There was some sad CFL news Friday, as the league released a statement on the passing of former CFL commissioner John Donald Crump. According to this obituary from The Toronto Star, Crump passed away Thursday at Newmarket, Ontario's Southlake Regional Health Centre. He was 78.

Crump's tenure as CFL commissioner was fascinating, even if it wasn't very long. As the Toronto Sun's Lance Hornby writes, Crump was an unexpected choice as commissioner in 1990, but he was certainly qualified to deal with the squabbling owners who were deeply divided at the time:

At Donald Crump's surprise unveiling as Canadian Football League commissioner in 1990, he was asked how he could possibly control eight radically different team owners.

"I have a great deal of experience in finding out how to tie down a loose cannon," he reminded of his previous two decades' work at Maple Leaf Gardens with the unpredictable Harold Ballard.

As treasurer of MLG - which was like holding the keys to the Canadian Mint -

Friend of the blog Brad Gagnon posted a rather interesting interview over at Goal-Line Stand Thursday, speaking to Toronto councillor Doug Ford about plans to try and attract an NFL team to the city. Ford made some rather bold statements, including saying that two teams (Jacksonville and New Orleans) "are kind of in play here," and that the NFL "can't keep ignoring a market this size." Funnily enough, though, Ford's comments themselves might be further disincentive for the NFL to stay away; his comments about New Orleans in particular hit a nerve, forcing the team to issue a quick denial, and he had to make a public apology in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. (That hasn't stopped him from getting plenty of hate mail from Saints' fans, though).

This obviously isn't the first time this has come up, as the NFL in Toronto has been a matter of debate for years and took on a new life in 2007 when the league announced the Buffalo Bills would play a series of exhibition and regular-season games

Some players-turned-analysts are known for carrying playing biases into their new jobs. That isn't necessarily bad, as long as they don't take them too seriously, but it's still refreshing to see an analyst come out and say what he really thinks about the recent actions of the team he used to play for. Legendary former Winnipeg Blue Bombers receiver and current CFL on TSN panelist Milt Stegall (seen at right in 2008 when he broke Allen Pitts' CFL career receiving yardage record) did just that this week, sounding off to the Winnipeg Sun's Paul Friesen about the team's off-season moves and current head coach Paul LaPolice. Here are some of the highlights:

— On the Steven Jyles trade: Buck Pierce is a great quarterback," Stegall began. "But if he goes down... they might be calling back Kenny Ploen. Because I don't even know what's behind him. They have, what's his name, Brink?

"If Buck is healthy, they have a chance. If he's not, I don't believe they have a chance."

— On receivers Brock

With the 2011 CFL draft coming up this Sunday (12:30 p.m. Eastern, TSN), there's plenty of discussion around as to who's going to be selected where. Will Rice tackle Scott Mitchell's top ranking in the latest CFL list lead to Winnipeg taking him first overall, or will they go for a CIS player like Calgary slotback Anthony Parker (pictured above stiff-arming Queen's linebacker Chris Smith during the 2009 Vanier Cup) or St. FX linebacker Henoc Muamba? Will there be first-round trades? How will teams balance the potential of NCAA underclassmen with the chances of losing them to the NFL the way the B.C. Lions lost Danny Watkins this year? Where will Western's Vaughn Martin, currently with the NFL's San Diego Chargers, be drafted? Will anyone take Western linebacker and documentary superstar John Surla? One of the best resources for making sense of the draft is Ridley Scouting's 2011 Draft Guide. For some information on what's going on with this year's version and what this year's draft

Tuesday's Toronto press conference on concussions was notable not just for the improvements announced, which were significant in their own right, but also for the wide range of groups that came together to discuss the issues around head injuries. The conference featured everyone from CFL commissioner Mark Cohon to Football Canada director of sport Rick Sowieta to CIS chief executive Marg McGregor and Toronto Argonauts' CFLPA representative Bryan Crawford, and it had representatives from essentially every level of organized football in Canada. Despite that wide-ranging composition, the panel demonstrated a remarkable consensus on many key issues; concussion awareness has to be increased at all levels, football rules and tackling instructions have to be refined to discourage dangerous play, head injury treatment has to be standardized and done in accordance with international protocols and research into concussions has to continue.

Some direct measures were announced to achieve these

On many professional sports teams, the reaction to a player getting in legal trouble is inversely proportional to the player's importance; bottom-of-the-roster scrubs tend to be dumped instantly, while star players are often kept and defended until the team has no choice but to get rid of them. That doesn't appear to be the case with the B.C. Lions, though. B.C. announced the release of star running back/kick returner Yonus Davis Tuesday, a couple of weeks after it was reported that he was detained by DEA agents with 67 pounds of ecstasy (approximately 40,000 tablets) and charged with possession with intent to distribute, which could lead to a sentence of up to 20 years in jail. Davis was a revelation for the Lions last year, leading the CFL's West Division with 1,642 all-purpose yards despite not playing much early in the season, and he was named as the divisional finalist for the league's outstanding special-teams player award (which went to Toronto's Chad Owens). Now, they're going

Head injuries are one of the most critical situations facing football, and they're one that could require some drastic changes to promote player safety on the part of the CFL. Monday, the news came out that change may be on the way, as the CFL sent out a release that they will be holding a press conference "on the subject of concussion awareness" in Toronto Tuesday with "representatives from Football Canada, Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), the Canadian School Sport Federation, the Canadian Football League Players Association (CFLPA), the Canadian Football League Alumni Association (CFLAA) and ThinkFirst and the Krembil Neuroscience Centre."

It's a pretty impressive lineup of listed representatives that are going to be at this conference, involving a wide variety of people with important roles to play and different perspectives on the subject. CFL commissioner Mark Cohon (pictured at right with the Grey Cup last November) will be there to represent the league administration and

Last night's UFC 129 mixed martial arts event at Rogers Centre saw plenty of notable triumphs. The record-setting crowd saw everything from Georges St. Pierre's unanimous decision over Jake Shields (despite an eye injury) to Mark Hominick battling through a brutal forehead wound to last five full rounds against Jose Aldo in the Fight of the Night (highlights above) to Lyoto Machida's stunning Steven Seagal-inspired knockout of Randy Couture (in Couture's final fight) and John Makdessi's knockout of Kyle Watson. However, one of the most notable victors wasn't a fighter at all, but a CFL team backing a fighter; the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, whose sponsorship of Hominick turned out even better than anticipated.

Getting involved with the UFC was certainly an unconventional move from the Tiger-Cats, as most established sports teams and leagues seem to see MMA's rising popularity as a dangerous source of competition for fans and advertising dollars rather than a potential ally. Moreover, big MMA