The CFL's 2011 free agents may have mostly found new homes already, but there's a somewhat surprising new name on the market. The Saskatchewan Roughriders announced today that they had released veteran import cornerback Omarr Morgan (as well as fellow import DB Willie Byrd). The release of Byrd, 27, isn't all that notable; he's spent three seasons in the CFL with Winnipeg, Calgary and Saskatchewan, but hasn't made much of an impact. Morgan's release is more unexpected; he's 34, but he's played 10 seasons and 174 games in the Riders' green and white, recording 556 defensive tackles, 36 special teams tackles, 26 interceptions returned for 399 yards and 10 fumble recoveries.

From this standpoint, it appears there are several possible motivations for Morgan's release. One is simply a desire to get younger; although many veterans excel in the CFL, teams are still always on the lookout for youth, and the Riders do have several impressive younger players in the secondary. Many of them

The B.C. Lions have managed to keep one of their two potential free agents, but at a cost. Backup quarterback Jarious Jackson signed a new deal with the team earlier this week, one which Lowell Ullrich reports is the league's richest for a projected second-stringer. As Ullrich wrote, though, the team ascribes more value to Jackson (pictured above in an August 2010 game) than merely providing insurance in case of injury to starter Travis Lulay:

But what the Lions bought when they agreed to a deal that will make Jackson the highest-paid backup in the league goes well beyond the $140,000, plus a signing bonus, he will make this season.

Jackson's value to the Lions is far greater to them than to any other club, and for that they paid accordingly. Buono knew what he had in Jackson and in the end, the reverse held true as well.

"I'm not sure how fans feel about him, but internally there's a tremendous amount of respect for him throughout the organization," Buono said Thursday.

"To

Jim Barker may have been the man holding the Annis Stukus Trophy as the CFL's 2010 Coach of the Year at a Vancouver banquet Friday afternoon, but despite thoroughly deserving the victory, he spent most of his time distributing the credit to others. Barker (pictured with the award, above centre) was introduced by Argos' receiver Jermaine Copeland (right) and given the award by CFL commissioner Mark Cohon (left), and he quickly went on to say that he saw the trophy as emblematic of overall organizational progress, not just his own accomplishments.

"This is a nice validation we're on the right track," he said. "It says we're doing things the right way."

For Barker, one of the keys to team success is that everyone buys in and works together, much like a family unit.

"It's getting everyone pulling in the right direction," he said.

Barker has plenty of experience with less-than-united organizations; one of his previous coaching stints was with the Calgary Stampeders under infamous owner

As part of the annual CFL Congress, the Coach of the Year award is being presented today out in Vancouver. Candidates include Jim Barker of the Toronto Argonauts (pictured above), Ken Miller of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Marc Trestman of the Montreal Alouettes. Nominees were selected by members of the Football Reporters of Canada, and the winner receives the Annis Stukus Trophy (named after the legendary quarterback, coach and general manager). Trestman took home the award last year, but each of the three has a good case for it this time.

In many sports, the Coach of the Year award's pretty simple to predict. It's generally given to whichever coach oversaw the biggest turnaround. This works quite well sometimes, but not all turnarounds are equal; some are short-lived and owe more to scheduling quirks, unsustainable performances from a couple of players or suddenly weakened conferences or divisions. If you simply hand out the award to the coach whose team's record improved the

This month saw the tragic deaths of two men. They grew up and lived in separate worlds, but both played professional football along the Great Lakes, and there are suspicions that their athletic careers may have contributed to their unfortunate ends. Former Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats star running back and linebacker/defensive back Bobby Kuntz (pictured at left above) passed away at the age of 79 on Feb. 7 after an 11-year battle with Parkinson's disease, while former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson (pictured at right above) took his own life with a shotgun Feb. 17. This is the story of their lives, of how they and their families suspected their football careers might have impacted their health, of the other research that supports that conclusion, and how their legacy may help others down the road.

Kuntz was a legendary figure in the early days of the CFL, even if he almost never made it to professional football. In the high-school ranks, a coach in Cleveland told him

One of the most interesting points of debate during CFL games revolves around third-down situations (like the 2006 one pictured above, where Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray scrambled to try and convert a third-and-short against Montreal). On broadcasts, live blogs, Twitter and even just in the stands, everyone has an opinion on whether it's best to go for it, punt or attempt a field goal. The problem is that most of these comments are based on personal preferences rather than empirical data, so the debate's pretty limited; if one person thinks the team should punt and another thinks they should go for it, who's to say which is the better decision?

One way to get around this is to assume whichever decision the coach ends up making is the correct one and focus your efforts on trying to predict what move they'll make, but I'm rather skeptical of the "coaches always know best" argument (especially on game-management decisions like whether to go for it, as they don't actually have as much

The Edmonton Eskimos released their 2010 financial results today (full report available in PDF form here), and many will focus on two key numbers in their report. First, the Eskimos managed to make a profit of $5.1 million from hosting the Grey Cup. Second, despite that, their bottom line still shows a $2.3 million loss. If read without context, that has frightening implications for the entire league; the Grey Cup's the biggest cash cow the CFL has, so if the team hosting it is still losing millions of dollars, the league is in major trouble.

Fortunately, the context appears to make those numbers far less worrying. As Mario Annicharico points out, the primary reason for the bottom-line loss is the Eskimos' investment of close to $9 million into a new recreation centre and $1.3 million into field improvements, neither of which should be a cost that recurs every year. The recreation centre figure Annicharico is referencing is presumably the $8,961,766 in expenses listed as "community

The long-rumoured move by the B.C. Lions to add free-agent offensive lineman Ben Archibald (pictured at right collecting his Most Outstanding Lineman award last year) from Calgary appears to be coming to fruition. TSN and Lowell Ullrich of The Province are both reporting that the Lions have agreed to a deal with Archibald and will officially announce it in the morning. Archibald becomes the Lions' second free-agent signing (after defensive tackle Eric Taylor), and he should be an impressive addition to their offensive line next year.

Archibald was a league all-star last season at left tackle and was a deserving selection as the league's top offensive lineman. He excelled in run blocking, leading the way for backs Joffrey Reynolds and Jon Cornish to rush for an average of 145.4 yards per game (tops in the league), and he also shone in pass protection, guarding Henry Burris' blind side and paving the way for the quarterback's memorable season that ended with the CFL's most outstanding