Can Marc Trestman repeat his CFL success with the NFL's Chicago Bears?

Former Montreal Alouettes' coach Marc Trestman may have left the CFL behind, but his success or failure with the NFL's Chicago Bears may still affect the league. From Bud Grant to Marv Levy and Joe Theismann to Doug Flutie, Cameron Wake and Brandon Browner, many of the ex-CFL players and coaches who have gone on to great things south of the border have done a lot to boost Canadian football's profile in the U.S., which is crucial from a perspective of how much top American talent the CFL can attract (both players and coaches). Trestman's success or failure in Chicago may be particularly crucial here, as his CFL background has been heavily featured in pieces about him and no one's really made the CFL to NFL transition recently on the coaching side.

C.J. Spiller (28) and the Buffalo Bills, seen in Toronto in 2012, are set to play more games in Canada.

The Buffalo Bills have come to an agreement to extend their series of games in Toronto. Sun Media's John Kryk broke the news Monday night, and he adds that the deal is expected to follow along the lines of what he initially reported last May before it was delayed by stadium negotiations in Buffalo. That would mean one NFL regular-season game in Toronto for each of the next five years, plus one exhibition game over that span. At first glance, that may cause some CFL fans to worry; the long-looming spectre of the NFL in Toronto feels a lot closer when there are regular-season games being played in town. However, the specifics involved in this deal may actually benefit the CFL over the next five years.

O.J. Brigance won the Super Bowl with the Ravens and the Grey Cup with the Baltimore Stallions.

One of the most remarkable stories at this year's Super Bowl has a significant CFL connection. Baltimore Ravens' senior advisor to player development O.J. Brigance has inspired many throughout his five-plus-year battle with ALS (detailed well here by Fox's Peter Schrager), and some of that impact's being felt across the CFL thanks to Brigance's past there. The usually-terminal disease has put Brigance in a wheelchair, and he can only now speak with the assistance of a high-tech DynaVox that translates his blinks into words, but he was an outstanding CFL and NFL linebacker; he played in the CFL for five years from 1991-1995 with the B.C. Lions and Baltimore CFLers/Stallions (during the U.S. expansion era), winning a Grey Cup with Baltimore in 1995 and then moving on to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins and the Ravens (where he was part of the 2000-01 Super Bowl-winning team, making him the only player to win a Grey Cup and a Super Bowl while representing the same city). As Mike Beamish of The Vancouver Sun writes, Brigance may be physically limited by illness now, but he's still inspiring Baltimore's players:

Greg Marshall is back in the CFL as Edmonton's defensive coordinator.

After spending over a year outside of the CFL following his August 2011 firing as Saskatchewan's head coach, Greg Marshall (no, not that one) has returned to the league as the Edmonton Eskimos' defensive coordinator. The team announced the hiring of Marshall and offensive coordinator Doug Sams Friday. Marshall's return to the CFL had long been rumoured, but given the time and money left on his Saskatchewan contract, some thought he might only come back before then if given another head coaching job. Marshall's brief coaching stint (eight months overall, two months of games, a 1-7 record and lipstick on pigs) was far from an unqualified success, though, and while that wasn't all on Marshall, he wasn't drawing a lot of head-coaching buzz this offseason. Marshall has a long history of success as a defensive coordinator, though, so he might be a nice hire for Edmonton, and if he can demonstrate his prowess in that arena again, he might just get back on the head-coaching radar.

All-time CFL receiving leader Geroy Simon is off to the Riders.

The B.C. Lions' decision to let star slotback Geroy Simon explore the trade market produced results incredibly quickly, as Simon was traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders Thursday in exchange for wide receiver Justin Harper and a third-round pick. The trade came less than 24 hours after the initial news that the Lions were shopping Simon, and it could leave shockwaves across the CFL landscape. In B.C., there will be long debates about if the Lions did the right thing with a franchise legend who just happens to be the CFL's all-time leading receiver. In Saskatchewan, though, this looks like a substantial upgrade to the Riders' receiving corps, and one that could make their aerial attack one to be reckoned with this season.

Has Geroy Simon been to his last celebration with the B.C. Lions?

The B.C. Lions' decision to let veteran slotback Geroy Simon gauge the interest in his services on the trade market follows in the vein of their recent release of Byron Parker and Arland Bruce (who have since landed in Montreal), as it's clearly an indication that they feel they can get Simon's production at a lower cost from other players. However, doing this with Simon is somewhat more questionable than with those other players. Simon will be 38 this September, and it's certainly possible that he may not be capable of serving as a top CFL receiver any more, in which case B.C. may be making the right call. There's also the very real chance that Simon can still be a dominant player, though, and that could lead to this being remembered as a significant mistake by the Lions. Either way, this might be one of the biggest stories of this offseason.

Defensive coordinator Chris Jones will be with the Argos for a while longer.The man many saw as the frontrunner for the newly-open Montreal Alouettes' head coaching job is now out of the race. The Toronto Argonauts announced Tuesday afternoon that defensive coordinator/assistant general manager Chris Jones, the man of mystery whose defence played a key role in the Argos' Grey Cup victory, has signed a contract extension with the team and withdrawn his candidacy for the Montreal position. It's an interesting move on Jones' part, as this looked like a natural time for him to take a head-coaching role (and he wouldn't seem likely to get one in Toronto any time soon, as Scott Milanovich has done extremely well there so far) and he appeared to be one of the top candidates the Als were considering. Of course, there's no guarantee Jones would have been selected as Montreal's head coach, but his decision to sign a new deal in Toronto instead before the Alouettes' search wraps up means they'll have to look elsewhere.

This slide from UCLA shows the buildup of tau protein (red) in two former NFL players' brains.While concussions are perhaps the most crucial issue facing football at all levels today, most of the discussion of their long-term after-effects (and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in particular) has centred around post-mortem autopsies of former players. That may be about to change, as a new UCLA study appears to have found the first evidence of CTE in living players, and that could have huge implications for football in both the U.S. and Canada. From ESPN's Mark Fainara-Wada and Steve Fainaru, who have been doing great work on the concussions front, here's why this new study (published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry Tuesday, available as a PDF here) matters so much:

Brain scans performed on five former NFL players revealed images of the protein that causes football-related brain damage -- the first time researchers have identified signs of the crippling disease in living players.

Researchers who conducted the pilot study at UCLA described the findings as a significant step toward being able to diagnose the disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, in living patients.

"I've been saying that identifying CTE in a living person is the Holy Grail for this disease and for us to be able make advances in treatment," said Dr. Julian Bailes, co-director of NorthShore Neurological Institute in Evanston, Ill., and one of the study's co-authors. "It's not definitive and there's a lot we still need to discover to help these people, but it's very compelling. It's a new discovery."

The study examined five former NFL players using a patented brain-imaging tool, all of whom had sustained at least one recorded concussion during their careers, and it found tau protein (the key evidence for CTE) in each of their brains. What's interesting is how differently they've been affected, though. Fred McNeill, a linebacker who played with the Minnesota Vikings for 12 years, is already suffering from early-onset dementia at 59 and is largely looked after by his family and caregivers, while 65-year old former Chargers, Bengals and Chiefs' quarterback Wayne Clark said "I don't feel like I'm suffering from any real symptoms at this point."