Something happened to Tom Higgins yesterday that he believes never happened to a head coach before in the entire history of professional football. "I had a player who was late for practice today because he'd just finished up open heart surgery.''

Can you imagine the conversation with the patient as they prepared him for the procedure that made the player late for practice?

"Congratulations, sir. You're going to be operated on today by a member of the Edmonton Eskimos this morning.''

"Oh, God, please tell me it isn't Fabian Burke.''

It was, of course, Carlo Panaro, the playing doctor, who is becoming one of the best human interest stories in all of sport.

WOULDN'T TRUST THEM WITH A BED PAN

But the way his teammates have started this season, you wouldn't trust most of them around a patient with a bed pan.

Some people want to boil the Eskimos' start to this season down to the two turnovers in the first quarter of the first game by Jason Maas, which turned into touchdowns, and to the two games they were forced to play the aforementioned Mr. Burke in the secondary.

"Fabian Burke is a great reliever but he's no starter,'' admitted the head coach yesterday, who added his veteran players are football-savvy.

"The athletes are intelligent. They knew what our chances were. We were hoping we could win,'' he said of being forced by injuries to start Burke in back-to-back games.

But with Burke back to being chained to the bench for a second straight game tonight as the defending Grey Cup champions line up against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, fans will be looking to see if they've finally found a focus.

Fat Cats vs. Tiger Cats.

Put that on the marquee.

It's fair comment until proven otherwise, and one win against a Dave Dickenson-less B.C. Lions doesn't prove sweet tweet.

HELMETS SCREWED ON STRAIGHT?

Terrible tackling and a plethora of penalties almost always telegraphs a team which doesn't have their helmets screwed on straight.

Take away Maas's two TD turnovers in Montreal and Burke's two heebie-jeebie nights in the secondary and this has been a football team which has led the league in missed tackles and major foul penalties.

Winning the Grey Cup, combined with the fact that nobody in the West had been able to win more than one game in the first four weeks of the season, has given this team a bit of wiggle room. But the fan will turn on this team if they don't prove they've turned it around tonight.

"The phenomenon of tackling I've found fascinating,'' says the head coach.

"We don't do it in camp. The team has two opportunities in pre-season. Tackling is a mind-set. It's not about the tackling itself, it's about working hard to get yourself in position. It's not about making the big hit. That's for the second or third guy in. For the first guy, it's about putting yourself in position to make the tackle. This is a veteran team. We know they know how to tackle. As a coach you see a five-yard hitch pass turn into a 25-yard gain and you say, 'Wait a second. We're not going to win any games if that keeps happening.' ''

Same deal with penalties, particularly the major fouls for objectionable conduct and the like.

"With penalties, it never stops,'' said Higgins who took half of last season to get the discipline down.

It wasn't until they did that, following the Labour Day loss in Calgary, that they started to look like a football team.

"It's like raising kids. Sometimes they'll do something. It doesn't mean you're a bad parent. But discipline is something you have to work on each and every day.''

Another telling area is giveaway-takeaway where the Eskimos are a minus-five so far this season.

Has there been a turnover turnaround?

"We won the turnover battle last week against B.C. We hadn't done that in the first three weeks,'' said Higgins.

The head coach says he isn't telling his team to get it dialled up for this one.

"When I hear 'We've got to turn it up,' I say 'No! Turn it down. Be intense. But don't turn it up. Play confident. Play relaxed.''

Higgins said when you get off to an 1-3 start, a lot of people start questioning themselves including coaches.

"The coaches question what they're doing. You get into self-doubt.

"You start to ask 'What am I doing wrong?' The win in B.C. took the pressure off the coaches and the players.''

That said, this isn't hockey. You don't have 82 games.

"If we don't win this one, is the pressure back on? Absolutely.''

You don't have to be dialled up to be dialled in.