[BeaverFever]

$1:

Argos’ Ricky Foley launches Twitter tirade against Leafs over Babcock signing

Defensive end angry his team upstaged by news of Leafs signing.

By: Peter Edwards Star Reporter, Published on Thu May 21 2015

The Toronto Argos didn’t acquire defensive end Ricky Foley to be a diplomat, which is just as well.

Foley repeatedly spanked the Maple Leafs on Twitter, calling the teams’ leaders “soft ass punks” after the Leafs announced they signed Mike Babcock on the same day his Argos officially announced that they have been bought by Bell and Larry Tanenbaum, the chair of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

“Dick move announcing Babcock news the day #Argos r finally sold,” Foley tweeted Wednesday afternoon

“Guess some people still jealous we the only team who wins in this city.”

Foley, a high-energy player on the field, also revealed himself to be a pumped-up tweeter.

He followed it up with one which read:

“I feel sorry 4T.O sports fans...Every yr hype 4teams who don’t EVER win...Spending $ 2come see mostly Foreigners play with no heart/effort.”

Then he targeted the Raptors, tweeting:

“I’ll tell you one thing these CDN #CFL boys don’t claim ‘wetheNORTH’ then head home to the south during off seasons... #NBA.”

Then it was back to the Leafs, in case anyone there wasn’t yet miffed.

“And our Captains and vet leaders don’t play like a bunch of soft ass punks with no emotion or passion for the game or its fans... #NHL.”

He veered slightly towards conciliation with his follow-up tweet:

“So congrats on Ur new coach @MapleLeafs...Hopefully 50mil & sky high ticket prices r enough 2give Ur players heart & a compete level #CFL.”

He adopted a “can’t we all be friends?” tone with his follow-up message:

“4the record been a HUGE Leaf/Raptor 4ever...Just sick of SOME players lack of heart/effort yet WE fans pay big$ 2C them &treat #CFL like poo.”

He continued the tough love theme:

“Bottom line I will always love/cheer the @MapleLeafs Just want 2C my $/support respected by players in their effort/community work don’t u?”

His final barrage returned to the Babcock theme:

“Wake up Leave U.S mansion board flight 2 Toronto stay 6months play soft collect millions of CDN fans $ leave 2go back to U.S mansion repeat”

The Argos acquired Foley, a former top Canadian in the CFL, in a trade with Saskatchewan this winter for middle linebacker Shea Emry.

Guys got a point. Toronto is the worst sports city for a reason...the reason is we have the worst sports fans.

[OnTheIce]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

Guys got a point. Toronto is the worst sports city for a reason...the reason is we have the worst sports fans.

How would you define 'worst'?

[BeaverFever]

Probably something along the lines of below:

$1:

Toronto rated worst city for pro sports in ESPN standings
Toronto is the worst city in North America for pro sports, according to rankings by ESPN The Magazine.

Mon Jun 20 2011
http://www.thestar.com/sports/2011/06/2 ... dings.html

$1:

Toronto Maple Leafs ranked worst sports franchise in North America
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs rank dead last among sports franchises in North America, according to a study by ESPN.

Results from ESPN’s 2014 Ultimate Standings show the Buds placed the worst when it comes to affordability (price of tickets, parking and concessions) and bang for your buck (wins in the past year, per fan dollars).

http://globalnews.ca/news/1572191/toron ... h-america/

[OnTheIce]

It's interesting that a franchise labelled as the "worst" is the most valuable. In fact, it was the only franchise in the NHL to end up on the Forbes list of most valuable sports franchises.

That's because they have die-hard fans that will spend a lot to support their team, even when they are terrible....which has been for a greater part of 50 years.

The Raptors, TFC and Argo's all draw fantastic crowds of people..so I'm not sure where your comment about having the worst sports fans actually comes from.

Today, hundreds of people gathered to welcome the new coach

FWIW, the polls were done not by players, current and former but a random list of sports "fans".

[BeaverFever]

You're right, the Raptors, Leafs and TFC are the best teams in the world. And their fans are the best too. Toronto is the best sports city int he world. Because winning doesn't matter.

The Argos win more than these other TO teams but that actually means they're the worst. What proves you're the best is that you constantly loose while still making record-breaking profits and the Argos have that backwards.

And I'll say this in seriousness: The Leafs are the only team with pretty much city-wide die-hard support. Every other team's fan-base is fair-weather "causal" fans.

> Jays game: for most people in the crowd, its something to do on a summer weekend when you don't have other plans. Most casual baseball fans at best.When the Jays suck, attendance plummets

> TFC game: as above. But also, the culture of a TFC game is much more participatory so you see lots more people wearing colors and cheering loudly, so it would look like they have die-hard followers. But these same people won't watch TFC on TV or even follow the team or sport closely through the year. Its just about the experience of being at the game and being a 'die-hard for a day' kind of fan.

> Raptors game: Let's completely set aside what a stupid boring waste of time basketball is. People show up to Raptors games because rapper-turned-"team ambassador" Drake tells them to. So the place is overwhelmingly filled with people who like cheap commercialized pop rap music sung by a former Degrassi High actor. Attendance is up because they made the playoffs recently. When the team does poorly, as it has for most of its existence, attendance drops and people stop caring.

> Leafs: "Most valuable" as you say, which only means richest and most profitable, maximum return for minimum investment; this is completely different from overall quality, as evidenced by the fact that the last time they won a championship, nearly 50 years ago, the NHL only had 6 teams. Nonetheless, the fans have the ludicrous hope that somehow for unexplained reasons, this year will be "the year". The day before yesterday, everyone was saying "I'm done with the Leafs" as they do every spring.

Now predictably they're saying "so do you think we'll win the cup this year or next year?" which is early....usually they don't revert back to blind idiocy until September.

Well I remember CKA members like Mustang, Dayseed and some others all ganging up on me sometime circa 2009 because I didn't believe a big playoff run was imminent. "Just you wait, they've got Burke now! Burke! Burke! He's got a 5-year plan!" Well Burke's 5-year plan must have been to get himself fired, because that's what he actually accomplished.

If you think "the best" sports fans are those who fork over their money for ever-increasing ticket prices, no questions asked, year over year for a team that never wins despite being the wealthiest in history. well then yes, then the Leafs have the best fans.

[Freakinoldguy]

I don't normally agree with you but, that post was "money".



And for the record Foley is 100% right. Unfortunately he's a single voice in the wilderness of apathy towards the CFL in Toronto. Hopefully it changes with the new owner and stadium so they start to develop a loyal fan base and garner more interest like they did decades ago.

But, the biggest problem may be that Toronto thinks of itself as a world class city so the CFL just isn't high profile or classy enough for it an d the same people who wouldn't shell out money for a subsidized ticket to a Buffalo Bills game definitely won't bother with something as mundane as a part of Canadian sports history.

[PluggyRug]

Yep....my thoughts exactly