OTTAWA -- The moment Corey Chamblin first started thinking about becoming a CFL head coach came while he was breaking down game film with Jim Barker years ago when the two were with the Calgary Stampeders. Anthony Mantha Jersey . They were watching tape during the 2008 Grey Cup when Barker, himself a former coach, was then Calgarys senior vice-president of football operations and player-personnel director. Barker turned to the young assistant and made what Chamblin thought at the time was a terribly bold prediction. "He said, Youll be a better head coach than an assistant coach, and if you dont decide to go to the NFL and you stay in this league, youll definitely be a head coach," Chamblin recalls. "And I was like, Jim, youre crazy. " But Barkers words were prophetic. On Wednesday, Chamblin was named the CFLs coach of the year. The 36-year-old received the Annis Stukus Trophy after leading the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a Grey Cup win on home turf in only his second season with the club. The Riders finished second in the West Division standings with an 11-7 record. They defeated B.C. 29-25 in the conference semifinal before upsetting first-place Calgary -- which posted a league-best 14-4 record -- in the West Division final 35-13. That victory earned Saskatchewan home-field advantage for the Grey Cup game, which was held at Mosaic Stadium. Before a rabid gathering of 44,710, the Riders didnt disappoint, capping their season with an impressive 45-23 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Kent Austin, Hamiltons head coach/GM, and John Hufnagel, who also holds the same dual post with Calgary, were the award finalists. In his first season with Hamilton, Austin led the Ticats to second in the East Division with a 10-8 record before the club posted playoff wins over Montreal and Toronto. Austin was named the CFLs top coach in 07 after leading the Riders to a Grey Cup title. Hufnagel, who won the award in 2008, worked with Chamblin in Calgary. He said he saw in Chamblin many of the traits that have allowed him to make the transition from a position coach into a winning head coach. "He was very organized but he also had an eye out for the entire program, not just the defensive backs," Hufnagel said. "His vision was far-reaching. "He wanted to put a program together to help make the players transition, once they did make the roster, in finding homes in Calgary and all the type of things that provides the transition, makes it easier for the players. So early on, I knew Corey did have a vision of more than just what was his particular area." Chamblin bounced around the NFL until 2004 before embarking on his coaching career. The native of Birmingham, Ala., played defensive back at Tennessee Tech. After being bypassed in the NFL draft, he signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Ravens in 1999 but was waived before seeing any regular-season action. Chamblin then signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He also spent time in Green Bay, Tampa Bay and Indianapolis and played in Germany with the Rhein Fire of the former NFL Europe. His first coaching gig came in 2006 as an assistant at Tennessees Cumberland University. He got his first CFL job a year later as a defensive backs coach with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Chamblin moved to Calgary and spent three seasons as the Stampeders defensive backs coach -- winning the Grey Cup in 2008 -- before becoming Hamiltons defensive co-ordinator in 2011. The following season, he landed his first head-coaching job with the Roughriders. Chamblin credits Barker, currently the GM of the Toronto Argonauts, with inspiring him to become a head coach. "It was one of those things where I was like, Yeah, Jim, I dont know why youre saying this and I dont believe you. Right now, Im a defensive backs coach, " Chamblin said. "But I took that, and I think that was something that opened my eyes, that you know what, I should start preparing myself, and I did and I got it pretty soon." Curtis Joseph Jersey . Coverage on TSN is underway now while action resumes on TSN2 at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. TSN GO also offers TSN subscribers bonus online coverage, with live streams of all four venues. Vladimir Konstantinov Jersey .com) - Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were among the third-round winners Friday at the French Open. http://www.redwingshockeyauthentic.com/niklas-kronwall-jersey/ .com) - The New York Islanders will try to solve their issues against Central Division opponents when they visit the Minnesota Wild for Tuesdays battle at Xcel Energy Center.Everybody has a favourite team. We suffer with them when they lose and rejoice when they win. The trouble is some teams never seem to win. Of the 30 teams in Major League baseball, eight have