Bishop's defensive lineman Elie Ngoyi recorded a combine-high 40 bench press reps Saturday.

The CFL's annual combine always provides an intriguing look into how draft prospects stack up in a variety of metrics, and this year's was no exception. The first day of testing Saturday saw some notable surprises, with a pair of players from Quebec universities perhaps being the most prominent ones. Bishop's defensive lineman Elie Ngoyi put up 40 repetitions of 225 pounds on the bench press, the second-highest total in CFL combine history, while Concordia defensive back Kristopher Robertson (who was only invited to the national combine after a great showing at the Quebec regional combine, further proving the value of those events) blew away the field in both the vertical jump and the broad jump, posting combine-best marks of 43 inches and 10 feet, five and a half inches respectively. That doesn't necessarily mean either Ngoyi or Robertson will be a top draft pick; neither impressed enough in CIS play to crack the top-15 list of prospects in December, although Ngoyi was ranked #12 in September, and game performance can matter just as much (if not more) than raw athletic numbers posted at the combine. It does mean that both will carry a lot more buzz heading into the draft than they would have without a strong combine showing, though.

CFL director of officiating Tom Higgins and the league's rules committee are discussing reducing cut blocks.

While new helmet rules are creating controversy south of the border, the CFL's eyeing a safety-based rule change of its own—but with regard to cut blocks. The league had previously banned blocks below the waist on special-teams plays and passes beyond the line of scrimmage, but now its rules committee is looking at prohibiting "all blocks below the waist, or 'low blocks', unless they are executed between the tackles along the line of scrimmage by interior linemen or by other stationary players three yards on other side of the tackles." Interestingly enough, that's the opposite direction from the NFL, which is also trying to reduce cut blocks, but opted to make blocks below the waist illegal in the tackle box instead of outside of it. The leagues' intentions are similar, though, as they're both trying to reduce the numbers of low blocks, and that seems like a laudable idea.

Cut blocks have been part of football for a long time, but they're a part of the game that's often seen as dangerous. The technique involves hitting a defender below the knees, and that can frequently lead to knee or leg injuries. They've stirred plenty of CFL controversies in the past, so it's not all that surprising that the league's looking to further reduce the prevalence of cut blocks. However, it is interesting that they're going with preventing low blocks in the open field but keeping them inside the tackle box, the opposite approach of the NFL. That may lead to a lesser reduction in terms of total cut blocks.

The CFL will be on TSN through 2018, so expect to see more of these guys.

The CFL has signed a new media rights deal with Bell Media for the 2014-2018 seasons, which includes television broadcasts on TSN and RDS, digital rights and exclusive radio rights to the Grey Cup for TSN and TEAM radio stations. The move wasn't unexpected, as The Globe And Mail's Bruce Dowbiggin wrote the league had reached an agreement in principle with TSN on Feb. 1, and CFL commissioner Mark Cohon told The Regina Leader-Post's Murray McCormick a deal was "close" at the end of February. The numbers involved are notable, though. A Canadian Press source pegs the deal as worth more than $30 million annually, and CHED's Dave Campbell has the numbers at around $4 million per team (which, given that the league will have nine teams in 2014 thanks to Ottawa's return, suggests a total deal of around $36 million annually). That would about double each team's current take (around $1.9 million in 2010), and that's promising for the league.

Former NFL star Jim Brown has spoken in favour of the league's new rule on leading with the helmet.

Some big football news came down Wednesday with NFL owners voting to approve six rule changes, including a controversial one that will make it illegal for both ballcarriers and tacklers to lead with their crown of their helmet outside of the tackle box. The rule has been praised in some corners as a plan to limit the helmet-first contact that often causes concussions and as a way to even the terms for the offence and defence, but it has prominent current and former players divided (Jim Brown supports the idea, while others like Emmett Smith, Jerry Rice and Marshall Faulk have blasted it), and it's also received mixed reviews from fans. The timing of the NFL's decision may present the CFL with an excellent opportunity, though. Changes to the CFL rules are typically brought in at the annual CFL congress, which wrapped up last month. Thus, the CFL board of governors will have almost a full year to observe how this rule change goes for the NFL before making a decision on if they should follow suit with a similar rule.

Chad Owens could go from returning kicks to throwing kicks this offseason.

