Kirk Penton has been let go by the Winnipeg Sun, an apparent victim of Postmedia`s dysfunction. I will certainly miss his CFL Blitz column, hopefully he can find an alternate platform.
Meanwhile in Montreal, Postmedia`s Gazette disinterested football hack is somehow allowed to continue. :roll:
The Toronto Star has very little interest in the CFL. They will report the wins and losses of CFL team but, do not provide the stats. No yards gained, passing, no yards gained running, no% completions, no sacks etc. The National Post is the same. However the the NFL teams get the full stats of each team. The CFL coverage is lacking in these newspapers.
Big loss for CFL fans. Kirk drove the league to put in place a doping program that I'm pretty sure would not exist if he had not pushed as hard as he did.
I loved reading his unattributed comments from league insiders. It was always fun to try and guess who might have said what. And those comments were about as far as you could get from the clichéd and sanitized locker room responses we typically hear from anyone not named Burris.
Hopefully Penton lands somewhere else where he can continue to harness those connections.
Paul Godfrey is a fool, an idiot and should NEVER have been running that newspaper.
Yeah it's too bad. Penton was a enthusiastic and good CFL guy.
But it's no surprise. Nobody buys or reads newspapers anymore. This is what we get. And all reporters in all chains are in jeopardy.
Ironically some here who are singing Penton's praises are the same guys who called him a hack whenever he'd write something negative about their team. And scoffed when he was named sportswriter of the year awhile back..
Godfrey doesn't run a particular paper. He's CEO of Post Media which owns literally dozens of newspapers across Canada and is in severe cutback mode. Penton is the latest in the long line of layoffs to date with many more to come.
Cool! Who are the hypocrites among Kevin, ExPat, HfxTC, Niagara Als, and idealsheldon? They should be ashamed and taken to task.
Kerkules will re-surface, to that there's no question! :cowboy:
Penton joins a long list of casualties in Canada's hobo-newsrag industry.
Gary "Husky-Heavy" Lawless saw the writing on the wall over a year ago and quit the Free Press (one of the better performing hobo-papers in the country) to write hidden columns for TSN.ca and get an "Insider Badge". Ed Tait, the Free Press's venerable beat writer - abandoned ship almost a year back to actually join the bombers as Wad Miller's lackey - writing content for bomber magazines and on-line ventures.
I suspect Penton will use his contacts to try and ferret out something local in radio or TV - trying to stay with his family in Winnipeg area. (ie. CBC, CJOB, TSN 1290, etc.)
Even CJOB (a radio giant in Winnipeg) cut their sports program to smithereens over two years ago - gutting everything but their live bomber games, retiring Bob Irving to broadcasting games only and no longer being sports director - how do you direct a station with NO SPORTS? Their other full-time sports guy, Jim Toth was cut loose - and it took Jim nearly 18 months to hook up with TSN 1290 - only because the station's morning host Matt Libel decided he wanted to be a rabbi. :cowboy:
Mmm... Jamie, for someone who only joined the Forum fairly recently, how would you know all that from that far back? Unless...perhaps...maybe...your alter ego Slant might have clued you in. 
By the way, how`s your brother Hopper doing? :lol:
Slant/Alsfan/Hopper/Jamie/nostradumbass thinks we are stupid
While I am often hypocritical, it wasn't me this time. Until I read this thread, I'd never heard of this writer.
Heh, I guess that narrows it down to the 4 others . . . unless the accusation was merely smug bluster to begin with. :oops:
My counsel has advised me to remain silent!
On the contrary actually, I have posted my respect for Penton for covering the CFL meetings in Vegas last year and for posting stories from the Als Florida mini-camp in 2015.
And I will certainly miss his Wed. CFL Blitz columns.
Perhaps Jamie/Slant/Hopper can elaborate on his subtle accusations.
Which account do you think he should use ?
Oh no I hope it's not true, Penton was great on the CFL as his Wednesday Blitz was awesome.
Godfrey probably let him go because he remains anti CFL.
I`m kind of nostalgic for Slant. Original versions are always better than the remakes.
With this post, all those who praised Penton have now responded. (Niagara Als' comments on the Toronto Star etc did not praise Penton.)
I can assure Jamie that I never slammed Penton previously - or even mentioned him by name. I did a quick search to verify.
Jamie, if you ever want to use a "these people are the same ones who..." type of argument, but you have no idea whether it's true, you should at least make sure the group is a little bigger than 4 or 5 people. Otherwise your statement is too easy to refute.
How could you not have heard of The Blitz? Great column and one I enjoyed every week. Kirk will end up elsewhere and hopefully produce it again. :thup: