Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 02, 2014, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B4 SPORTS B4 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2014 THE Winnipeg Blue Bombers are not alone in their pursuit of quarterback Henry Burris. Chris Gittings, Burris's agent, told the Free Press Saturday he has received multiple offers for Burris and his client is considering his options this weekend. " There's more than one team involved - there's multiple teams," Gitting said. Asked to be specific, Gittings hedged. " Let's just say that there's more than one." While Gittings refused to identify Burris's other suitors, sources have said the Burris camp has had discussions with Montreal GM Jim Popp in recent days and it's believed Gittings has shopped the quarterback in Ottawa and Edmonton. Gittings confirmed at least one of the offers is from the Bombers and he said he has talked with Winnipeg's front office several times in the past couple days in a bid to get a deal done. " There's been some back and forth. I would say the guys in Winnipeg are doing a great job. They're good guys, they're aggressive, they're obviously doing what they can to get a deal done," Gittings said. Asked if a deal is close, Gittings again hedged. " I wouldn't necessarily say that... We're not going to put an artificial deadline on this. There's no reason to do that from our perspective." He said Burris would prefer a three- year deal but would settle for a two- year, " depending on the money... " Henry thinks he can play for three more years," Gittings said. He said Burris's most recent deal with the Tiger- Cats paid him on the low end of the CFL range for starters and he's looking for a significant raise after two years of leading the CFL in passing. Gittings said the Ticats made Burris two contract- extension offers last spring, but they were in line with the pay scale of his previous deal and Burris balked. Gittings said Burris countered both Ticats offers but the Ticats would not budge and only at that point was the decision made to play out his final season and see what the future brought. Gittings said current negotiations are ongoing with Winnipeg and others and he doubted a deal would be concluded this weekend. He said he was hopeful a deal could be reached by early next week but again stressed that Burris is in no rush. He has no reason to rush. With former Toronto Argonauts QB Zach Collaros locked down by the Ticats to a new three- year deal Thursday, Burris became the only experienced QB on the open market when the Ticats released him later the same day. While the Bombers have said they'd be interested in the services of Saskatchewan backup Drew Willy if he becomes a free agent as expected next month, it's no secret their first choice would be to sign Burris, a 38- year- old CFL veteran who's thrown for 51,526 yards over 14 seasons, including 10,000 yards during the past two seasons alone. paul. wiecek@ freepress. mb. ca Twitter: @ PaulWiecek Burris shopping for raise: agent Bombers just one prospect, he says By Paul Wiecek Henry Burris Drew Willy M ONTREAL - The crowd was brewed up loud already on the first night of the Scotties, so Chelsea Carey had a rowdy welcome to her first national campaign. The Manitoba skip was sitting in the hack Saturday evening, early in her 8- 3 loss to defending Canadian champion Rachel Homan, when the shouts started rolling from the stands. The rowdies were hockey players or something, Carey grinned, friends of Homan's and - apparently - adult- beverage enthusiasts. " They were heckling me, and she was like, ' I'm so sorry,'" Carey laughed, shaking off the ache of the loss. " It was quite funny." The hecklers, she assured, didn't rattle her. Maybe a flutter of nervous energy did, she agreed, given that it was her first game in the Tournament of Hearts, under the lights of Montreal's quirky Maurice Richard Arena and under the lens of TSN. Whatever it was, the Manitobans missed a handful of key shots early and gave up three points in steals before the break. They righted the ship but couldn't light a fire, and shook hands after eight. So that is how Carey will remember her Scotties debut: " Not the most fondly, but it's a great team," she said. " That has the potential to happen. We got it figured out, got our rocks in some better spots later... We came back, for sure, but it was a tough start. You just can't miss those shots." The percentages bear out that tale: By the numbers, Homan's rink was lights- out where