Maas's comments on ch ch about his arm!

Here we go again. Maas shoulder still hurts. Why were we not informed of this last year? Did Maas keep this injury to himself. This is what ticks me off is a player playing severely hurt at a position that requires 100%. For the coaching staff to play a QB that can just hand the ball off is not acceptable. I guess that is why they are gone. I am a season ticket holder and i would like to have our QB to be able to throw a ball. I'm not sure if Chang is the right person, due to the scouting report from the NFL. But we need someone who can throw the ball and be injury free. Are we to throw away another year because our QB is not 100%. I guess they are not going to give me a break on ticket price for next year for screwing up another season with no hope of putting a descent team on the field. I believe our team can be great and make the playoffs if our coaches could better utilize our talents. In the NFL you could win with a sub par QB, but you need a great defence. We should beat Montreal this Saturday. Montreal is not that good, they have played us, Toronto with all their injuries and Calgary who only had about three days rest. Go CATS Go.

I don't think anyone has ever questioned Jason's determination and effort over this past year and a half. Its been admirable.
Its the on-field results that matter. Jason's arm and shoulder problems have affected his play and the teams performance.Maybe the coaching staff believed Jason would shine once his injuries healed. That process has taken longer than anyone expected. In the meantime we have a #2 QB who is deemed to be not ready. In hindsight we should have signed another competent QB last year who was ready to play. Maybe we would not have this awful record so early in the season.
If and when Chang does take over, he will also need a back-up that is ready to step in if needed. I hope Marcel can get some QB prospects on the end-of-August airlift so we don't snooker ourselves again next season.

mr62cats, we DID trade for a CFL veteran QB. He ended up being not good enough, and asked for his release.

sigpig:

Yeah…but why are we STILL in such a precarious position? I think Rocky Butler was given the bum’s rush because the coaching staff expected Jason to be healed by the start of the season and Chang would be “ready” sooner.

Jason gave us GOOD NEWS, folks.

THIS YEAR since he had an off season operation
on his bicep, his arm has been A LOT STRONGER
right from time he walked into Training Camp

Hopefully, from what Jason said, his arm
may be approaching the strength it had when
he led Edmonton to the Grey Cup in 2005.

Jason's arm is far from a 'bum arm'
or it wouldn't withstand throwing
hundreds of passes a week all season.

There no grey areas?

If Jason's arm was completely shot

THE TEAM DOCTORS wouldn't have let him
pass his physical exam the last two years.

LAST YEAR Jason held off from heaving
his long passes with 100% of his strength.

They still may not have a tight spiral
but they definitely aren't wobbly.

P.S.

Last year Kevin Eakin performed poorly
whenever he got into games or started
so Jason was the best option we had at QB.

I don't think Butler was giventhe bum rush - in training camp, he definately looked to be the worst QB there (including King). He definately did not perform up to Coach Taaffe's and Desjardin's expectations ESPECIALLY SINCE THIS IS HIS 6TH YEAR IN THE CFL.

I forgot to add: Rambo and co. are probably waiting for the NFL cuts to bring in QBs with potential, as well as any other position.

IMO, after the management that was in place at the time passed on Kerry Joseph in favour of Jason Maas, Hamilton had no choice but to try and ride out Maas's arm problem. Again IMO it is/was partially nerve damage, which to me would explain some of throws so far off target. The old arm just won't do what the brain tells it to do with a pinched nerve shorting out the message.
Apparently the medical people felt Jason's arm was ok to keep playing while the nerve damage continued to heal. I would think complete rest and exercise would be the best therapy for the shoulder, but I'm not a sports doctor. Maybe it was Jason's decision to keep playing.
I know Hamilton was in a bind trying to find a CFL experienced QB. Some of the other CFL teams have loaded up on QB's on their neg lists almost preventing Hamilton from obtaining any talented QB's. (This problem has been addressed before, including by Bob, but nothing has changed. IMO positions on the neg list should be limited for parity).
But that is why Marcel had to trade for Butler and Chang, there's just not many QB's out there that are any good that are free agents. I'm still scratching my head on the Butler deal, if as it looks from the outside, Marcel or Charlie played hardball with him by telling him he was 4th string which caused his eventual release, they cost the team at least two wins IMO so far. Rocky has played as advertised with the Argos and would have done the same for the Ticats, maybe even better, as he was in training camp to learn the system.
But things are what they are right now which is probably why Don Rambo is on board. Somebody who can identify some good young CFL type QB's in the NCAA and get them on the Hamilton neg list before the other guys do.
But for those fans clamouring for a new QB who is capable of turning this team around, they're just not out there. So the name of the game now is find them young put them on your list and hope one of them is the diamond you're looking for down the road. But right now its Maas and Chang and hope you get lucky by finding a Rick Ray in Arena II league or something.
I do hope Jason can get back to his 2004 level for the good of the league. We need all the good QB's we can get our hands on because right now there's a shortage.

As Caretaker and others have said, bottom line Jason has come to play hurt and all, this is what every coach and management wants from a player.

There IS a difference between playing “hurt” and playing “injured”…

Ah what sigpig? Explain please. I played one year high school football with a broken wrist in a cast. Was I hurt or injured or both? You tell me.

playing hurt is sure admirable. but how hurt is the problem.by playing hurt you dont always help the team. sometimes its best to just say,for the good of the team i’ll need to step aside till close to 100%. is a healthy backup better for the team than an injured starter?

Bunni,
I played receiver that one year with a cast on my wrist and I can tell you two things:

a) I wasn’t as good as having a normal wrist with no cast on

b) my coach was glad I would play since I was the better of the receivers available even with a cast (not the best receiver on the team but better than the ones not starting)

Earl, I'd say you were hurt, as you were still able to play. I have played entire water polo seasons hurt, and tried to rehab during the off-season. Hurt means you can play, injured means you cannot (for medical reasons).

Sig,
I later found out that I shouldn't have been playing from what a doctor told me. But the coach and the doctor are 2 different people. Players do play with certain injuries depending on the severity even though for medical reasons most doctors would say they shouldn't play.

It's a fine line betweent he two. The final say is with the medical staff, IMHO.

…the best part is after be off for 2 weeks he was able to sign with the Dbl. blue and then (while throwing 4 interceptions) brought them back from a complete disaster to tie the game and force OT…wasn’t good enough for us though???

Ego aside, I would have asked for my release too.

:cowboy:

All this babble is semantics. If you are hurt and it contributes to poor play in your sport the coaching / mgmnt need to make the call to keep you in or pull you…that being said it looks like Taffe thinks an injured Jason Maas is better than a 100% Timmy Chang…actions speak louder than words I’d say.

:cowboy:

I guess we were trying to say the same thing in different ways, Catattack1.

Lemme guess!

‘Injured’ has three more letters in it than ‘hurt.’