ Fred Reid torched the BC Lions defense all night long, and his career performance helped his team earn a lopsided 37-10 victory at Vancouver on Friday night. Reid ran for 260 yards on 26 carries and scored two touchdown passes in the blowout victory that left both teams with identical 3-5 records.

2009-08-21 | Jim Murphy

While everyone within the organization of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings is putting on a ‘grin and bear it face’ and trying to maintain the party line that there’s much rejoicing over Brett Favre being their QB this season, one former Viking great isn’t playing that game. NFL Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton, who has been critical of Favre’s ‘I’m retired/I’m not retired’ act for awhile now has stepped up his criticism of the former Green Bay Packer/New York Jet. On the Sirius Satellite Radio NFL program ‘The Opening Drive’ Favre pulled no punches with his criticism of “The Gunslinger”, describing the whole scene surrounding his signing by the Vikings as ‘a circus’.

2009-08-21 | Jim Murphy

Veteran point guard Jason Williams—nicknamed “White Chocolate” earlier in his career for his flamboyant play—is returning to the NBA after a season away from basketball. Williams announced that he’s re-entering the league this season, and will do so in an Orlando Magic uniform. Williams is tentatively slated to be the backup for starting playmaker Jameer Nelson.

2009-08-21 | Jim Murphy

The English Premier League season is only a couple of weeks old, but newly promoted Burnley has already pulled off what may be the biggest upset of the season in all of European soccer. In their first home game at the top level of English soccer in 33 years, Robbie Blake scored early in the game and Burnley held on to upset reigning league champions Manchester United before 20,000 jubilant fans at their Turf Moor home pitch.

2009-08-21 | Jim Murphy

Brock Lesnar will make his first defense of the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 106 against another college wrestling standout, Shane Carwin. The event will take place at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center on November 21st, and will also feature the return of Tito Ortiz to UFC action after a high profile media ‘feud’ with UFC President Dana White.

2009-08-21 | Jim Murphy

When the biggest play of a NFL football game is an extra point, there’s a good chance it was a dull contest. Such was the case on Thursday night in rainy Foxboro, Massachusetts as the Cincinnati Bengals edged the New England Patriots by a 7-6 score. The big play of the game? A point after touchdown by the Bengals backup kicker, none other than wide receiver Chad Ochocinco.

2009-08-21 | Jim Murphy

The Indianapolis Colts’ offense was in high gear on Thursday night as Peyton Manning threw two TD passes in three series of action, leaving backup Curtis Painter with a 14-0 lead over the Philadelphia Eagles before exiting the game. The Colts went on to win 23-15 in NFL preseason action at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

2009-08-19 | Jim Murphy

The retirement and un-retirement of Brett Favre is becoming an annual rite of the NFL preseason, and this year is no different. A few months after retiring from football after playing last season with the New York Jets, ‘The Gunslinger’ is back in the NFL. This year he’ll be slinging balls for the Minnesota Vikings, who’ll pay Favre $12 million bucks if he’s on the opening day roster.

2009-08-19 | Jim Murphy

The Baltimore Ravens are clearly responding to first year defensive coordinator Greg Mattison. In Mattison’s debut as an NFL coordinator the Ravens obliterated their regional rivals the Washington Redskins, completing a shutout by a final score of 23-0. QB Joe Flacco looked solid in his short night of action, but the star of the game was the Ravens’ stop unit who looked to be in regular season form already.

2009-08-19 | Jim Murphy

The Dallas Cowboys received a solid effort from QB Tony Romo in his first action of the NFL preseason, but ultimately went down in defeat to the host Oakland Raiders by a 31-10 final score. Romo went ‘three and out’ in his first series, but orchestrated a nice drive on his second go-round culminating in an eight yard touchdown pass to Jason Witten.

2009-08-18 | Jim Murphy

The NFL couldn’t have scripted a better ending to their first nationally televised Monday Night Football contest, even if it was just a preseason game. New York Giants rookie Tommie Hill returned a fumble 18 yards for a touchdown with 0:00 on the clock to break a deadlocked game and give his team a 24-17 victory over the Carolina Panthers in NFL preseason action at The Meadowlands.

2009-08-18 | Jim Murphy

It was the sort of sloppy NFL preseason game that made the coaches more interested in escaping with as few injuries as possible than with winning or evaluating talent. In a driving rainstorm at Arrowhead Stadium the Houston Texans outlasted the Kansas City Chiefs to take a 16-10 NFL exhibition victory. It was the first game of the NFL preseason for both teams, and they were more or less happy to emerge unscathed from the deluge.

