Opinion | 1-Offs Tiger-Cats Tim Hortons Generation has another bite taken out of it with Rico Murray retirement – TheSpec.com

Familiar Tim Hortons menu shrinking

Had the 2020 CFL season not been cancelled, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats would have had a remarkable 10, arguably 11, players on the roster most of them starters who had been with the team since its new stadium opened on Labour Day, 2014. Well always call them the Tim Hortons Generation. Inarguably era-defining.

On offence; Jeremiah Masoli, Brandon Banks, Mike Filer and possibly, at some point, Luke Tasker. On special teams; long snapper Aaron Crawford. On defence; Simoni Lawrence, Ted Laurent and Mike Daly, plus Cats-to-the-bone Courtney Stephen, Rico Murray and Delvin Breaux who had returned although they each spent a year or two elsewhere.

In recent days, that group has been pared by probably four: Crawford went to Calgary via free agency, immensely popular Filer wont be resigned, Tasker hasnt been made an offer and, this week, versatile Rico Murray, who was the 2019 wide side linebacker, announced his retirement.

Rico Murray, who was the 2019 Hamilton Tiger-Cats wide side linebacker, announced his retirement this week. Teammate Courtney Stephen sends a message of congrats.

Winning followed Murray around in his eight-year CFL career, which began and ended with the Ticats. He arrived here for the Guelph season in 2013, made the East all-stars at halfback for each of the thee Ontario teams and five times in his eight CFL years, he went to the Grey Cup. He won it with, oh geez, Toronto in 2017 and three of his six Ticats squads made it to the Cup final.

Although he made it public Thursday, several weeks earlier Murray took the classy and respectful route of privately informing the Ticats of his pending retirement so football operations could go into free agency pre-armed with that knowledge.

Foul shooting and foul mouthing?

As he watched the Toronto Raptors, Spectator reader Jeff Witt noticed that with no distracting fans, players seemed to have better focus at the foul line. So, he summoned up NBA stats for the last four seasons and found that in 2020 and 21, when a lot of games have been played with few or no fans, indeed foul shooting success had risen over the two previous full-fan years.

Well supplement that reasoning with: all teams have obsessed over pure shooting skills in practice and roster construction since the Warriors moved the three-pointer from the accessories drawer to the main wardrobe closet.

But it also got us to wondering about something else the naked eye suggests: that maybe mounting time in cooped-up mode has stoked frustration in players and officials.

Its by no means an empirical study, but heading into Thursdays night slate 11 players were averaging at least .20 technical fouls per game so far in the compacted 2021 season. Over the past 15 years, only twice has a season ended with more than seven .20-plus-per-game players, and never reached double figures. And no one has come remotely at those seasons ends to the .47 T-ups per game the combatively-talented Russell Westbrook currently averages.

Beam us in Scotties

Every time theres a gap in live-event scheduling which has been a whole bunch over the past year along comes the curling broadcast replays to plug the hole. So, its energizing to the see the real, live, thing return this week with most of the games top Canadian women athletes at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

The Scotties is always big deal spiel and this will be one of the toughest to win, ever, with the one-time expansion of playoffs and teams (18). Itll be mentally draining with no fans to invigorate the long days, very strict quarantine restrictions inside the Calgary bubble, and the inevitable procedural adjustments on the fly during this first of four major national championships to be held in the venue this winter/spring. Plus, many teams havent had much game or even practice experience this season and theres a berth in the Olympic trials on the line.

It should be great to finally watch curling drama again without actually knowing the script.

DeNobile shepherded Hall in roughest times

Back to the 110-yard game, we cant let February end without noting that late last month executive-director Mark DeNobile left the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, just shy of his bakers dozen anniversary.

It was a really enjoyable 13 years and we went through a lot of changes, says the 62-year-old Hamilton native. I wish the Hall absolutely nothing but the best.

DeNobiles late father, Geno, won the 1957 and 63 Grey Cups during his nine seasons as a Ticat guard, and his son lived and breathed the Hall of Fame during his stewardship. Plagued by lack of money, minuscule attendance and other issues, the Hall closed its downtown location, near City Hall in 2015. Ownership passed, by agreement with the city, to a non-profit board of directors at arms length from, but controlled by, the CFL head office.

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DeNobile doggedly and tirelessly promoted its artifacts and displays, escorting them around the country for big CFL promotions and Grey Cup week. But, there was no rooted physical location until June 2018, when the Hall was rebooted on the imaginatively reconfigured fourth floor at Tim Hortons Field, with additional displays in the west entrance lobby and the seventh floor media zone.

Greg Dick, the leagues CFO and director of football operations, is also chair of the Halls board and says the league has several plans to upgrade the in-house experience over time. Dick will run operations until a new executive-director is in place.

End Offs

He missed a week with an injury and more with the COVID-19 restrictions which shut down the Wild, but Caledonias Cam Talbot is doing exactly what he was brought to Minnesota to do: stabilize the goaltending and defensive confidence. Talbot came off the NHLs pandemic protocol list Thursday and didnt play that night against the Ducks but might get in Saturdays second game Anaheim. Hes 3-2 with a .920 save percentage but those positive numbers understate his calming steadiness hes brought ... In Calgary, critics have been slamming the core players after a ragged three games. Some called for the re-promotion of Hamiltons Zac Rinaldo from the taxi squad to add a little edge to the seemingly listless team in a weekend home-and-home with Edmonton. Rinaldo has played just one game with just three shifts and two minutes of ice time two weeks ago, but it was a Flames win over the Oilers ... Nick Caamano of Ancaster played the Dallas Stars first nine games but was returned to the taxi squad last weekend ... Earlier this week, legendary St. Johns sports writer Robin Short detailed The Rocks all-time NHL scorers and Michael Ryder was No. 1 followed by Dan Cleary, the first Newfoundlander to win a Stanley Cup. Both played for the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs ... RIP longtime friend and former Torstar colleague Frank Orr, who made heavy days on the road lighter with incisive humour and uncanny knowledge of some of the worlds funkiest restaurants.

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Opinion | 1-Offs Tiger-Cats Tim Hortons Generation has another bite taken out of it with Rico Murray retirement - TheSpec.com