Ka-boom!

There goes another bombshell in the off-season! Something no one could have predicted even 24 hours before it happened.

In today's CFL As-the-spiral-turns Ricky Ray was dealt to Argos today in a blockbuster trade. Twitter exploded, along with a few heads.

I'm certain I'm not the only one who wondered what in the world got into Eric Tillman's head to trade away their franchise quarterback for QB Steven Jyles, a kicker and first round draft pick. Like whuzzah? Steven Jyles (no disrespect) is no Ricky Ray.

But then again, he did trade away Grey Cup MVP Kerry Joseph in '07 to... oddly enough... Toronto as well.

We all questioned his intelligence then. Or at the very least sniffed the coffee he was drinking. I'm still not sure the value of trading away our all-star QB leaving us with two untested back ups (Darian Durant and Steven Jyles, FYI) at the same time as he was preaching "Dynasty!" in Regina.

And I'm still not convinced of the value of this trade for Edmonton.

Now you may be wondering why this matters at all to a blogger who remains a steadfast Roughrider fan. Why should I care about a trade involving two teams I hate?

(Although to be honest "hate" may be a strong term, because really I can barely summon up enough energy to mildly dislike TO most days... they just don't matter much at all.)

There's a very good reason to care about the Evil Empire, though. Eric Tillman is a very wily general manager. If he's making salary cap room (Ricky Ray's salary is rumored to be between $300,000-$400,000) you gotta wonder what else he's got cooking.

Especially given the rumor (and it's just a rumor) that ET was planning on taking a run at one of Saskatchewan's most prized receivers - a rumor he hotly denied just last week. Still it does make a person wonder whether there's another piece of footwear ready to fall somewhere in the league.

The good part of this news... the Schmoes just got a lot easier to beat in 2012. At least for the moment.

In other CFL news... the B.C. Lions will announce Mike Benevides as head coach tomorrow and the Stumps have some sort of player announcement planned for tomorrow as well. What it is is anybody's guess!

This off-season continues to surprise and confound. And meanwhile the search for head coach for the Green and White continues. I hope there is at least some news on this front by week's end.

Grab, your popcorn folks, this ride ain't over yet! Another six and a half months to go til training camp.

Cheer long. Cheer loud! Go GREEN!