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Offseason musings:  I'm watching some NFL games and can't help but think that Taylor Field has once again missed the boat when it comes to artificial turf.  For years the stadium has used, shall we say, untraditional artificial turf.  Ever since Taylor Field switched to the fake grass in the 70's, they have avoided the market leader AstroTurf.  They started using a product from 3M called TartanTurf, then went to something called OmniTurf in the mid 80's and 90's that had a sand base.  The OmniTurf wasn't bad, but when it aged, it was really hard to play on (no pun intended).  Doug Flutie even called the old OmniTurf field "a joke" when he played on it in 1997 because of the many seams that started appearing and because the sand base had compacted into a hard surface.  Three years ago, when it was time to rip out the OmniTurf, the Taylor Field committee in charge of replacing the turf finally decided it was time to go with AstroTurf.  Not a bad choice, however there have been a couple of products that have really caught on since then, both sort of using the OmniTurf sand base, but have added rubber to prevent compaction.  Even soccer's governing body, FIFA, have embraced these new fields after years of shunning artificial turf for the real thing (remember all the skinned knees NASL players used to get playing on artificial turf before FIFA banned it in the 80's?).  The first of these grass-like surfaces is FieldTurf.  Surprisingly enough, former Argo head coach and head joke, John Huard is a distributor of FieldTurf in the northeastern U.S.  Stadiums of note currently using it are Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay and Ottawa's Frank Clair Stadium.  Players seem to love it because it's fast and yet is soft and feels like grass.  The other field that is gaining in popularity is AstroPlay.  All the more surprising that Taylor Field didn't go for it is that it is made by the same company that makes AstroTurf.  In most cases, it costs the same to install AstroPlay as it does AstroTurf.  Recently, the Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks and Chicago Bears have been playing home games on AstroPlay, while the Detroit Lions have gone to FieldTurf.  Once again, Taylor Field misses a chance to be cutting edge and will have to wait at least ten years before they will be able to enjoy the technological advances in artificial turf technology.

Stick a fork in him, Burris is done:   Poor Henry Burris.  Just can't seem to get a break in the NFL.  Now that I think of it, he has been getting breaks, he just hasn't done anything with them.   Getting to play, and even start, in the NFL when you're the third-string quarterback is no mean feat.  It means both quarterbacks in front of you have to be injured before you play.  With Chicago Bears, they had just that with their two glass-jawed quarterbacks.  I don't believe Jim Miller has ever completed a full season and his backup, Chris Chandler, has had five concussions while he has been in the NFL.  After a horrible preseason in which he miraculously (and undeservedly) won the third-string position from Ken Mastreole, Burris got a chance to finish the second-to-last game of the Bears' season against the Carolina Panthers.  His final numbers from that game: 8 for 22 for 50 yards and 1 TD, two fumbles and was sacked twice.  Brutal.   It was so bad, Bears coach Dick Jauron insisted all week that a still punch-drunk Chris Chandler would start the last meaningless game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.   It was only after the doctors ruled Chandler out that Jauron was forced to play Burris.  Another break for Smilin' Hank, gets to start his first NFL game and in front of a national TV audience to boot.  Stats for this game: 7 of 19 for 78 yards, 4 interceptions but was only sacked once.  He was yanked in the fourth quarter and Cory Sauter went in for the final drive.  In Sauter's only drive of the game he almost had as many completions and yards as Burris did the entire game (6 of 9 for 59 yards and almost drove the Bears to paydirt).  After the game, Burris intimated to reporters that he was going to NFL Europe, make his mark there (he probably thinks he will be the league MVP), come back and win the Bears' starting QB position.  Henry, wanna take your tongue out of your cheek (or do you have someone's dick in there)?

More musings:  Hey, I wonder if CFL commissioner Tom Wright has ever thought of this idea:  Why not do what European soccer clubs do and charge a transfer fee for players going to other clubs.  For example, if a player, under contract to a CFL team, wanted to go to the NFL, why not let him sign his deal and then charge the NFL club a transfer fee to let the CFL player out of his contract?  The player has nothing to lose.  If he is good enough to go to the NFL, he will still get to go and he still gets his big fat Greek contract.  Not much for the NFL to lose either.  What is $50,000 to $100,000 worth to an NFL team?   Peanuts.  The CFL could sure use the money to find another player to replace the one they lost.  CFL would also be able to sign players to longer contracts, with an eye to "selling" the player to an NFL team (kind of like speculating in real estate or in the stock market).  I believe Cal Murphy tried to do that a few years ago when he was coaching the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.  When the NFL came a calling for one of his players, he said he wouldn't let the player out of his contract unless they were paid $100,000.  I can't remember who the player was, but I have a feeling it was Tamarick Vanover, whom the Bombers had plucked off the Las Vegas Posse after their dispersal draft and there was confusion over who owned his rights.  On another topic, the same thing happend with Joe Horn after Memphis folded.  Ottawa Rough Riders thought they owned his rights, but Horn eventually wound up with Kansas City Chiefs and is now an all-star with New Orleans Saints.