Hail Mary Finds Its Target

C2 || SPORTS ✰ | BREAKING NEWS: VANCOUVERSUN.COM | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20,2012 CFL POWER RANKINGS 1. Lions 2. Argonauts 3. Stampeders 4. Alouettes 5. Roughriders 6. Tiger-Cats 7. Eskimos 8. Blue Bombers Now that Lions’ QB Before last Saturday’s Like a flying chuck- The Als have lost RB It wasaverytall order Good week for the After two near Paul LaPolicewas fired is second all-time game, Wally Buono wagon at the Calgary Brandon Whitaker for for Drew Willy to defeat Ticats’ coaching staff, misses against the after his team extended behind Sam(TheRifle) suggested the Argos Stampede, the Stamps the season with a dev- AnthonyCalvillo in his which not only con- Stampeders, the Esks the Lions to the limit, Etcheverry in consecu- “are as good a team as arepicking up speed astating knee injury first CFL start, but Rider cocted ahuge win over came crashing down in but the disastrous tivegames with aTD we’ll play at this point and headed to a much- and will have to go for- backup QB statistically Edmonton but chased Steeltown, a43-point regime of Joe Mack/ pass (22), we mightcall of the season.”They anticipated showdown ward without the CFL’s was not very far off in down a thief vandal- loss that proved they Tim Burke makes LaPo’s him Travis (The Rocket came within five points against the Lions at BC best all-purpose back. closer-than-anticipated izing acar outside Ivor are not a contender. exit look even worse. Launcher) Lulay. of a win at BC Place. Place on Oct. 6. loss in Montreal. Wynne Stadium. Mike Beamish, Vancouver Sun CANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE CFL PICKS Sun reporter Mike Beamish Hail Mary finds its target offers his Week 13 predictions: FRIDAY BCIT grad drew inspiration from late Steve Sabol en route to Esks’ documentary Hamilton at Winnipeg 5 p.m., TSN The resiliency of Winnipeg MIKE BEAMISH sports fans continues to VANCOUVER SUN amaze. Despite their team’s 2-9 record, and the most recent As a college fullback at tiny crushing defeat — 44-3 to the Colorado College, self-promot- Stampeders —Blue Bomber ing Steve (Sudden Death) Sabol fans continue to troop to the invented his own nickname and ticket window. The team has perpetrated the notion that he played to 98 per cent capacity was slightly less talented than at a stadium slated for demoli- the great National Football tion, much as the football team League running backs of his will be when all is said and done era. at the end of the 2012 season. Ironically, claimed by brain Bombers will be close to a sell- cancer this week, Sabol’s death out again Friday, in an epic bat- did not come suddenly. At age tle between 2-9 and 4-7 teams 69, however, he left behind a to see which is truly the CFL’s legacy — as a cameraman, pro- worst.Only afool would bet ducer, writer, editor, director, on the Bombers, you say? With cinematographer and president Buck Pierce back following an of NFL Films — that exceeded eight-game absence, it’s purely the mythmaking exploits of Jim a sentimental choice. Brown, Gale Sayers or Cookie Pick: Blue Bombers Gilchrist. The Sabol vision — turning SATURDAY the violence of football into cinematic art, through tight close- B.C. at Edmonton ups and slow-motion photog- raphy, backed by Wagnerian 4:30 p.m., TSN music and voice-of-doom nar- Last Saturday’s 28-23 win over ration — lives on, 50 years later Toronto was much too close in football reality series such as in the eyes of many Lions fans, the NFL’s Hard Knocks, TSN’s who watched their team release The Extra Yard (last year’s its grip on Argo throats after B.C. inside look at the Toronto had taken a 28-16 fourth-quar- Argonauts) and Anaid Produc- terlead.Still,good teams find tions of Vancouver’s Hail Mary a way, and the Lions’ defence on Citytv. The late Steve Sabol turned the violence of football into cinematic art. He inspired Jeff Kinnon, whose Hail Mary airs Saturday at 10 p.m. did.After their 43-pointloss “Definitely, Idrew my inspi- in Hamilton, the Eskimos have ration from Steve Sabol and upbringing — he went to the easily be about Wally Buono, Bob Eagles and Detroit Lions, who striving for something’s that’s hired David Kelly as an offensive NFL Films,” says Jeff Kin- same high school as Lions’ O’Billovich or Jim Popp or any has seriously underestimated hard to do, that not alot of adviser. Kelly has coached Terrell non, a36-year-old product guard Dean Valli, Windsor, CFL executive or team that beats what it takes to play pro foot- people can do. The challenge Owens and Hines Ward in his of the North Shore’s Gordon in North Vancouver — Hail the