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Where do you begin with the Montreal Alouettes? Im not going to mention the coach that was fired five weeks into the 2013 campaign. With clear minds and open hearts, whatever... Im wont recant them losing pro footballs all-time leading passer Anthony Calvillo for the season on August 17th. Or how they lost All-Star receiver Jamel Richardson to a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee a couple weeks earlier. Wont do it. Im not going to talk about losing their explosive running back Brandon (2-Way) Whitaker to injury either. Or their injuries on the offensive line - losing Scott Flory, the All-Star guard for the Als the past 15 years or his teammate/fellow hog Andrew Woodruff, who anchored the other guard position for five seasons. Not going to do it... I also wont rehash how Doug Berry became the acting offensive coordinator midway through the year. Or how ridiculously short (three pass attempts) the leash was on young quarterback Josh Neiswander earlier in the season. Im not going to write about the Marsh Madness and Tanners contagious play. And Im not going to write about how the Als changed their offensive terminology two-thirds of the way into the season. Let me write about Jim Popp actively going out and doing something about the ups and downs that are intrinsic to our game. Its called managing! He stepped up to the plate once again in 2013 and delivered Big Papi (make that Poppy) Style... This has been the finest of his 18 years at the helm of the Alouettes. A single here, a bunt there, a liner in the gap for a stand-up double, and oh yes, there have been home runs too! Duron Carter, Mike Edem, Arland Bruce, Tyrell Sutton, and yes, a kid who has been on the teams negotiation list since 2005, Troy Smith! More on him in a minute... The old saying goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Well Popp is as tough as they come folks. He rolled up his sleeves when he was dealt a bad hand, and I mean to tell you it was a real bad hand, and he got busy. Its just like taking the play of Calvillo for granted; soon you just expect great things to happen because Anthony made the routine plays routinely and made the tough plays look routine. Popp does that when he manages. You expect there to be a Ryan Bomben there to replace a Scott Flory or a Michael Ola to replace an Andrew Woodruff. How about a Duron Carter for a Jamel Richardson? You lose two Canadian free safeties to retirement in Etienne Boulay and Matthieu Proulx and BANG, say hello to Mike Edem! Popp makes it happen almost effortlessly. But make no mistake about it, managing the way he does takes a ton of foresight, knowledge, effort, experience and sacrificing of time. It was during Weeks 6 and 7 when Popp went out and added another young gun to the promising stable of Marsh and Neiswander; Canada, say hello to Troy Smith, the Heisman Trophy recipient and three-time Bowl winner from Ohio State! Popp brought him in as the No. 4 quarterback as AC was still factoring into the equation back then. You know the guy who has been sitting on my left hand side for the past 14 years at TSN, Chris Schultz, he likes to say "prior preparation prevents poor performance." Well doesnt that just fit perfectly here? Back in August when Popp was asked what Troy brings to the table at a press conference, the coach and GM responded, “You look at his skill set, and we have been wanting a fourth QB and we have been waiting for this one to work out and it did.” “Getting him in, introducing him to the game - he has not been in a training camp since last year with the Steelers - get him back involved, let him learn the rules. Its not an easy transition at quarterback. Get him up to speed so he can compete for one of those three jobs. What the future holds we will find out.” Crazy how that prior preparation thing works out! Fast forward 12 weeks and that kid is going to lead the Als when they play the Ticats in Guelph on Sunday in the Eastern Semi-Final. He will need some help from the Als vaunted defence, he will need to protect the football, he will need his o-line to establish the line of scrimmage and get Sutton and Jerome Messam going. He will have to play smart and yet play to his strengths and realize hes not out there alone. Spread the responsibility and manage the game. Its asking a lot from an inexperienced yet extremely gifted quarterback whos learning the CFL game on the fly... Another great find for Big Poppy! Ultra Boost Canada . Louis and Ryan Kesler have demanded to be traded. Yeezys Shoes Canada . -- Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf has been suspended two games for his hit from behind on Kevan Miller of the Bruins. http://www.yeezyshoescanada.com/yeezy-bo...lity-black.html. -- Oakland Athletics starting pitchers Jarrod Parker and A. Ultra Boost Canada Sale .Y. -- Florida Panthers captain Ed Jovanovski finally has something to show for all the pain he went through in overcoming a string of injuries that kept him sidelined for much of the past two years. Yeezy 700 Wave Runner Canada . You can watch the game live on TSN and TSN GO at 3pm et/Noon pt. The Thunder reclaimed the home-court advantage LA took with a Game 1 win on Friday night with a 118-112 road win in Game 3.INDIANAPOLIS -- Jacques Villeneuve is ready to make an IndyCar comeback. