Martell Mallett (#35), seen in 2009 with B.C., never actually played a game in Hamilton.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats' signing of former NFL and CFL running back Martell Mallett in January 2012 was full of sound and fury, but Mallett's release Friday shows it ultimately signified nothing. Mallett shone in the CFL with B.C. in 2009 and then spent a few years bouncing around the NFL, but his return to Canadian football last year had him billed as a huge star and the Tiger-Cats' featured running back, leading to the release of incumbent Avon Cobourne (who had been a big free-agent signing himself the year before). The best-laid schemes of mice and GMs gang aft agly, though: when Mallett tore his Achilles tendon in the Ticats' 2012 training camp, Cobourne was brought back from Florida to be the team's star RB, but Chevon Walker wound up taking most of the reps before he himself got hurt, leading to Cobourne finally playing. It wasn't surprising to see the 34-year old Cobourne released earlier this offseason, but the release of the 27-year-old Mallett before he played a game for Hamilton is a bit more unusual, and it marks a strange end to a once-promising saga that turned out not to mean much.

Catches like this one in the 2010 playoffs made Emmanuel Arceneaux a fan favourite in B.C.Guess who's back? Two weeks after being cut by the New York Jets, Emmanuel Arceneaux has returned to the B.C. Lions. The team announced Arceneaux's return at a press conference Thursday. Arceneaux shone with B.C. in the 2009 and 2010 seasons before leaving for NFL stints with the Minnesota Vikings, the Washington Redskins and most recently, the Jets, so on one level, it's not unexpected that he's returned to an organization where he feels comfortable. However, Arceneaux was a free agent, and the Edmonton Eskimos and Toronto Argonauts were also reportedly in the running for his services. His return to B.C. is a bit of a surprising move, and one that should further help bolster a receiving corps that's already incredibly deep.

From both a football perspective and a financial perspective, either Edmonton or Toronto might have seemed like a more logical fit for Arceneaux. Both of those teams aren't as deep at receiver, and both would appear to have more cap space to play around with; the Lions have plenty of pricey players, including newly-extended quarterback Travis Lulay. However, while the Eskimos and/or the Argonauts may well have been willing to offer more money and a more-guaranteed role, these decisions are sometimes about relationships as well as on-field and pocketbook factors. Arceneaux told the media in B.C. Thursday his decision was more motivated by stability than finances, and that he wanted to return to an organization and a city where he felt comfortable:

Cal defensive lineman Kendrick Payne (#96) chases down Colorado's Rodney Stewart in 2010.Many of the players at Saturday's B.C. Lions' free-agent camp in Seattle were from Washington or surrounding states, but defensive lineman Kendrick Payne's football journey has taken him farther afield. Payne grew up in Houston, Texas, but went to Berkeley to play college football at Cal, where he entered as a two-star recruit but went on to beat more highly-touted players. He started eight games for the Golden Bears in 2012, co-led the squad with a career-high 3.5 sacks and earned the team's Bob Tessier Award as its most improved defensive lineman. Now, he's hoping his career will take him to Canada. Payne impressed all day in workouts and was one of the last players left. He said he was happy with his showing at the tryout.

"I feel like it went pretty well for me," Payne said. "I moved well today, I ran pretty good times. It’s an exciting opportunity, especially the thought of getting the chance to go to Canada. It’s amazing."

Payne said that would be just the latest step in his football journey, one he's hoping to press on with.

"I played at Cal, but I'm originally from Houston, Texas," he said. "I played at Klein Forest High School in Houston. I'm from a small town right outside Houston, I've been playing football all my life, and I'm hoping to continue it right now."

Saturday’s B.C. Lions’ free-agent camp in Seattle was a last chance at professional football for some players, but for others, it represented their first attempt to dip their toes in the pro waters. That was the case for Peter Nguyen, a receiver/running back hopeful, who just graduated from the University of Montana. Near the start of Saturday’s camp, he said he was excited to get the chance to try and compete for a professional job.

“It’s great, I really enjoy it, just kind of getting this opportunity to see if I can play at the next level,” Nguyen said.

He said his experience is mostly as a running back and returner, but he’s open to being versatile professionally.

“I played at the University of Montana, I played running back and punt returner,” Nguyen said. “Running back or slot receiver or punt returner or kickoff returner would be great, but anything’s okay.”

Here's a video of Nguyen catching a pass during a corner-route receiving drill Saturday (his run starts at 1:35):

For Nguyen, it was a quick turnaround from finishing college to attempting to make the pro ranks.

“I am fresh out of college, I just graduated this week,” he said. “I just got back from Montana and came out here to try out for this.”

