If you had six hours or so to watch some CFL playoff action Sunday it was hardly a waste of your time as the East and West semi-finals were compelling, taut affairs. Of course you could have saved yourself about five hours and 50 minutes and just watched the end of each game as both were decided in the final seconds. On to the links where we catch up on the CFL, that other football league, and a not-so-heart-warming Steve Nash story.
• If you were wondering why Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant was so out-of-sync in the early going against BC, it was because he was nervous. He got that fixed in overtime, apparently.
• Meanwhile the Lions comeback from a 1-7 start fell oh-so-short, writes Cam Cole in the Vancouver Sun, but BC's issues at quarterback appear to be over.
• Stephen Brunt addresses obvious: The Argonauts, sucky in pretty much all the CFL areas that matter, like passing and catching, still have a fighting chance to make it to the Grey Cup.
• But those just down the road in Hamilton know what happened in Toronto's 16-13 win: The Ti-Cats kept giving the ball away and eventually the game with it.
• The Leafs search for an offensive spark led them to call up Nazeem - "not a saviour" - Kadri on Saturday, to little effect, but the Laffs scoring woes may be over, based on how they riddled embarrassed goalies Sunday. Of course they were 12 years old.
• Brian Burke has been everywhere lately, falling on any sword he can find. Interesting to read the reaction in Vancouver, where they have heard all the bluster before.
• The Raptors acquitted themselves reasonably well in Florida; better than Chris Bosh against his former team anyway. Positives have been tough to come by for Raptors fans, but here's one: DeMar DeRozan has been the foul line 23 times in his past two games; very impressive.
• Here's some breaking news you may have missed: Sean Avery is a total - well, let's just say he's very unliked. His being a jerk obscures the reality that the Oilers are worse than the Leafs right now; way worse.
• The big winners in the Rangers-Oilers rout, however were the people at hockeyfights.com; who likely had to wipe the drool off their keyboard.
• Oh right, the NFL. If you're a Bills fan, can you really be excited by the fact that you improved to 1-8 on the season (not sure that even makes sense) by going to the wire to beat the Detroit Lions, playing without their starting quarterback and on their way to an NFL record 25th straight road loss?
• Good news for humanity: Randy Moss made one catch in his debut for the Titans; got drilled and fumbled.
• I'm not sure what's stranger: the news that Steve Nash announced his divorce the day after the birth of his third child or that it was made public in an exclusive statement to Life and Style magazine, just like a real celebrity. Well, I do know; but there is part of me that wonders if the two are related.