Open Mouth, Insert Foot

It's been a long time since I've gone on a good, old-fashioned rant. The last time was back when Arland Bruce was traded. I was angry then, and I made that point well known twice.

Since then, not much has happened that got my ire up. Yes, there has been the inconsistent play of the team, but that's normal pro sports stuff. That comes with the territory. I can accept and handle that.

Maurice Mann opening his fat mouth, however, is another story.

As everyone knows, Maurice Mann was traded yesterday to the Toronto Argonauts for Defensive Back Dee Webb. Today, he spoke to the media for the first time following the trade and came off sounding like a whiny jerk.

He said he didn't find out about the trade from either Marcel Bellefeuille or Bob O'Billovich, but from Receivers Coach Tim Kearse. Later, it was revealed that the team tried to contact Mann and that he didn't return their repeated calls.

He said he also has not spoken to Bellefeuille and doesn't plan on speaking to him in the future.

He stated that Hamilton is not a friendly place for veteran receivers.

In a tweet, which I cannot link to because Mann protects his tweets (meaning you need a Twitter account to see what he said) he responded to someone by saying that "it is that bad here" (referring to Hamilton) and then using the hashtag "micromanagville." In essence, he was saying that he was happy to leave.

Mann talks a lot, and his talking has always the biggest part of his game. For a player who yaps off as much as he does, you'd think he'd average more than 52-yards per game or have more than six 100-yard games over the course of his five year career. He played 25 games in Hamilton and scored seven touchdowns. Contrast that to Dave Stala, who has seven touchdowns just this year. Mann thinks he's an upper-echelon receiver, but his stats show that he's mediocre at best. He had one decent year in Edmonton, but Mann has never had a 1,000-yard season or scored double-digit touchdowns in a season. With the way he views himself, you'd think he was an All Star, but that's something else he's never achieved. Mann is a legend in his own mind.

That fact that he made a point to say that he doesn't plan to talk to Bellefeuille makes him sound petty and childish. But it has been known for a long time that Mann had a problem with Bellefeuille. This stretches back to last season when Mann called Bellefeuille a whack ass coach. Mann could have showed some class and said nothing. When Arland Bruce was traded, you didn't hear him bad mouth anyone. Mann could learn a lesson or two from Bruce.

Mann goes by the handle "86_do_trix" on Twitter. To steal a line from a famous movie, it looks like the greatest trick he ever pulled was convincing the football world that he's an elite receiver. The Argos, and their fans, are about to find out that Mann's game doesn't equal his self-manufacture hype.