2009-08-18 | Jim Murphy

In a NFL preseason game characterized by rainy weather, sloppy field conditions and a quick exit for both team’s starters, the Miami Dolphins outlasted their in-state rivals the Jacksonville Jaguars by a 12-9 score. Only one touchdown was scored in the game, which was a battle of field goal kickers until the third quarter. Miami’s game winning score came on a 33 yard touchdown strike from Chad Henne to tight end Ernest Wilford.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

Tom Brady returned to NFL action and looked good in limited playing time as the New England Patriots opened their preseason schedule with a 27-25 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. Brady played into the second quarter, moving well and showing no lingering effects of his knee surgery. He completed 10 of 15 passes for 100 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

The Edmonton Eskimos survived a wild back and forth CFL shootout against the Calgary Stampeders before prevailing 38-35 to take over sole possession of first place in the CFL West. Ricky Ray hit Fred Stamps with a 23 yard touchdown pass with just nine seconds to play to earn the victory, erasing the lead that Calgary had earned with their own TD pass less than a half minute earlier. Edmonton improved to 4-3 with the win, while Calgary dropped to 3-4.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

It’s been a rough stretch of CFL football for the Toronto Argonauts, and they may have hit rock bottom on Friday night. The Argos appeared to be on the verge of breaking their eight game home losing streak, entering the fourth quarter with a 25-14 lead but ended up on the wrong end of a 36-28 final score that ran their streak of futility at the Rogers Centre to nine games. It was also Toronto’s ninth consecutive loss to BC. BC improved to 3-4 with the victory, while Toronto’s record slipped to 2-5.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

The Pittsburgh Steelers used a 17 point fourth quarter outburst to break open a close game and send the Arizona Cardinals to defeat by a 20-10 score in a NFL preseason “rematch” of this year’s Superbowl. The two teams traded first half field goals and played a scoreless third quarter before Pittsburgh turned up the offense late in the game.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

Gina Carano put women’s MMA on the map, but Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos may have become the sport’s first dominant female champion by virtue of her overwhelming TKO victory in the main event of Saturday’s STRIKEFORCE event. ‘Cyborg’ simply was too physically strong and her punches too powerful for Carano, who fought valiantly before succumbing to a barrage of ‘ground and pound’ punches at the end of the first round.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

The Montreal Alouettes demonstrated the form that has made them the CFL’s top team in a Saturday visit to Winnipeg. Anthony Calvillo threw four touchdown passes and the tenacious Montreal defense all but shut down the Winnipeg offense as the Alouettes prevailed easily over the Blue Bombers by a 39-12 score. The Alouettes improved to 6-1 in CFL play, while the Bombers dropped to 2-5.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

Kyle Orton’s debut as the Denver Broncos starting QB didn’t go quite as planned. Orton, who was acquired from Chicago in the off-season, threw interceptions on each of his first three offensive series. San Francisco’s offense didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard, but it did do enough to eke out a 17-16 NFL preseason victory before their home fans.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

Despite losing to the New Orleans Saints in their NFL preseason opener 17-7, the Cincinnati Bengals had a lot to be happy about. Most significantly, they were elated over the return of QB Carson Palmer after he’d missed most of the last NFL season with an elbow injury. Palmer’s play—133 yards on 7 of 11 passing—gave them even more to be happy about despite being on the wrong end of the final score.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

It was just a week ago that the Saskatchewan Roughriders blew a 22-0 first half CFL lead to the Edmonton Eskimos en route to a 38-33 loss. On Sunday afternoon, it looked for a moment like history was repeating itself. The Riders led 23-0 at halftime before the Hamilton Tiger-Cats came roaring back with 16 third quarter points. Hamilton would tie the score at 23-23 early in the fourth quarter before the hosts pulled it out with a late touchdown and field goal to win 33-23.

2009-08-17 | Jim Murphy

Despite the early struggles of starting QB Kerry Collins, who threw two interceptions, the Tennessee Titans managed to prevail over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday by a 27-20 score. The victory ran Tennessee’s record to 2-0 in the NFL preseason, while the Bucs dropped their first exhibition contest. The Titans rallied behind the play of backup QB Vince Young, who threw for 131 yards and the game winning touchdown.

2009-08-13 | Jim Murphy

The Calgary Stampeders used a solid all around game from running back Joffrey Reynolds to beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 31-23 before 35,000 fans at McMahon Stadium in weekend CFL action. The victory evened the Stamps’ record at 3-3 on the season and left them tied for first place in the CFL West Division with Saskatchewan and Edmonton. The Blue Bombers dropped to 2-4 with the setback.

2009-08-13 | Jim Murphy

An early goal gave the United States soccer team hope, but in the end the result of their World Cup Qualifier against Mexico at Azteca Stadium was a familiar loss. Mexico rallied for a 2-1 triumph in front of their home fans, sending the US to defeat for the 23rd time in 24 games at the venue. The best result the US has been able to muster on Mexican soil was a 0-0 draw in 1997.