When you're coming off a season where you were named the CFL's most outstanding player and won the Grey Cup, what do you do to stay in shape? If you're Toronto Argonauts' receiver/returner Chad Owens, the answer is apparently "take up mixed martial arts." Hawaii News Now (the online site for several Hawaiian TV stations) reports that Owens not only has been actively training in MMA for the last few months, but is set to compete in a bout at the Destiny Na Koa III event on April 6 in Honolulu. The event's Facebook page also hypes up Owens competing. MMA training in the offseason is becoming more and more common for football players, but competing in an actual fight is much more unusual, and it raises questions about what players should be doing in the offseason. Here's video of Owens training:

Owens obviously has some skill, and it's not that MMA is inherently incredibly dangerous. In its current incarnation, the sport does quite well by many medical standards, and it's far less concerning than football from a concussion standpoint (longer rest periods are mandated after a concussion, and most fighters only compete in a few bouts per year, so there are likely substantially less concussive and subconcussive blows to the brain overall in a calendar year for a fighter than for a football player). Plenty of NFL and CFL players have spoken of the benefits of MMA training, too; Calgary Stampeders' quarterback Drew Tate did so recently. However, it's still a sport with a lot of violence, and there are a lot of serious injuries suffered. Professional fighters obviously accept that risk, but is it a risk that someone who's under contract to play another sport should be able to take?

Sports Illustrated ran a six-page feature on Canadian NCAA players in the March 18 issue.

March Madness gets underway Tuesday as the NCAA basketball tournament's play-in games tip off, and there's plenty of Canadian content to be found. From #1 seed Gonzaga's Kelly Olynyk and Kevin Pangos to #5 Michigan's Nik Staukas to #5 UNLV's Anthony Bennett and Khem Birch to #13 New Mexico State's Canadian trio, this year's NCAA tournament has a substantial Canadian flavour. What's particularly interesting is that outlets outside Canada are starting to notice, and that's shown in a six-page feature in the March 18 issue of Sports Illustrated. Headlined "Canada's Got Talent", the piece (the full article isn't posted online yet, but here's some more information on it) by SI senior writer Kelli Anderson is a remarkable examination of many of the top NCAA players hailing from Canada and how they got to this level. Its existence alone is proof that the conversation around Canadian basketball players in the NCAA has changed, though; they've gone from extra reasons for Canadians to watch to crucial components on powerful teams.

Calgary Dinos' defensive lineman Michael Klassen has been invited to the national CFL combine.The CFL's decision earlier this month to expand its pre-draft combines by adding regional combines in Edmonton and Quebec City before the national combine in Toronto represented a gamble on the depth of Canadian talent in this year's draft class. Following the first regional combine, which was held in Edmonton Monday, it seems that bet is already paying off. Two players from that combine, University of Calgary defensive lineman Michael Klassen and Calgary Colts (junior football) defensive back Jermaine Gabriel, have been invited to the full national combine in Toronto this coming weekend. That suggests the field of Canadian talent is quite deep, and that expanding the combines was the right move to make.

Of course, it's been common knowledge for a while that the national combine alone doesn't showcase every potential Canadian CFL player. Some of the top NCAA prospects in particular don't usually attend it, so that's one class of player that's missed, but there also are plenty of intriguing CFL prospects who don't earn a combine invite for one reason or another. Sometimes that's thanks to unimpressive CIS or CJFL stats (which can be for a variety of reasons unrelated to the player's ability, such as injuries or the role they were used in), sometimes it's thanks to them being from a lesser-known program, but the point is, talented players can fall through the cracks. That was the mindset behind Duane Forde's alternative National Invitational Combine, which showcased extra players on the same weekend as E-Camp from 2010 to 2012. As with these regional combines, not everyone there had real potential to play professionally, but there were some that did, and some wound up being picked up by CFL teams as a result. The expansion of the official CFL combines suggests teams are seeing value in looking at more Canadians than just those high-profile players invited to the national combine, and that's a positive statement about the quality of Canadian talent out there.

Brandon London should be running out in Alouettes' colours for the next three years.Not all of the notable moves in the CFL offseason are about free agents or trades. Montreal receiver Brandon London wasn't a pending free agent, but the news that the Alouettes have signed him to a contract extension that should keep him with the team for the next three seasons is still quite remarkable. London's long had interest from south of the border, and he played for the Giants, Dolphins and Steelers before heading to Canada in 2011, so it wouldn't have been surprising to see him try to catch on with an NFL team when his deal expired. Given his productivity last season, it also wouldn't have been surprising to see him try and create a bidding war in CFL free agency when his contract ran out. Instead, he's agreed to forgo free agency and stick around in Montreal. That seems like an obvious victory for the Alouettes, but it could work out well for London as well.

What London accomplished on the field in 2012, his first season as a starter, certainly suggested he's capable of great things in the CFL. His raw numbers of 43 receptions for 843 yards and three touchdowns are nice enough, but they don't tell the whole story. Most crucially, those totals came in just 12 games (he missed six regular-season games thanks to injury), and they came on a team that featured two prominent receiving stars in S.J. Green and Jamel Richardson. Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo had no shortage of top targets last year, so London had to earn every ball thrown his way, and he did just that, giving the Alouettes' passing offence a new dimension with his speed and his ability to stretch the field vertically. London averaged a team-high 19.6 yards per reception, which says a lot about his quickness and his ability to get open deep. He's also only 28, so he should have plenty of good years left.