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports said Wednesday it has hired Villeneuve to race in this years Indianapolis 500, 19 years after the Canadian driver first drank the milk in Victory Lane. "IndyCar is growing again and thats why last year when I started watching races again, every time I watched I felt almost angry I wasnt there," the 1995 race winner said on a satellite hookup from France during a news conference held at the teams Indy headquarters. At age 42, Villeneuve seemed content being a television analyst, musician and RallyCross driver. But when Schmidt and co-owner Rick Peterson, also from Canada, made a serious offer, he couldnt refuse. The 500 is scheduled for May 25. Villeneuve certainly has a compelling resume. As an Indy rookie in 1994, he qualified fourth and finished second to Al Unser Jr., and was named the races rookie of the year. The next season, the reigning CART rookie of the year was even better. He qualified fifth at Indy, forced Scott Goodyear into a costly mistake on the final restart and eventually held off Christian Fittipaldi to become the first and only Canadian winner of the race. Villeneuve completed all 400 laps at Indy in those two starts and won the 1995 CART title, too. But after starting 33 races, winning six poles and five races in two IndyCar seasons, Villeneuve had a chance to become an international star. So he headed to Europe and joined Formula One -- the series that made his late father, Gilles, a household name. Like his dad, who died in a 1982 F1 qualifying crash, Villeneuve excelled on the world stage. In 163 career starts between 1996 and 2006, the younger Villeneuve reached the podium 23 times, won 11 races, 13 poles and claimed the 1997 world championship. At that point, American open-wheel racing wasnt even on the radar. His journey back to North America began in 2007 when Villeneuve made the move to American stock cars. Over the next seven seasons, he dabbled in Sprint Cup, Natiionwide and Le Mans series as well as sports cars.dddddddddddd Villeneuve regained interest in IndyCars last season as he watched how close and competitive the races had become. To him, it reminded him of the series he left almost two decades earlier. Suddenly, he was interested in making a return -- if he could find the right car and the right team. "To get this opportunity is a gift," Villeneuve said. "A lot of people say when you have kids, you slow down. I want my kids to see me race." Schmidt is the winningest team owner in Indy Lights history and already employs two full-time drivers in the better-known IndyCar series -- Russias Mikhail Aleshin and Frances Simon Pageland. In previous years, Schmidt has always found a way to compete at Indy. Getting Villeneuve might be the biggest coup of all for his low-budget team. "Indy is a special place. We go there not to exist but to win the race," Schmidt said. "To see a guy that finished second and finished first there, I dont think hes going to have any problem going back." Villeneuve becomes the fifth 500 winner on this years entry list. The others are three-time winner Helio Castroneves of Brazil, two-time winner Scott Dixon of New Zealand, 2000 winner Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia and Brazils Tony Kanaan, the defending champ. Another trip to Victory Lane would give Villeneuve two more milestones. He would break Al Unsers record for the longest gap between first and last victories. Unser went 17 years between his first Indy crown in 1970 and his record-tying fourth win in 1987. Villeneuve also would break Gordon Johncocks record for the longest gap between first and second wins at Indy, 1973 and 1982. Villeneuve isnt motivated by records. He wants to win. "Im a racer," he said, explaining he does not plan to retire anytime soon. "Ive got to find ways to get better and better and better, and Im going there with a team thats very experienced and has been very successful as well." ' ' '