Eric Taylor (centre) sets up to run a 40-yard dash at Saturday's camp.For the majority of the players, Saturday’s B.C. Lions’ free agent camp in Seattle presented a chance to try and earn a spot with an unfamiliar team in an unfamiliar league. That wasn’t the case for receiver Eric Taylor, though. After a Division II NCAA career at Concordia University in Selma, Alabama, Taylor was with the Lions in 2008 and briefly in 2009. He spent the last three years playing in smaller professional indoor leagues, and saw Saturday’s camp as a chance to maybe prove he deserves another CFL chance.

“I believe I can play up there, that’s the main reason I’m here,” Taylor said. “If I had no confidence I could play, I’d just hang it up, coach and give back, but right now I think I can still play at a high level.”

He said his previous time with the Lions was enjoyable, but it was far from easy for him to get settled with the team.

“It was pretty good,” Taylor said. “It was kind of like a roller-coaster ride for me because they released me after training camp, then they signed me back two weeks into the season, then they released me like the week before training camp again. It was like a roller coaster ride for me, but hey, it is what it is. It’s professional football.”

Players gather on the Rainier Beach High School field for a CFL tryout Saturday.The process of building a CFL roster is a tricky one. Teams can pull in Canadians through the draft and Americans through negotiation lists and free agency deals, but the NFL's shadow means a lot of CFL scouting involves finding guys that league passed over. That matters on a couple of levels. CFL rosters are still built by going out and targeting players based on their film and accomplishments, but teams also realize that some top talents may slip through the traditional CFL scouting system as well. That's the idea behind open tryouts or free-agent camps like the one the B.C. Lions held in Seattle Saturday: for a $100 registration fee, any player can try and impress team coaches and executives, attempt to earn an invite to a CFL training camp and try to keep their football dreams alive. I was on hand for the camp, which provided a great look at both how players are drawn to the CFL and how the Lions build their roster.

Saturday's camp took place at Rainier Beach High School in southern Seattle, and it made for a fascinating scene. About 75 athletes clustered around a high school football field at 9 in the morning, along with some friends and family members who were there to cheer them on, some agents and plenty of Lions coaches and executives. It was a typically grey Seattle morning, but right from the start, there was a sense of anticipation in the air. Players largely wore gear from the NCAA schools they played at, and plenty of those were represented Saturday, from Stanford to Brown and San Jose State to Alabama A&M. They came from different races, backgrounds, and levels of football experience, but they all carried one goal; finding a way to pursue or continue a professional football career.

This fake Toronto Star cover details some of Tim Tebow's alternate-universe exploits.The idea of Tim Tebow starring in the CFL may not make much sense from a variety of perspectives (amazingly, that's something Warren Moon, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith can all agree on), but that hasn't quelled the story. Tebow still hasn't found an NFL landing spot following his release by the New York Jets at the end of April, and that's increased the talk that he might find his way up north. Given that Tebow to the CFL discussion has been going on for years, though, there isn't much new for most to say on the subject. That's where SB Nation's Jon Bois comes in.

Bois has created some pretty funny fictional narratives over the years through his involvement with Progressive Boink, The Dugout and other sites, and his first two installments of "The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles" follow in that vein; he's generated an alternate universe where Tebow is, in fact, a CFL star (but it's a very different league, involving passes from the tops of buildings and drives that end at seas). Don't take these pieces as containing any actual CFL information, as Bois has just randomly inserted former NFL players like Garrison Hearst, Freddie Mitchell and Bam Morris, and he isn't attempting to describe the CFL's real rules (or what Canada's actually like, for that matter), but these pieces can definitely provide a few laughs. Here's an excerpt from the first one:

Buck Pierce will likely be leading the Blue Bombers again this season.

Continuing our CFL Camp Countdown series of season previews, here's a look at the Winnipeg Blue Bombers based on last week's conference call with president and CEO Garth Buchko, general manager Joe Mack, head coach Tim Burke and quarterback Buck Pierce. The Bombers finished tied for last in 2012 with a 6-12 record and are looking for improvement this year. However, they still have many of the same faces involved. Will it work out better this year?

One of the biggest stories with the Bombers over the last few years has been their quarterback position. Pierce has played reasonably well when healthy, and he was a key part of the team's run to the Grey Cup game in 2011. He's suffered plenty of injuries, though, including concussions, and many around the league have wondered if he can or should keep playing. However, the team's offseason decision to release veterans Joey Elliott and Alex Brink and bring in CFL rookies Max Hall and Chase Clement to join Justin Goltz seems like an endorsement of Pierce for at least the immediate future. Adapting to the 12-a-side, three-down, bigger-field CFL game usually takes quite a while for quarterbacks, as the Bombers should know well by now. Pierce himself said it wasn't easy for him to adjust to football in Canada.

"You can't be thrown in the fire right away," he said. "You have to be able to rise to the challenge. It's a big learning curve for a young guy."