In his first CFL Draft at the helm of his own football team, Winnipeg Blue Bombers general manager Kyle Walters solidified his offensive line, pulled the trigger on a trade to move back into the second round, and found some value with his late picks. cheap jerseys . And while taking highly-touted Simon Fraser offensive lineman Matthias Goossen second overall on Tuesday night will definitely help in an area of need for the club, it was a swap of draft picks that may prove to be his most shrewd move. "When Jesse Briggs started to fall a little bit, you could just see Kyle perk up in his chair. ‘We might have a chance here," said head coach Mike OShea of the Blue Bombers war room on Tuesday night. "And then (hes) working the phone and pulls the trigger and we move up to get a guy that we really value. I think that was a great move. It was fun to be sitting right there watching him work." Winnipeg entered the draft with no picks in the second round, having sent their original along with Alex Hall late last season to Saskatchewan to acquire offensive tackle Patrick Neufeld — a 25-year-old Canadian they hope to be a ratio-breaking starter on the offensive line. The Bombers called up a familiar trade partner Tuesday, Roughriders GM Brendan Taman, and exchanged their two third-round picks (20th and 26th overall) for Saskatchewans second-rounder, taking Briggs 17th overall to add some depth to the linebacker corps. "Jesse Briggs was a guy that we rated high. We were looking for some depth at linebacker. A special teams player. A phenomenal athlete," said Walters of the 6-foot-1, 222-pound McGill product. "And when we had an opportunity — youre in constant talk with all the other teams — if Briggs is here at this number heres what well do. And talking to a bunch of teams. And we were able to get him where we wanted to so we jumped at it." "Briggs, we expect to push. Losing James Green, Pierre Labbe, we needed that role as a special teams guy," added Walters. "Hes going to come in and be given every opportunity to compete and win that role as he pushes." "He played the SAM linebacker position in college so he is comfortable in space, but we view him in our system as a linebacker. An in-the-box guy thats going to be turned loose and run around." But the biggest acquisition made Tuesday is the man who the club hopes will soon start at centre. The 6-foot-4, 294-pound Goossen was one of two O-linemen who came to Winnipeg in the past month for private workouts and interviews. The other was Lavals Pierre Lavertu who went first-overall to Calgary. "I was really impressed by the way that the coaches came across, hearing about how things have changed there," said Goossen in his post-draft conference call. "Its really good to see the changes and I know that itll be a great year this upcoming year." Over the winter, Walters mentioned on a few occasions that the team needed and would land a starter with the No. 2 pick, but Tuesday the GM curtailed those statements slightly when speaking specifically of the 21-year-old lineman. "Im not going to put any undue pressure on him. Hes expecting himself to come in and start," said Walters. "Lets let him get to Winnipeg and lets let him get his feet under (him) before we start putting undue pressure on him." "Given his age, I mean he is a man," said OShea of Goossen. "You see how hes built. His film says that hes got a real good chance at (starting), but being as young as he is I just feel theres a little bit of a difference here. We dont want to stick him in and ruin him, sort of get him shell-shocked and ruin his confidence. "If camp shows us, and he shows us in camp what he believes hes going to show us and what we think he can do, and thats the logical step for us, then hell be in there. And if he needs a bit of time then were quite willing to give him that — afford him that time to develop a little bit. But hes going to be a good player for a long time in this league and its up to me now and the offensive line coach to make sure we dont put him in a position thats going to hurt his confidence." "Im just going to go to camp and try to work as hard as possible and just try to get better every day," added Goossen when asked about potentially starting in his rookie year. "If the coaches want to put me as a starter then that would be great, but right now Im just trying to get into camp and contribute to the team." Winnipeg added another Simon Fraser product in the fourth round in 6-foot-1 defensive back Derek Jones. Jones comes from some impressive bloodlines, as his father Ed won five Grey Cups with the Edmonton Eskimos in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Another intriguing prospect was taken in the sixth round with 305-pound defensive lineman Quinn Everett out of Mount Allison, who Walters says will be expected to learn the nose tackle position as well as along the O-line. The club drafted McMaster linebacker Aram Eisho with their final selection in the seventh round. nfl jerseys china . A