2009-08-12 | Jim Murphy

The NFL preseason got underway on Saturday with the annual Hall of Fame Game, and the Tennessee Titans earned the victory as they built a 21-3 first half lead before holding off a late Buffalo Bills comeback to prevail 21-18. The Titans offense looked sharp in the first half, while the Bills never really got anything going in their offensive efforts. Buffalo didn’t score an offensive touchdown, and that’s not going to get it done in the NFL regular season.

2009-08-12 | Jim Murphy

Kelly Pavlik will defend his unified middleweight championship against Paul Williams on October 3rd in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The fight will be held at a familiar venue for boxing fans, Boardwalk Hall and will be broadcast live on HBO. Despite some fits and starts in the negotiations between the two sides, they finally came to terms on Tuesday night. An official announcement of the fight will be forthcoming at a news conference in New York next Tuesday.

2009-08-12 | Jim Murphy

After a shaky start, Quinton Porter is becoming more comfortable as a starting CFL quarterback and the result has been improved play for the entire Hamilton Tiger Cats team. This past weekend Porter led the Ti-Cats to their second straight victory as they upended the Edmonton Eskimos 28-21 at a rainy Ivor Wynne Stadium. With the win, Hamilton improved to 4-2 on the CFL season while Edmonton dropped to 3-3.

2009-08-12 | Jim Murphy

The BC Lions may have turned the corner after a disappointing 1-4 start to the CFL season. This past weekend, a clearly motivated Lions team defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 35-20 to improve to 2-4 in CFL play. The Lions first two losses were closely contested affairs, but the previous two had been fairly one sided. The Roughriders dropped to 3-3 in the early going in the CFL season.

2009-08-10 | Jim Murphy

The New York Giants have made quarterback Eli Manning the NFL’s highest paid player by offering him a six year, $97.5 million contract extension. Manning will earn just over $15 million a year, and $35 million of the contract is guaranteed. Should Manning play through the end of his contract he’ll be a Giant until 2015, meaning there’s a decent chance he’ll play his entire career with the team.

2009-08-10 | Jim Murphy

Though it didn’t receive anywhere near the media attention of Fedor Emelianenko’s rejection of the UFC for Strikeforce, MMA experts were impressed with the announcement that the San Jose, California based promotion had signed Brazilian middleweight Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza to a multifight contract. He is expected to make his Strikeforce debut on the same October event as Emelianenko, which will be broadcast on the Showtime premium cable network.

2009-08-10 | Jim Murphy

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva had lost a lot of his luster coming into Saturday night’s UFC 101 matchup with former light heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin. He was undefeated in his previous nine UFC contests, but his last three victories had been far from impressive. He’d beaten overmatched James Irvin last July in his first effort at 205. That was followed by a TKO win against Patrick Cote when Cote blew out his knee mid fight. In his most recent bout, he’d pouted and showboated his way to a unanimous decision victory by default against a thoroughly overwhelmed Thales Leites. On that night in Montreal he’d heard an abundance of boos from the fans who at one point started a “GSP” chant in reference to his most frequent challenger for “pound for pound” MMA supremacy. Even Dana White criticized his effort and finally conceded that St. Pierre might, indeed, be the best all around fighter in the game.

2009-08-10 | Jim Murphy

BJ Penn withstood the challenge of a game Kenny Florian before defending his UFC lightweight title, earning a tapout victory in the fourth round. The fight was the main event of UFC 101 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was an impressive showing by the Hilo, Hawaii based Penn who was routed by UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre in his previous outing. Back at his preferred weight, however, Penn showed the dominance that has earned him the reputation of being among the best lightweight mixed martial artists in the world.

2009-08-10 | Jim Murphy

The Montreal Alouettes’ offense continues to sputter, but the way their defense is playing it may not matter. The Als’ used a suffocating pass rush to completely shut down Toronto’s attack en route to a 25-0 home field victory on Friday night. The shutout was Montreal’s first in 33 years, and raised their overall record to 5-1.

2009-08-10 | Jim Murphy

Brian Bowles used a counter right hook late in the first round to defeat Miguel Angel Torres by TKO and win the WEC Bantamweight title in the main event of another exciting fight card from Zuffa’s MMA promotion showcasing the lighter weight classes. Though Bowles entered as a highly respected, undefeated challenger his stoppage victory over Torres—a fighter who ranked high atop most ‘pound for pound’ best lists—has to be considered one of the major MMA upsets of the year.

2009-08-07 | Jim Murphy

After a summer of negotiational back and forth during which both sides indicated at various points that they were ‘far apart’ and then ‘making progress’, the Portland Trailblazers have inked All Star shooting guard Brandon Roy to a five year contract extension. Roy will be in the final year of his rookie contract in the forthcoming NBA season, and securing the services of a player that did no less than turn around the franchise was the team’s top summer priority.

2009-08-07 | Jim Murphy

After canceling their 2009 season, the Arena Football League has shut down entirely and appears headed for bankruptcy. Earlier this week, the league office released a short statement indicated that it had ceased operations because owners were "unable to reach any consensus on restructuring the league over the past eight months." The league had reached a new agreement with players earlier this year, but was unable to convince enough owners that they had a viable plan to return to profitability. The league’s statement continued that “there are no other viable options available to the league right now."

2009-08-05 | Jim Murphy

The world’s best heavyweight mixed martial artist has a new American promotional home. Following Affliction’s announcement that they were ending MMA promotional activities, Fedor Emelianenko negotiated with several groups—including the UFC—before signing a multifight deal to compete for the Strikeforce promotion. Terms of the arrangement were not made public, but the promotion indicated that Fedor would make his Strikeforce debut this October.

2009-08-05 | Jim Murphy

Denny Hamlin, pegged as a future NASCAR superstar, ended a ‘sophomore slump’ of sorts on Monday when he won the rain delayed Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway. The race had originally been scheduled for Sunday but was pushed back a day due to rain. The win was Hamlin’s first of the season and broke a 50 race winless streak. His last victory had come in 2008 at Martinsville Raceway.

2009-08-03 | Jim Murphy

One of England’s most beloved sporting figures, Sir Bobby Robson, yielded to his courageous fight with cancer on Thursday at the age of 75. British soccer fans mourned his passing after a lifetime in the game, first as a player and then a team manager and ‘elder statements’. Even the often snippy British press had nothing bad to say about the universally respected Robson, headlining their obituaries with adjectives like “The Bravest Knight” or simply “The Legend”.

2009-08-03 | Jim Murphy

Michael Bishop’s debut as Winnipeg Blue Bombers QB may not have been earth shattering, but it was successful. Behind a tenacious defense and some timely special teams play, the Bombers used an Alexis Serna field goal with just over two minutes left to pull out a hard fought 13-12 win over the host Toronto Argonauts.

2009-08-03 | Jim Murphy

The Saskatchewan Roughriders snapped a two game losing streak as they outlasted the defending Grey Cup Champion Calgary Stampeders by a 24-23 on Saturday night. Riders’ backup receiver Chris Getzlaf caught two TD passes as Saskatchewan erased a 23-17 deficit on the Stamps’ home field. With the victory, Saskatchewan improved to 3-2 straight up on the season, while Calgary dropped to 2-3.

2009-08-03 | Jim Murphy

According to the old saying ‘time heals all wounds’. In the fight game, money—or the potential of it—has the same curative effect. The latest evidence of this is Friday’s announcement that Tito Ortiz has patched things up with Dana White and agreed to a new contract to fight in the UFC. Tito left the promotion over a year ago after an acrimonious split with White, though never found a new promotional home that would give him the money and the high profile status that he craved.

2009-08-03 | Jim Murphy

An undefeated professional football season is a monumental task, be it in the CFL or NFL. The Montreal Alouettes found that out last Friday, dropping their first game of the year on the road to the Edmonton Eskimos by a 33-19 margin. The Eskimos improved to 3-2 SU, while Montreal dropped to 4-1.

2009-08-03 | Jim Murphy

After a month long free agency soap opera, both Lamar Odom and the Los Angeles Lakers got what they really wanted all along. The Lakers’ retained the services of their valuable ‘sixth man’, and Odom will return to the team after an intense recruiting pitch from the Miami Heat. On Friday, Odom officially signed his new contract with the NBA Champions and along with the addition of Ron Artest the Lakers may actually be stronger than last year’s title winning squad.

2009-08-03 | Jim Murphy

The Hamilton Tiger Cats may not be among the elite teams of the CFL, but they’re definitely a scrappy, up and coming squad. They’re also a major thorn in the side of the BC Lions, whom the Ti-Cats defeated for the second time this season on Friday night. Hamilton used a productive rushing game and a stout defense to upend BC at home by a 30-18 margin less than a month after stealing a 31-28 win in Vancouver.

2009-08-03 | Jim Murphy

In conversations with the media before the Calgary Stampeders hosted the Saskatchewan Roughriders, QB Henry Burris had fond memories of his time in Regina but made it very clear—his plan is to retire in Calgary. Burris got his first starting gig back in 2000 with Saskatchewan, but is now very content playing QB for the Grey Cup Champion Stampeders.