CFL out of the nation's capital

An unfortunate reality, but not a surprise: the Ottawa Renegades are being disbanded and will not play at least for the upcoming 2006 season.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will go back to the East, where they were before Ottawa came back into the league in 2002. Winnpeg moved to the West to accommodate Ottawa.

There are a lot of fingers pointing, and most of them go after Renegades owner Bernie Glieberman, and his son, Lonie. Though they rescued football in Ottawa twice now, they have made their share of questionable moves. Beyond football mistakes too numerous to mention, the most bizarre one might have been in the stands. Lonie's move to lure a younger crowd to Renegades games was to run a Mardi Gras promotion where men were given beads to hand out to women, who compiled in the traditional sense by baring their breasts. That didn't go over well with the CFL's marketing to families.

The Rough Riders (not to be confused with the Saskatchewan Roughriders) had a long tradition of excellence, but not recently. Ottawa's last Grey Cup visit was in 1981. The Renegades never had a winning season in its four years in the CFL.

The current Renegades players will likely go into a dispersal draft among the 8 other teams. The schedule will have to be redrawn to reflect 8 teams instead of 9.

The CFL had been looking at either Halifax or Quebec City for an expansion franchise. Now it needs to see if Ottawa can be a viable city for football. Under the right owner, and a lot of patience from understandably impatient Ottawa fans, it could work. But not in 2006.