Western Swagger director Barry Greenwald fuses politics and football in the film.The Engraved On A Nation series of documentaries has been producing strong results thus far, and that trend continues in "Western Swagger," which first aired Thursday night and will be shown multiple times this weekend. The film examines the connections between the 1981 Edmonton Eskimos' run to the Grey Cup and eventual triumph over Ottawa and the West-East political negotiations between Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and premiers (including Alberta's Peter Lougheed, a former Eskimos' player himself) over the National Energy Program and the Constitution Act, two subjects that seem rather diverse at first but prove to have plenty of common elements. Director Barry Greenwald took the time to speak with me about the film just before it aired Thursday, and he had some notable comments about how this project came together and what he tried to achieve. He said politics can often be perceived as an isolated subject, but political events like those of the early 1980s can have a notable impact on everyday people.

Khalif Mitchell is stirring up off-field controversy again.

We've already had plenty of crazy storylines heading into the West Final, including Drew Tate's head, Nik Lewis' bulletin-board material, Lewis' tweets, the team's Twitter ban and Tate's wrist. Now there's another one, involving Jon Cornish's...rear end?  From the notes of this Canadian Press story filed Thursday by Monte Stewart:

Lions defensive lineman Khalif Mitchell mocked Calgary running back Jon Cornish for mooning fans on a couple of occasions earlier this season. "I just wanna grab Cornish's butt," said Mitchell. "I just look at what he does, right? He just runs, and every time he runs, he's mooning people, and he has his butt out. So I just want to grab his butt. I just want to want to tackle him and go squeeze his bum and just knock the football out, hopefully. Hopefully, he doesn't enjoy it too much."

Drew Tate's fractured wrist will keep him out of the rest of the 2012 playoffs.

Previously on The Days Of Our Stampeders, Drew Tate was facing concussion questions despite passing tests, Nik Lewis was writing O.J. Simpson-referencing tweets and getting fined for it (when he wasn't delivering bulletin-board material for their opponents), and the team was banning its players from Twitter. Now, we have the weirdest twist of any so far. Tate is going to miss Sunday's West Final (and the Grey Cup if the Stampeders advance to it), but thanks to a just-diagnosed fractured right wrist (on his throwing arm), not any concerns about his head. It's unusual to see this caught this late in the week, but it's good for Tate's health that it was caught. However, this game was always going to be tough for the Stampeders to win, and it gets even more difficult without their top-choice quarterback. 

Stampeders' head coach John Hufnagel has reportedly asked players to stay off Twitter.

Censorship, thy name is Calgary. In the wake of slotback Nik Lewis' O.J. Simpson- referencing tweet, which earned him a fine from the league (but only saw him offer a limited apology), Stampeders' head coach and general manager John Hufnagel has reportedly banned his players from tweeting until the end of the season.  It's a move that's happened numerous times in college football and junior hockey, but has been relatively rare in the professional ranks (although there have been isolated incidences of Twitter bans, including Cincinnati Bengals' head coach Marvin Lewis banning players during the team's 2012 training camp and the Florida (now Miami, or perhaps Toronto) Marlins demoting outfielder Logan Morrison over his tweets in 2011). It's also one that, from this corner, is going too far.

Nik Lewis was hit by Joe Lobendahn Sunday, and may be hit with a fine by the league this week.

It's been an interesting few days for the Calgary Stampeders, who pulled off a last-second win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Sunday's West semifinal, but instead of being able to calmly focus on getting set to face the B.C. Lions this week, have so far been dealing with everything from concussion controversies about quarterback Drew Tate to questions about Nik Lewis' post-game trash talk about B.C.  (copies of which were put in the Lions' lockers before practice Monday). Now, Lewis may have made things even worse, thanks to his decision to tweet a reference to the O.J. Simpson murder case. (Update: Lewis has since been fined by the league.) The tweet in question has since been deleted, but via Eric Francis of The Calgary Sun, here's what happened and how it may put Lewis in management's doghouse:

Nobody hates this crap more than John Hufnagel.

Nobody would have been more upset at the sheer stupidity exhibited by Nik Lewis on Twitter Monday than ol' Huf.

Hours after the Calgary Stampeders GM/head coach tried to clean up the mess his quarterback, Drew Tate, made with his flippant suggestion he misremembered the first half in Sunday's win Lewis takes to Twitter with this doozy:

"I just bought OJ's gloves on eBay. Now all I need is a white girl named Nicole."

He added, complete with grammatical error: #MaybeALittleToFar

Indeed, way too far — especially at a time when the head coach, receiver and the rest of the team should be focused on the biggest game of the year so far: Sunday's CFL West final against the host B.C. Lions (2:30 p.m., TSN/QR77). Instead, Wednesday's post-practice interviews will revolve around Lewis, who will almost certainly be told by Hufnagel to make himself scarce.

Players like Solomon Elimimian may dream of the NFL, but not all can stick there.The CFL's 2010 collective bargaining agreement officially eliminated the controversial option year that allowed players still under contract to test the NFL waters, but the results thus far have been mixed, to say the least. Thus, it's not particularly surprising to see Lowell Ullrich's report in The Province that the CFL's competition committee is discussing the possibility of bringing that rule back. There's a long way to go before this happens, of course, and it may never change back; the rule was eliminated because many around the league were tired of losing option-year players to the NFL, and there's still some sentiment against allowing players to easily test the NFL waters. However, the rule change has had some unintended consequences, and that's why the option situation is being looked at again.

Keon Raymond saved the day with this game-ending interception Sunday.

It's another edition of our Three Stars series, focusing on those who stood out in Sunday's playoff clashes.

First star: Keon Raymond, linebacker, Calgary Stampeders: It was another great week for Raymond, the Stamps' versatile threat who was in the first-star slot ">as recently as Week 17. He didn't take an interception back 100 yards this week, but Raymond recorded four tackles and a sack and made the game-clinching interception on Darian Durant's final Hail Mary, sealing Calgary's 36-30 win. It happened on special teams, but he also came up with one of the weekend's most pivotal plays, blocking an extra-point attempt that teammate Fred Bennett returned the length of the field for two crucial points.

(Honourable mentions for defensive star: James Patrick, DB, Saskatchewan; Damaso Munoz, LB, Edmonton; Marcus Ball, DB, Toronto.)

Second star: Jon Cornish, running back, Calgary Stampeders: There were plenty of outstanding players on the Stampeders' offence, including quarterback Drew

Drew Tate passed concussion tests, but his comments leave questions.

There are plenty of opinions out there on what happened with Stampeders' quarterback Drew Tate in Sunday's win over Saskatchewan, but they diverge along one crucial line: if you think being cleared by the league's concussion protocol is sufficient for a player to return to a game. Tate's post-halftime comments to TSN following a hit to the head of "I don't remember the first half," awoke plenty of concern, as did his post-game comments of "I just got my bell rung" and his reaffirmation that he didn't remember the first half, but Calgary coach/general manager John Hufnagel said Monday Tate was subjected to concussion tests after the hit, at halftime and passed them all (and Tate now says that wasn't what he was talking about, but admits to "fuzziness"). League officials looked into this Monday and were satisfied with the Stampeders' handling of it, and thinking their actions are sufficient and Tate wasn't concussed isn't indefensible. However, there's a growing school of thought on concussions, endorsed by some of the leading authorities, that these tests alone may not catch every concussion. For those of us who subscribe to that way of thinking, and also believe it's far better to sit a player who may be healthy than play a potentially-concussed one, there are still concerns about how the Tate situation was handled.