Lions' receiver Marco Iannuzzi (87) will be moderating a You Can Play forum on homophobia in sports.The discussion of homophobia in sports has taken huge leaps thanks to You Can Play, and it's great to see the renowned organization doing an event that includes a CFL player. B.C. Lions' receiver Marco Iannuzzi, who just signed a contract extension with the team, has agreed to moderate a You Can Play event in Burnaby, B.C. on March 28. The free event will feature athletes Scott Heggart (hockey), Angela Hucles (soccer) and Jordan Goldwarg (skiing) talking about homophobia in sports and their experiences coming out. Iannuzzi is straight, but in an interview with 55-Yard Line Wednesday, he said he was eager to take part in the event to try and reduce homophobia in the sports world.

"I thought it was a great event," Iannuzzi said.

He said he doesn't expect people's opinions to dramatically swing as the result of a single event like this, but he thinks the work of organizations like You Can Play can reduce the stigma some attach to gay athletes, and he's optimistic events like this can help people realize the issues around homophobia in sports.

"It's not a binary switch," Iannuzzi said. "You've got to start somewhere."

Cameron Bailey's display of the Confederate flag has irked the Ticats' Bob Young.

The Confederate flag* has caused debate all over the U.S., but now it's creating a controversy in Hamilton—and the Tiger-Cats are involved. Cameron Bailey, the owner of new restaurant Hillbilly Heaven, has come under fire for the Confederate flag displayed on his restaurant's sign, but he defended it last week by telling CBC "I have guys from the TigerCats come in here and some of them are southern black guys. As soon as there's some TiCat players that say 'hey, take that down,' then I'll think about it." Well, Ticats' owner (though he prefers "caretaker") Bob Young doesn't seem thrilled that his team's being used as a way to promote the Confederate flag, and he sent Bailey a rather interesting letter about it. From Drew Edwards at The Scratching Post, here's the key part of Young's note:

Andrea Bargnani may have played his last game in a Raptors' uniform.Raptors' power forward Andrea Bargnani is expected to miss the rest of the NBA season following an avulsion sprain to his elbow last Friday, and that may signify the end of his time in Toronto. If so, it's an apt way to end the tenure of one of the most disappointing Raptors ever. When general manager Bryan Colangelo took Bargnani first overall in the 2006 draft, ahead of players like LaMarcus Aldridge and Rajon Rondo, many hoped the Italian seven-footer could provide an outside scoring threat in a big man's body, giving defenders matchup nightmares. Unfortunately for the Raptors, they were the ones who usually wound up with the matchup nightmares thanks to Bargnani's lacklustre defence and poor rebounding, and even his scoring was notably inefficient; he's shot just .437 from the field for his career and just .400 this season. Colangelo even admitted he tried to trade Bargnani this year, but that didn't work out thanks to an earlier injury. As Matt Moore writes over at CBS' Eye On Basketball, it's hard to imagine Bargnani being back in a Raptors' uniform next season:

Bargnani has been enemy No. 1 to Raptors fans this season, after his brief resurgence last season turned into even lower failures this season when he did play. GM Bryan Colangelo said prior to the deadline that the team was actively trying to trade Bargnani, not something you typically hear from a general manager. But they couldn't find a deal before the deadline and Bargnani stayed put prior to this latest injury.

You have to think this is the end of Bargnani's time in Toronto one way or another. If a trade isn't made this summer, you can expect the Raptors to use the amnesty clause to get out of his sizable remaining contract.

Not with a bang, but a whimper, apparently.

The comment about Bargnani being enemy No. 1 for Raptors' fans is an interesting one, and a generally fair one. For a team that's trying to establish a new identity with Rudy Gay and Kyle Lowry, Bargnani's an uncomfortable reminder of past missteps, but it goes beyond that. His play this year has been particularly dismal, and that's shown by the stats; he's averaging just 12.7 points on .400 shooting (significant drops from the 19.7 on .432 he put up last year), grabbing a career-low 3.7 rebounds per game, and posting a Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of just 11.3, his lowest since 2007-08. As Joseph Casciaro wrote about his play this year, "Bargnani has produced some of the most uninspiring basketball we’ve ever seen."

Marc Calixte (37), seen in 2010 against the Als' Tim Maypray, brought down plenty of returners over his 10-year CFL career.

When you think of the Calgary Stampeders, who's the first player to come to mind? A quarterback, like Drew Tate or Kevin Glenn? Star running back Jon Cornish? A top receiver like Nik Lewis, or a top defender like Keon Raymond? They all have key roles to play, of course, but none of those guys are the longest-serving members of the team. That would be Canadian linebacker Marc Calixte, who played for the Stampeders from 2003 until Tuesday, when he officially announced his retirement. Calixte never really got a ton of attention, but he was an effective contributor for Calgary for a decade, and his retirement provides an excellent chance to shine a light on a remarkably underrated CFL job: the special-teams ace. Here's what Calgary head coach and general manager John Hufnagel said about Calixte in the team's release:

Laval's 2012 win may be the last time in a while the Vanier and Grey Cups are paired.Pairing the CFL and CIS title games seems to have worked out extremely well for both leagues on the whole over the last two seasons, with Vanier Cup games in B.C. and Toronto two days ahead of the Grey Cup drawing tons of interest and ratings, but it's now starting to look like that partnership won't come back any time soon. The awarding of the 2013 Vanier Cup to Laval wasn't that surprising, as there are logistical questions with holding even one major championship in Regina, much less two. However, some figured the Vanier-Grey Cup pairing may return in 2014, and the controversial decision to award that Grey Cup to Vancouver would have made another pairing that year seem logical; the 2011 Vanier did well in that city, and Vancouver certainly can accommodate two big events in a week. A source told 55-Yard Line this week that the return of a Vanier Cup-Grey Cup pairing appears off the table right now, though, not just for 2014 but for the foreseeable future.

B.C. Place will host the Grey Cup in 2014, the second time in four years it's done so.

Vancouver newspaper The Province ran with a rather interesting headline on Lowell Ullrich's piece about the questionable decision to put the 2014 Grey Cup back in B.C., which will be confirmed at a Friday press conference (one the mayor controversially wasn't invited to, probably because it's not the city throwing in $2.7 million). That headline? "Lions ride to CFL's rescue." Taken literally, it would imply that hosting the Grey Cup is some terrible fate that B.C. has spared the rest of the country from rather than the hugely-beneficial cash cow the game has been thought to be: Lions' owner David Braley, who also owns the Toronto Argonauts and will thus be hosting his third Grey Cup in four years, is reported to have made up to $10 million in profit off the 2012 game in Toronto. If hosting the Grey Cup wasn't as good of a deal as previously thought, that would be extremely concerning for the CFL, its teams and its future. Fortunately for the league, that doesn't appear to be the case; the business model for the Grey Cup still appears solid, and the decision to return to Vancouver just three years after the last championship in that city seems motivated by other factors. While whether those factors should have been used is debatable, their existence is better news for the CFL than if the Lions were truly "rescuing" the league.

Reports that B.C. will get to host the 2014 Grey Cup should give David Braley plenty to laugh about.

The CFL is apparently set to hand Vancouver its second Grey Cup in four years. When Bob Mackin broke the news last month that the B.C. government had set aside $2.7 million to host the Grey Cup in 2014, it seemed like a long shot. Vancouver last hosted in 2011, suggesting there would be plenty of cities ahead in the queue (including Winnipeg and their new stadium), and a 2014 Grey Cup in Vancouver means that B.C. Lions' owner David Braley (who also owns the Toronto Argonauts) will reap the rewards from hosting three Grey Cups in four years. However, Mackin reported Thursday that the Lions are hosting a major press conference at B.C. Place Friday morning, and when he asked club president Dennis Skulsky if it was about the 2014 Grey Cup, Skulsky said "I think that’s a safe assumption." That strongly suggests that the league has in fact opted to go with Vancouver yet again, and that should raise significant questions for CFL observers.

Simply put, hosting the Grey Cup is widely believed to be the most important way to make money in the CFL, and it tends to come with a pile of cash. A Toronto Star report last November suggested that Braley was set to make up to $10 million off hosting the 2012 game, and while that doesn't quite mean the federal government was funding Braley, it does mean that the league was directing a lot of revenues his way for the second year in a row. At the time, that wasn't really questionable: Vancouver was a logical site for the 2011 game (the city hadn't hosted since 2005 at that point), and Toronto was the obvious destination for the 2012 edition, the historic 100th Grey Cup. However, there seems to be very little reason to go back to Vancouver in 2014.

Eskimos' GM Ed Hervey's quick announcement of the Odell Willis signing may have cost the team $10,000.

The amount of tampering that's thought to go on in the CFL is substantial, but although the league bylaws prohibit the practice (defined as contacting or negotiating with a player who another club holds the rights to), it's rare to see any action taken over it. That happened Wednesday, though, with the CFL fining the Edmonton Eskimos for tampering with Odell Willis. The Willis signing looked suspicious right from the start, as it was announced only four minutes after he became a free agent, and the spectre of tampering always hung over it. It's unusual to see a team actually fined for this, though. This seems like a good move on the CFL's part, as bylaws aren't worth the paper they're printed on if you don't uphold them, but the question is if one $10,000 fine to one club in a particularly blatant case is enough to really serve as a deterrent to future tampering.