Swiss Federal Tribunal ruling published Friday said that FIFAs disputes panel and the Court of Arbitration for Sport correctly imposed the sanction for Nantes enticing Guinea forward Ismael Bangoura to break his contract with Dubai club Al Nasr in January 2012. jerseys from china . -- The new starting quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs is a former first-round draft pick on a one-year deal whose career thus far has been a disappointment. NEW ORLEANS -- Kansas managed to come back time and again this season, seemingly no deficit too big and no odds too long for a team full of overachievers. The Jayhawks finally dug a hole too deep Monday night, and ran into a team from Kentucky with enough firepower to prevent them from digging all the way out. After whittling an 18-point lead to five in the closing minutes, Kansas finally succumbed in the national championship game. The Wildcats made enough free throws down the stretch to preserve a 67-59 victory, bringing the scrappy Jayhawks dream season to a disappointing close. "They had us on our heels, and really controlled everything the first 20 minutes," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "We got the game we wanted it. It was a muddy track and we had opportunities to make some plays to cut it to a one-possession game late. "We came up short," Self said, "but I dont think we lost. I think they just beat us." Kansas had made a habit of waiting until things were dire to kick it into gear. It happened against Purdue and North Carolina State earlier in the tournament, and against Ohio State in the national semifinals, when the Jayhawks came back from 13 down to reach the title game. "Weve been fighting all year. Were hard-working guys. Just tough and want to fight," Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor said. "The fight never stops with us." It didnt stop until the bitter end Monday night. Kansas hung tough through the opening minutes, getting the kind of grind-it-out game that it wanted. But the Wildcats eventually turn it into a track meet, and a brutally efficient run midway through the first half turned a 23-17 lead into a 39-21 advantage. It was all uphill for the Jayhawks from there. Thomas Robinson had 18 points and 17 rebounds for Kansas, the All-American doing his best to spark a rally. But the junior forwards points came largely on volume -- he was 6 of 17 from the field, harassed and harangued all game by Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis. "A lot of times, I tried to go to my left shoulder, but I would see Anthony over top," Robinson said. "He definitely impacted the game with the way he stretched the defence." Kansas finally got a spark from Taylor, the senior guard whose streaky shooting has bbeen a sore spot for Kansas throughout his checkered career. cheap jerseys from china. He knocked down a 3-pointer to get things going, and added a three-point play moments later, before two free throws by Robinson trimmed the Kentucky lead to 59-52. "Theyd been in that situation before," Davis said. "They just kept fighting." Elijah Johnson hit a 3-pointer a moment later, and Robinson made two more foul shots, and Kentucky coach John Calipari began to look nervous for the first time all night. "You have to give Kansas credit," he said. "They didnt stop." Self never stopped, either, marching up and down in front of Kansas bench. He exhorted his team to play defence and convert on offence. At one point, he reminded his team that there are no "13-point plays," the same message he drilled home two nights earlier against Ohio State. The veteran Jayhawks kept chipping away until Taylor missed a shot with about a minute left. Robinson squandered an opportunity to make it a one-possession game when he lost a loose ball along the baseline, and perhaps his teams best chance slipped away with it. "No one told us we were going to lose except the scoreboard. That was our mindset," Johnson said, sniffling in the locker room afterward. "We said, Hey, if theyre going to beat us, theyre going to remember us. Theyre going to feel the last of us. And thats what we did." Kentucky managed to coax the final few minutes off the clock, making the free throws that Caliparis Memphis team missed against Kansas in the 2008 title game. As fireworks blasted and streamers rained from the rafters, Kansas slowly trudged off the elevated floor inside the Superdome. A team that once rallied from 19 points down to beat Missouri and that had survived so many nip-and-tuck battles in the NCAA tournament was left to wonder how things had gone so sour so early when it mattered most. And what might have been had they kept it close the entire way. "We just came up empty," Self said, "but theres no team Ive been around thats been able to take whatever situation is dealt it and responded favourably, and theres no team Ive been around thats represented a university and themselves and their families as well as this one." cheap jerseys cheap jerseys from china ' ' '
