Andrew Bucholtz

    Andrew Bucholtz is a Canadian football blogger for Yahoo! Sports.

  • Playoff Preview: Can Henry Burris lead the Redblacks over his old team?

    Here’s a look at Sunday’s Grey Cup, where the 15-2-1 Calgary Stampeders will face the 8-9-1 Ottawa Redblacks. Ottawa offence: Four out-of-nowhere running backs: Much of the Redblacks’ success in last week’s East Final came from an unlikely source, Canadian running back Kienan LaFrance. 2015 CFL Most Outstanding Player Henry Burris’ 2016 season involved injury, benching and wars with critics, but got the starting job back down the stretch and did well in Ottawa’s final few games, averaging 383 passing yards per game in that span.

  • Grey Cup tickets offered with $30 pizza deal, months after they started at $169

    Hamilton Pizza Pizza locations were offering two tickets, a large pizza, wings and Coke for just $30. TSN (owned by Argos’ co-owner Bell) picked up a lot of tickets earlier this week and reportedly offered five free tickets each to “members of the TSN family,” and as Drew Edwards notes at 3 Down Nation, Hamilton-area Pizza Pizza locations have been advertising a $30 deal for a large three-topping pizza, wings, Coke — and two Grey Cup tickets. With 16 Hamilton stores offering 15 pairs of tickets each, that’s 480 tickets to the big game going for next to nothing, notable considering that the cheapest tickets were initially $169 and were only reduced to $89 in October.

  • Bo Levi Mitchell could be unanimous MOP, but five other outstanding seasons fell short

    Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell goes up against Ottawa receiver Ernest Jackson for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award at the Shaw CFL Awards Thursday, and Mitchell’s almost certain to win. Jackson had a fine season, making 88 catches for 1,225 yards and 10 touchdowns in 17 games, but that’s only the seventh-highest receiving total this year.

  • Alternative CFL awards: top tweets, quotes, dumb moves and more

    Ottawa Redblacks GM Marcel Desjardins earned the 55-Yard Line award for Tweet of the Year. The Shaw CFL Awards are set to take place Thursday night in Toronto, but many of the on-field awards seem relatively easy to predict: Bo Levi Mitchell, Solomon Elimimian and Dave Dickenson in particular should be heavy favourites.

  • Argos SVP Sara Moore on Grey Cup's first forum on women in sport

     Toronto Argonauts senior vice president (business operations) and 2016 Grey Cup Festival COO Sara Moore spoke to 55-Yard Line about the upcoming Empowering Women and Community Through Sport Luncheon, which takes place Friday. The Grey Cup Festival has a wide variety of events, from team parties to bullying-prevention rallies to the fans’ state of the league to concerts to lunches with legends, but a particularly new and interesting idea this year is the first Grey Cup event focused on discussing women in sport. The Empowering Women and Community Through Sport Luncheon takes place Friday, and it features both an impressive keynote speaker (Stacey Allaster, Chief Executive, Professional Tennis for The United States Tennis Association, and former chairman and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association) and a solid panel (including Canada Basketball President and CEO Michele O’Keefe, Olympian and activist Rosie Cossar, Olympian and Fast and Female ambassador Natalie Spooner and senior PepsiCo executive Susan Irving, plus moderator Tessa Bonhomme).

  • No room: Calgary's horse, Ottawa loggers out of Grey Cup

    Calgary’s touchdown horse Quick Six won’t be prancing at Toronto’s BMO Field on Sunday. The Ottawa Redblacks-Calgary Stampeders Grey Cup matchup has managed to combine two of the recent Grey Cup controversies, as neither the Redblacks’ logging team nor the Stampeders’ touchdown horse will be allowed on the sidelines Sunday. The logging team was forced to cut outside the stadium in Winnipeg last year thanks to a protest from the Edmonton Eskimos, while the Stampeders’ horse was only allowed to stand in the corner during the 2012 Grey Cup thanks to space concerns.

  • 10 reasons to watch the 104th Grey Cup

    The matchup for the 104th Grey Cup is set, with the 15-2-1 West Division champion Calgary Stampeders facing the 8-9-1 East Division champion Ottawa Redblacks Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern (TSN/ESPN2/BT Sports/YareTV). Here are 10 reasons you might want to check out this year’s Grey Cup. 1. Henry Burris takes on his old team.

  • Five reasons for Calgary and Ottawa to be hopeful about the Grey Cup

    The matchup is set for next Sunday’s 104th Grey Cup at Toronto’s BMO Field, with the Ottawa Redblacks beating the Edmonton Eskimos 35-23 in a snow-filled East Final and the Calgary Stampeders thumping the B.C. Lions 42-15 in a lopsided West Final. Calgary went a league-best 15-2-1 this season (and might have posted a CFL-record season if they hadn’t played backups in their meaningless regular-season finale), while Ottawa became the first CFL division winner with a record below .500, posting just a 8-9-1 mark.

  • Playoff Preview: Can Calgary shake off the rust?