bushes for that one gem in a ball in Canada. The episode fol- is, can you tell the story of the career. Wonder if those superan- Sturtridge Football League, a Mary is an 11-part documen- 1,000 —aTravis Lulay or aFred lows his growing frustrations guys who got there?” nuated NFL receivers would be graduate of BCIT’s broadcast tary series about the Edmonton Stamps, players uniquely suited as the dream of getting a train- Reality shows on food-deprived interested in playing in Canada? journalism program and the Eskimos, from the perspective to the Canadian game. ing camp invite literally slips desert islands, dance studios, fat Eskimos have the second-worst producer/director/writer of of the young men, and their “NFL fans in Canada like to through his fingers. campsand apprenticing with offence in the CFL. Hail Mary. The second instal- families, who place their hopes put the CFL down,” Kinnon Then there’s Chris D’Andrea, The Donald seem much too con- Pick: Lions ment airs Saturday at 10 p.m., a and dreams on a football career said. “But it takes adifferent a running back from Montclair trived — and this is where Hail couple of hours after the Lions- in a place many find difficult to kind of athlete, not a loser ath- State who led all Division III Mary scores a major with CFL SUNDAY Eskimos’ game at Common- locate on a map. lete, and probably a more con- rushers in his senior year. His fans and those with only a pass- wealth Stadium. Kinnon pitched the project ditioned athlete. How quickly desperation for a pro career ing interest in the game. Toronto at Montreal “The music, the narration, the to Anaid Productions in Janu- rookies need to adjust, and is exceeded only by that of his Joe Burnett, Joe Gibbs, 10 a.m., TSN conversations on the sidelines ary, intrigued to do a series on how quickly they appreciate parents and siblings. His mom Simoni Lawrence, Orrin ... NFL Films gives us a glimpse, “cattle calls” — the open try- the requirements of the Cana- sacrifices asavings fundfor Thompson, RyanKing — The Argos and Lions have only an inside look at the game that out camps thatCFL teams run dian game ... this is not a sec- new living room furniture on they’re just random names and two scheduled games this makes for great TV watching. throughout the U.S. every year. ond-place medal for them.” plane tickets to Atlanta, only to numbers to most CFL fans. But season. But after watching Every sports league is still strug- He approached the Eskimos Episode 2, which airs Sat- see the tryout end in tears. Hail Mary invests the viewer the Double Blue extend the gling to find a comfort zone first, and president Len Rho- urday, takes place in Atlanta, “Football is just the wallpaper, with an emotional connec- hosts at BC Place last Saturday, when it comes to documenta- des was on board with it. Kin- where 160 candidates show asetting,”Kinnon explained. tion to the players and, just as we’re left to wonder if Braley ries. The CFL is still struggling. non looked no further. up for an open tryout, “most “Hail Mary is not just a foot- importantly, connects us to the Bowl III mightbeinthe offing But we were looking at a way to Although the series features without a chance to make it in ball story, analyzing the game, loved ones back home who feel for Nov. 25, at the Grey Cup show the human side of football Paul Jones — the “larger-than- this lifetime, or any other life- the strategies and the people their joy, pain and sorrow, as if in Toronto? The Argos have that’s true to both players and life” Eskimos assistant GM time,” quips Eskimos’ GM Eric who play it. That’s been done they were their own. the best road record and the coaches, without getting caught from Elaine, Ark., and his keen Tillman. Among them is Eldra to death. It’s about achiev- best division record (4-1) in up in the Xs and Os.” eye keen for undiscovered foot- Buckley, aformer NFL run- ing a dream, or not achieving [email protected] the East.Their Cup-worthiness Despite Kinnon’s West Coast ball talent — it could just as ning back with the Chargers, a dream, taking a chance and Twitter.com/sixbeamers certainly will get a boost with a win Sunday in Montreal, where the Alouettes looked less than ESKIMOS impressiveaweek earlier with second-half struggles in a 28-17 win over Saskatchewan. And McKnight puts best foot forward in battle for job it wasacostly victory.Both RB Brandon Whitaker and receiver Brian Brattonwentdownwith Former Vancouver College kicker faces a fight for full-time work against Edmonton’s incumbent knee injuries that will test the Alouettes’ depth.

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