never won the World Series. In the American League, Tampa Bay, Seattle, Texas and Houston have never celebrated victories in the Fall Classic, but at least the Rays, Rangers and Houston got that far. Seattle, the Blue Jays expansion cousin, never has. In the National League, Washington/Montreal, Milwaukee, Colorado and San Diego have never emerged victorious, though all but the Nationals/Expos have made it to the World Series. Washington and Milwaukee have actually tasted victory, but with other franchises in the past - the Senators and the Braves. All of this made me wonder how the other "Big 4" sports compare. In the NHL, 12 of the current 30 teams have never won, though Ottawa and Vancouver did capture Cups in the early 1900s. Still, essentially that is 40 per cent of the teams that have never reached the "promised land." In the NFL, 14 of the 32 teams have never won the Super Bowl, though I must add some of those 14 teams won titles in the old AFL, or in the NFL before the merger.Still, thats just over 43 per cent who havent been Super Bowl Champs. The NBA has the worst percentage of all. 16 of 30 teams have all been also-rans for their entire current existence, or just over 53 per cent. I dont really know what any of this means. Someone once told me, its all about the journey and not the end result. The emotional ups and downs make sports what they are and why they are so compelling. The debate over the Washington Redskins name and whether it should be changed has pretty much reached the boiling point now. Im in the camp that believes it should be changed, but its interesting how the name came to be and its baseball connection. Washington wasnt the original home of that NFL franchise. They began in Boston in 1932, as the Braves. They played in the home park of Bostons National League franchise, the Braves, so owner George Preston Marshall figured it was best to stick with the same name. The following year, though, he struck a better deal and moved the team to Fenway Park; the home of the American League Red Sox. To pay homage to the Bosox, he wanted to include the word Red in the teams new nickname. It also so happened that his coach, William "Lone Star" Dietz, had a mother of Indian heritage. Danny DeKeyser Jersey. That lead Marshall to combine the colour with a rather strange tribute to his coach, who eventually wound up in the College Football Hall of Fame. None of that justifies the name; its just interesting to find out how it came about. There was a special anniversary this week. November 7th marked 50 years since the Yankees Elston Howard won the American Leagues Most Valuable Player Award. The Yankees have had so many great catches over their history; from Bill Dickey to Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson and Jorge Posada, that at times Howard gets pushed into the background. But he occupies a special place in Yankees history. He was the first African-American player to suit up with the Yankees in 1955. That was a full eight years after Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was to the Yankees shame that it took that long for them to employ a black ballplayer. Jackie Robinson played his first season in the Dodgers organization at Montreal with the old Royals. Elston Howard too had his Canadian connection. He was an all-star with the Pennant-winning Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League in 1954 - the year before joining the Yankees. In addition to the MVP honours, Howard won four World Series rings with the Yankees. He was also with the Red Sox in 1967 for their miracle run under Dick Williams, which ended with them losing the Fall Classic with St. Louis. That Boston club was the parent team of the Maple Leafs. Baseballs offseason activity is really going to start to percolate next week. The 13 players who were offered those $14.1 million qualifying offers will have to decide by November 12 whether to accept or reject them. At the same time, the general managers will be meeting in Orlando, Florida from November 11-13. Remember, the GMs meetings were a couple of days earlier a year ago and that is where the genesis of the mammoth 12-player deal began to evolve. That deal was completed on November 13 and was finally approved by commissioner Bud Selig on Monday November 19. Im not saying the Blue Jays are going to pull off anything close to a deal of that scope, but they have to be active; they must improve. The next week or so should be very interesting. Cheap Canadiens Jerseys Cheap Predators Jerseys Cheap Devils Jerseys Cheap Islanders Jerseys Cheap Rangers Jerseys Cheap Senators Jerseys Cheap Flyers Jerseys Cheap Penguins Jerseys Cheap Sharks Jerseys Cheap Blues Jerseys Cheap Lightning Jerseys Cheap Maple Leafs Jerseys Cheap Canucks Jerseys Cheap Golden Knights Jerseys Cheap Capitals Jerseys Cheap Winnipeg Jets Jerseys ' ' '