    Next up is Sunday’s second game, the West semifinal, where the 15-1-2 Calgary Stampeders host the 12-6 B.C. Lions. The game will air at 4:30 p.m. Eastern from Calgary on TSN, ESPN3 and BT Sports, and can be streamed on TSN Go and WatchESPN or through a subscription to YareSports in 150 other countries outside CFL broadcast territories. B.C. offence: Four young quarterbacks: Jon Jennings had an excellent second CFL season, picking up 5,226 passing yards (third in the league) with 27 touchdowns and 15 interceptions and a 67.0 per cent completion rate.

  • Playoff Preview: How will Mike Reilly hold up against the Redblacks?

    Edmonton QB Mike Reilly holds his wrist while walking off the field during the second half of CFL eastern semifinal against Tiger Cats, in Hamilton. Let’s start with Sunday’s first game, the East Final, where the 10-8 crossover Edmonton Eskimos are facing the 8-9-1 Ottawa Redblacks in a rematch of last year’s Grey Cup. The game will air at 1 p.m. Eastern from Ottawa on TSN and ESPN3 (it will be tape-delayed to on BT Sports), and can be streamed on TSN Go and WatchESPN or through a subscription to YareSports in 150 other countries outside CFL broadcast territories.

  • CFL says two wrong calls were made on crucial Edmonton-Hamilton play

    The CFL’s officiating was already under the microscope this week following close and controversial calls in both divisional semifinals Sunday, and that scrutiny is only going to increase now that league vice-president (football) Glen Johnson (seen above during his days as a CFL referee) has said their officials got two calls wrong on the same critical play in the Edmonton-Hamilton East semifinal. CFL vice president of football Glen Johnson said Wednesday the calls “do not meet the standard” set by the league.

  • CFL teams up with You Can Play for first official LGBTQ Grey Cup party

    The CFL has done a ton to promote equality for LGBTQ fans and athletes over the last few years, especially through their partnership with You Can Play (including team training, community work, and an apparel line), and promoting inclusion is personally important to commissioner Jeffrey Orridge. The next step along those lines will be emphasizing inclusion on the league’s biggest stage of Grey Cup Week. On Nov. 25 – two days before the Grey Cup goes in Toronto – the CFL will be teaming up with You Can Play and other partners to throw the first official league-sanctioned Grey Cup Week party in support of the LGBTQ community.

  • Exclusive: CFL releases new Grey Cup ad, hoping to boost excitement

    The Grey Cup is the biggest CFL event of the year, but how big can vary depending on the host city. This year, Toronto hosts for the first time since 2012, and there are always questions on how a big city will embrace the event – unlike in Regina (2013) or Winnipeg last, where the Grey Cup took over the town, some big-city versions like Vancouver in 2014 haven’t always made a huge impact on the city. There’s a further challenge for Toronto in that this 104th Grey Cup lacks the extra pomp and pageantry that accompanied the 100th Grey Cup in 2012.

  • Five takeaways from the CFL's divisional semifinals

    Edmonton QB Mike Reilly holds his wrist while walking off the field during the second half of CFL eastern semifinal against Tiger Cats, in Hamilton. The CFL saw a pair of thrilling, down-to-the-wire divisional semifinals Sunday, with the Edmonton Eskimos beating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 24-21 on the road in the East semifinal and the B.C. Lions besting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 32-31 at home in the West semifinal. The Eskimos’ ground game is strong: The most interesting revelation from the East semifinal might have been how much of Edmonton’s attack came from the ground.

  • Playoff Preview: Can the Bombers get turnovers against the Lions?

    WIth a team-high seven interceptions, Maurice Leggett is key part of a Winnipeg defence that does force turnovers (Tom Szczerbowski/ photo). Here’s a look at Sunday’s second game, the West semifinal, where the 12-6 B.C. Lions are hosting the 11-7 Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Winnipeg offence: Three quarterback changes: The Bombers began this season 1-4 with Drew Willy as their starter, then started winning after switching to Matt Nichols.

  • Playoff Preview: Can the crossover Eskimos stay hot against the Ticats?

    Edmonton quarterback Mike Reilly leads an offence that tops the CFL in a number of categories. Let’s start with Sunday’s first game, the East semifinal, where the 10-8 Edmonton Eskimos are crossing over to take on the 7-11 Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The game will air at 1 p.m. Eastern from Hamilton on TSN, ESPN2 and BT Sports, and can be streamed on TSN Go and WatchESPN or through a subscription to YareSports in 150 other countries outside CFL broadcast territories.

  • Jim Popp's run in Montreal ends, but in despair, not in triumph

    A few years back, it looked like Jim Popp's Alouettes' success would propel him to the NFL. Not now.

  • Playoff Primer: Lions' win means they're hosting Bombers, Eskimos go East

    B.C.'s 41-18 win over Saskatchewan Saturday solidified the CFL's playoff picture.

  • Eskimos dominate Argos, leaving only questions about Mikes

    If the biggest questions the Eskimos have to face are about Mikes, those aren't all that big.

  • Alouettes end season with another win and some hope: where do they go from here?

    The Montreal Alouettes ended the year with some hope, but still have questions ahead.