the Carey rink was unsettled. Homan curled 98 per cent, her third Emma Miskew sniped for 97, and her second Allison Kreviazuk was close behind with 94. By contrast, while Manitoba lead Lindsay Titheridge curled a strong game with a 92 per cent shot rating, the other Manitoba curlers' percentages couldn't escape the 70s. For the Carey foursome, it started to unravel on the final rock of the second end. All Carey needed was a straight- up peel to blank it and carry the hammer forward with the scoreboard still uncracked. But she slipped coming out of the hack and her hammer glanced too lightly off Homan's red shot rock. The shooter rolled out but the red just slid across the house, handing Homan a steal of one. In the very next end, the hurt came on the hammer again. Facing three red counters, all Carey wanted was a simple draw to take a single. But she and her sweepers could put it no further than the top of the 12- foot paint, and the Canadian champs stole again. " I just over- thought, I just outthought myself," Carey said. " I had my draw weight after that... I had it then; I just didn't throw it the way I needed to. Once I started trusting myself, it was fine." The Manitobans did rally then. They blanked the fourth and tried to make a hit- and- roll for a deuce in the fifth. But Carey's shooter rolled right out, so she settled for the single, and the teams went into the break with Homan up 3- 1. Carey kept her to a single in the sixth, then picked up a seventh- end deuce to pull to 4- 3. But in the eighth, Homan drove the killing blow, setting up a minefield of red rocks and making a pretty shot to score four. Still, it's only one game, and there are 10 round- robin tilts yet to play. And the most fearsome opponent in competition is now out of the way. Not that it gets a lot easier. This morning, Carey will face tough Saskatchewan skip Stefanie Lawton before taking on B. C. rookie Kesa Van Osch in the afternoon. " You just gotta try to win the next game," Carey said. " If you can keep your head in that space, you'll do OK." The Manitobans didn't play in the first draw Saturday afternoon, where young Yukon skip Sarah Koltun lost a valiant 7- 5 match against Alberta's Val Sweeting and B. C.' s Van Osch toppled veteran Prince Edward Islander Kim Dolan, who is on her 13th trip to the Scotties show. In the battle of the Heathers, Newfoundland's Heather Strong soared 8- 1 past Nova Scotia's Heather Smith, and New Brunswick skip Andrea Crawford put Quebec's Allison Ross away 6- 1. Strong would go on to win her evening match against Ross 5- 4, and Sweeting beat Van Osch 8- 6 to become the first teams in the field to go 2- 0. melissa. martin@ freepress. mb. ca GRAHAM HUGHES / THE CANADIAN PRESS Team Canada skip Rachel Homan ( left) and Manitoba skip Chelsea Carey share some humour before their draw at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Saturday. Beer, some sympathy Fans jeer Carey in Scotties debut as Homan goes about winning By Melissa Martin NEW YORK - Adam Silver has become the NBA's fifth commissioner. The NBA posted a picture on its Twitter account Saturday of Silver holding a basketball and shaking hands with outgoing commissioner David Stern. " It's official: Adam Silver succeeds David Stern as NBA Commissioner" the caption read. Stern retired after exactly 30 years in charge, making him the NBA's longest- serving and most successful commissioner. Silver joined the NBA as his assistant in 1992 and has been the deputy commissioner since 2006. " It is a source of great satisfaction to me that the NBA will now be led by Commissioner Adam Silver, for whom I have tremendous admiration, respect and expectations as he and his experienced and dedicated team take the NBA to successes that were unimaginable even a short while ago," Stern wrote Friday in a thank you email to media members. Stern announced he would retire on Oct. 25, 2012, and owners unanimously chose Silver as his successor. The NBA will now begin using balls with Silver's signature in games. Like Stern, Silver left the legal field to join the NBA. Originally Stern's special assistant, he went on to become NBA Chief of Staff before running NBA Entertainment for about a decade before replacing Russ Granik as deputy commissioner in 2006. - The Associated Press Silver replaces Stern after 30- year run as commish By Brian Mahoney GRAHAM HUGHES / THE CANADIAN PRESS Newfoundland skip Heather Strong is 2- 0 after opening day in Montreal. B_ 04_ Feb- 02- 14_ FP_ 01. indd B4 2/ 1/ 14 10: 36: 54 PM ;