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Naylor's Sideline View

Globe and Mail reporter Dave Naylor writes about the world of football both on and off the field.
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009 1:53 PM

Bring on the war of words

David Naylor

There were two incidents this week in which teams said they were motivated by comments coming from the opposing team leading up to a big game.

One was when Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach Marcel Bellefeuille suggested his team was driven by some disparaging remarks coming out of Winnipeg about some of his players being old and slow. The other was when the New England Patriots said Miami linebacker Joey Porter had done them a favour by suggesting that quarterback Tom Brady was a pet of the officials.

Which brings us to the debate about whether billboard material affects the results of games.

Personally, as a member of the media, I would argue out of self-interest that it doesn't, because the more gab we get out of players leading up to a game, the better.

The worst thing in the world for us is two teams saying they "have a lot of respect for one another."

Borrrringggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Former CFL head coach Don Matthews used to have a great take on this issue.

Matthews didn't care one bit about inciteful comments, saying sarcastically something like "What? They weren't going to try to win the game until we made them mad?"

Matthews tells a story of when he was on Hugh Campbell's staff in Edmonton during the 1970s, facing Ron Lancaster and the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a game where Matthews was hollering at Lancaster from the sideline, trying to get him off his game.

"Stop it, stop it," Campbell said to Matthews. "You're going to get him mad."

"What?" Matthews cried back. "Are we afraid he's going to try to score a touchdown?"

The Don has a point.

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David Naylor

David Naylor

David Naylor has been a Globe and Mail sportswriter since 2000. A graduate of Carleton University’s journalism program, he interned at The Globe in 1991 before spending the next eight years covering news and sports in print, radio and television for various media outlets, including the CBC, The Score, NPR, The Village Voice and The Globe and Mail.

He has covered CFL football in Toronto, Ottawa and Saskatchewan and has reported on 12 Grey Cup Games. He has also covered eight Super Bowls, 12 years of Stanley Cup playoffs, an NCAA basketball tournament, the Olympics and Paralympic Games.

In addition to his duties with The Globe, David is a regular contributor on TSN, appearing as a panelist on The Reporters with Dave Hodge and as TSN’s CFL Insider on Sportscentre and game-day broadcasts. He is also frequently heard as a commentator on sports for CBC Radio.

David is the co-author of the best-selling book, McCown’s Law, The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments.