Circuit faces unprecedented questions,
uncertainty
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| Andrew Harris in action for the Bombers in 2017. |
On Tuesday, the CFL will hold a CFL Draft that will last six rounds. The first two rounds will be shown on TSN at 5 p.m. Saskatchewan time.
Normally
for a prospect player that is selected in the CFL Draft, they take a step
towards playing in a CFL game one day. A likelihood still exists drafted
prospects will attend a CFL camp, but not make a roster to play in a CFL game.
For the
prospects that are selected in Tuesday’s CFL Draft, they might not even get to
see a CFL training camp let alone a regular season game.
That is the
reality of the CFL as it attempts to operate with a world having been stuck in
the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic dating back to about March 11,
2020.
The CFL
already has one full draft class that has never seen the field at a CFL
training camp. The players who were selected in the 2020 CFL Draft in late
April of that year saw the entire CFL season get cancelled.
The league’s
nine teams ultimately never did bring players together for any training camp
activities.
The CFL
pushed for government funding to be able to hold a season in 2020, but the
funding the circuit sought never game.
Actually,
post-secondary football wasn’t played anywhere in U Sports or the Canadian
Junior Football League in 2020, so most of the players from Canada that could
be drafted haven’t played a season since 2019.
On top of
the pandemic this year, there is another elephant in the room that looms over
everything the CFL does – the XFL.
On March
10, news broke that saw the CFL and XFL reveal they’re poised to begin serious
discussions about a potential partnership. The XFL is the spring start up
league in the United States that was bought out of bankruptcy in August of 2020
by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird
Capital.
According
to the XFL’s website, RedBird Capital managers US$4-billion in assets.
There is
speculation that these potential partnership discussions are moving in the
direction of full merger.
How real
this speculation is can be debated.
On April 26, The Canadian Press reported U Sports, the CJFL, the Canadian Football Officials Association and Football Canada sent a joint policy letter to CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie for consideration.
The letter requested the CFL remains committed to essential rule components of Canadian Football in Canada.
This includes traditional field width and length between goal-lines and having 12-players per side. The letter requested the CFL maintains the current mandate of starter and roster positions for national players.
The joint
policy letter wouldn’t have been sent, if there wasn’t concern for how far the
discussions between the CFL and XFL have gone.
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| Brendon LaBatte (#57) in action for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2017. |
The Bombers
won the Grey Cup in 2019, which was the last time the CFL held a season. For
2019, the Bombers posted a $3.5-million operating profit.
The
Winnipeg franchise is viewed as one of the healthiest clubs in the CFL. If the
Bombers lost close to $7-million in 2020, one wonders what the losses were for
the eight other CFL teams.
The
Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Edmonton Football Club will eventually have to
present their financial statements for 2020 being both community owned
franchises.
It should
be noted that no new ownership groups or entities in Canada have shown any
interest in stepping up to take stewardship of the CFL.
On top of
all that, the CFL has to deal with the spectre of the NFL.
In November
of 2020, Ambrosie told the Rod Pedersen Show he had talked with NFL
commissioner Roger Goodell, but there wouldn’t be financial support from the
NFL to help the CFL work through its losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 1997,
the NFL provided a US$3-million interest free loan to the CFL, which was
struggling financially at the time. In return, the NFL was granted access to
CFL players entering a two-month window in the option year of their contracts.
The CFL
turned the corner financially and repaid that loan and the agreement with the
NFL expired in 2006.
That
agreement was done when Paul Tagliabue was the commissioner of the NFL. It was
viewed that this move by the NFL helped give a boost to the game of football
and the CFL in Canada.
On March
30, the NFL announced it would be looking at hosting neutral site regular
season games in Canada along with Europe, Mexico, South America and the United
Kingdom as the league increases its regular season schedule from 16 games per
team to 17 games per team starting this coming campaign.
Does that
mean the NFL is looking to get more of a footing in Canada?
While
three-down football is played at all levels in Saskatchewan, the four-down
version of the game is played at the grassroots level in other locations like
the greater Toronto area and the greater Vancouver area. Together, both those
areas make up a sizable portion of Canada’s population.
Noting
that, the joint policy letter from U Sports, the CJFL, the Canadian Football
Officials Association and Football Canada didn’t make mention about games using
either three or four downs.
Ultimately,
the CFL might not take the field again in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
even though it is still trying to conduct business as normal as possible.
On April
21, the CFL announced it was pushing the start of its regular season back from
June 10 to August 5. Each club is slated to play a 14-game regular season as
opposed to an 18-game regular season.
In 2020,
the CFL went through scenarios regarding shortened campaigns before the season
was cancelled.
Due to the
fact there is no certainty mass gatherings will be allowed in Canada in the size
that will allow the CFL to have a strong enough income from ticket sales to go
ahead despite vaccine rollouts for COVID-19, the CFL is looking at repeating
2020 in 2021.
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| Evan Johnson (#64) locks up on a block for the Ottawa Redblacks in 2019. |
For the players that are taken in the 2021 CFL Draft that will be held Tuesday, the draft selection will still be a great accomplishment. Those prospect players will work hard to play, but there is a very real chance they won’t have a CFL league to play in.
As it
stands right now, the last CFL game that was played was the Bombers 33-12 Grey
Cup win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Nov. 24, 2019 at McMahon Stadium in
Calgary, Alta.
That might
go down as the last game ever played in the storied history of the CFL.
Cote joins Huskies, other notes
On April 26, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies announced Cote will be the new associate coach for the athletic program’s men’s hockey team. Cote had been an assistant coach with his hometown WHL in the Swift Current Broncos since the start of the 2018-19 season.
The Broncos closed their developmental 24-game regular season this past Wednesday falling 6-5 in overtime to the Prince Albert Raiders playing in the WHL East Division bubble at the Brandt Centre in Regina.
The 40-year-old Cote will begin his new position with the Huskies on July 1.
Cote will join legendary head coach Mike Babcock on the Huskies bench. Babcock, who is famous from his time in the NHL and leading Canada’s men’s Olympic team to two gold medal wins, is serving as the Huskies interim volunteer head coach for two seasons taking over for long time and legendary Huskies head coach Dave Adolph, whose retirement became official on Saturday.
Cote played for Babcock as an associate player call up in 1996-97 and three seasons from 1997 to 2000 with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs, when Babcock finished up his time as Chiefs head coach.
Cote was a career member of the Chiefs serving as the team’s captain after Babcock moved on to the professional ranks. From 1996 to 2002, the shifty centre played in 352 career regular season games with the Chiefs collecting 101 goals and 154 assists.
In the 2001-02 campaign, Cote won the Humanitarian of the Year awards for the WHL and CHL.
He went on to a career spanning eight seasons in the professional ranks playing in the AHL, the East Coast Hockey League as well as leagues in Germany, Italy and England.
Cote was an assistant coach of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders in 2016-17 and was an assistant coach with the Red Deer College Kings men’s hockey team in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association ranks in 2013-14. He served as the Kings associate coach in 2017-18.
With this move, it is believed Cote could take on the role of becoming the Huskies head coach one day.
- On Friday, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies posted a heartfelt piece regarding long time and legendary men’s hockey team head coach Dave Adolph. Adolph’s retirement became official on Saturday. The piece the Huskies posted on their website on Friday contains interviews from the 17 players that served as captains during Adolph’s time as head coach from 1993 to 2021. The captains talked about how much Adolph meant to the program and themselves personally. The piece can be found by clicking right here.
- Last Wednesday, the Formula 1 announced the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, Quebec, has been cancelled for a second straight year due to public health protocols brought in to battle COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s race had been scheduled for June 13. The Turkish Grand Prix will replace the Canadian Grand Prix for the weekend of June 11 to 13.
- Last Wednesday, Softball Canada announced it has cancelled all 10 of its Canadian fast pitch and slo-pitch championships for a second consecutive year. Softball Canada made the decisions due to the public health protocols and travel restrictions that are in place in Canada to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
- On Friday, the International Ice Hockey Federation announced the 2021 women’s world hockey championship has been rescheduled for Aug. 20 to 31 at a location to be announced. The IIHF will evaluate venues with Hockey Canada. Women’s worlds were originally scheduled for May 6 to 16 in Halifax and Truno, Nova Scotia. On April 21, Nova Scotia premier Iain Rankin pulled the plug on the tournament over concerns of rising COVID-19 cases in the province.
- Tickets are on sale for the May jackpot for the Saskatchewan Amateur Football Mega 50/50 lottery. The funds from this 50/50 lottery will go to support the CJFL’s Saskatoon Hilltops and Regina Thunder and the WWCFL’s Saskatoon Valkyries and Regina Riot. The draw date will be May 31. Tickets can be purchased by clicking right here, and purchasers must be in Saskatchewan in order to buy tickets.
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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