Canadian Football League not renew commissioner's contract

TORONTO (CP) - Canadian Football League commissioner Tom Wright refused to comment Friday on a report that his contract will not be renewed at the end of this season.
"The commissioner will not comment on rumours and speculation based on reported remarks from a 'league source' unwilling to identify himself," a CFL statement said. "The commissioner continues to focus on preparations for the start of the 2006 season."
A report Friday quoting league sources, said the CFL board of governors informed Wright his contract would not be renewed.
It said the board told Wright it wants him to stay on through this year's Grey Cup game in Winnipeg in November. Wright is expected to inform the board whether he will agree to that plan at the board's annual meeting Tuesday in Winnipeg.
Wright won narrow approval for a one-year contract extension last year, but his already shaky support from team owners took a blow when the Ottawa Renegades suspended operations in April, forcing Winnipeg back into the Eastern Conference for at least a year.

Former Canadian Football League player passes away

Former Giant defensive end Robert Taylor, who played for Big Blue in 1963 and '64, has died from complications following surgery for colon cancer. He was 68.
Taylor died Sunday at New York Weill-Cornell Medical Center, said his daughter, Melba Taylor.
The 6-foot-3, 240-pound Taylor, nicknamed "Big Man," was taken by the Giants in the ninth round of the 1963 draft out of Maryland State College (now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore). He was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982.
Taylor played in the 1963 NFL title game, which the Giants lost 14-10 to the Bears.
He later played for the Vikings, and for the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts.
After his football days, he lived in Manhattan and worked as an administrative supervisor for the New York Department of Labor. He retired from that post in December. A service is set for Friday at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.