The Toronto Sun revealed last week that Hack, a Hamilton Tiger-Cats offensive lineman, lost most of the hearing in his right ear as a child. He can hear muffled sounds out of the ear, but that's about it.

Even Ticats head coach Greg Marshall didn't know that Hack, 33, has played with a disability.

"The guys that I hang out with and talk to know," Hack told The Sun. "I will always try and sit to their right-hand side so that I can hear them with my left ear.

"I consciously try to make it so that I'm positioned to where I can hear people."

When Hack was starting out with the Tiger-Cats in the late 1990s, he alternated playing left and right tackle. Unfortunately, playing on the left side of the O-line was a problem.

"I never really said anything," Hack said. "Obviously I wasn't hearing the cadence the same way I did from the right side."

His coaches noticed that he performed better at right tackle, so that's where he stayed -- and became a five-time East Division all-star.

"I've never thought of it as a disability," Hack told The Sun. "As a kid it was never presented to me that way, and I never really thought of it that way. It's just something that I have. It's a bit of a physical issue that a lot of people have and I've dealt with it and here I am.

"It's not a thing that I think necessarily has held me back. It's just something that I have to concentrate more when people are talking."

His quarterback, Danny McManus, said Hack's hearing loss has never caused trouble.

"He's been pretty good at it," McManus said. "You don't really see it as being a problem. He's used to it, he has been able to adapt to it.

"If he doesn't hear in the huddle, he'll wait for me to break the huddle and then he'll ask me again."

HOT, HOT, HOT: Emotions were running high in the wake of Toronto's 48-0 destruction of Hamilton on Saturday.

Ticats defensive co-ordinator Kavis Reed reportedly yelled at Argos offensive co-ordinator Kent Austin as they were going off the field: "That's why you don't have a (bleeping) job!" in reference to Austin not being a CFL head coach.

Reed was hot because he felt the Argos were running up the score.

Said Austin later: "(Reed) needs to get his guys to stop cheap-shotting my players, because as long as they keep coming after our players like that, we're going to keep running the score."

By Kirk Penton