CFL HAS GONE TO POT, FORMER PLAYER CLAIMS

A lot of players in the CFL smoke a lot of marijuana.

This is the word from Sean Millington, who spent 13 seasons as a
running back with the B.C. Lions, Edmonton Eskimos, Winnipeg Blue
Bombers and Toronto Argonauts and who has been a member of the CBC's
CFL broadcast crew off and on since 2003.

Millington's revelation, oddly enough, appears on the CFL's
website.

His most recent column is an eyebrow-raising piece where he suggests
a drug policy is not necessary for the CFL and even criticizes
commissioner Mark Cohon for planning to develop one.

"It's all about politics, which is about optics as opposed to reality
a lot of the time," Millington writes. "Mark Cohon wants the drug
policy so he can have the CFL appear to be in line with similar
policies in the NFL, NBA and MLB. This desire is birthed from a
feeling of inferiority with regards to those leagues.

Instead of recognizing that the CFL is a distinct entity with unique
challenges and advantages, once again, it is being compared to its
supposed big brothers and being found wanting.

The NFL has a drug problem and needs drug testing, so we must have a
drug problem and need drug testing."

Millington claims that, unlike NFLers, CFLers generally don't get paid
enough to be able to afford drugs -- except for marijuana.

"To be completely fair there is a large amount of marijuana use,"
Millington divulges, "but I don't think anyone is suggesting that
smoking pot is a performance enhancer or that it has a significant
negative affect (sic) on one's lifestyle."

Wild stuff.

Check it out at www.cfl.ca.

. And, remember, my weekly CFL Report appears exclusively at
www.metronews.ca. Tomorrow, in addition to my usual picks against the
spread, I'll tell you about a veteran referee being in hot water over
a blown call and about a quarterback controversy that could turn ugly.

. OK, tell us the NHL is en route to Hamilton. Or that the Blue Jays
will compete for a playoff spot. Or that Canada can some day be
respectable in soccer.

These are harmless tales, if hopeless.

But fans voting for Barry Bonds as an all-star? How? Outside San
Francisco, he's loathed.

Well, according to Fox Sports Radio, computer geeks in San Fran rigged
the voting, creating an online program that allowed Giants fans to
select Bonds 25 times in 30 seconds. With the use of the F5 refresh
key, code users were able to pick him 3,600 times in an hour on the
final day of voting -- and, yep, this certainly would explain it.