Drew Tates signs 3 yr Extension with Stamps.

CFL Talk
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http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=383657

The Calgary Stampeders and quarterback Drew Tate have agreed to a three-year contract extension.

The 28-year-old Tate enters his fourth season with the Stampeders after signing with the team prior to the 2009 season.

The Texas native started 2009 as the No. 3 man behind Henry Burris and Barrick Nealy, but by season's end he'd moved up to No. 2.

During the 2010 season, his role was expanded to handle short-yardage plays and on Oct. 14, 2011, he succeeded Burris as the starting quarterback. A few days later, Tate was confirmed as the starting quarterback.

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Is it just me or is it not a good thing that in our league a player can go from MOP to unemployed in less then 12 months... I seriously advocate that the league reduce the salary cap to 3.5 million and then pay out bonuses to teams that keep players long term... Basicly... every year of service with the same team and the team gets a 5K bonus... Take someone like Paul McCallum... The Lions could offer him 80K and then the league would reward the Lions for keeping a player who was identifiable to fans by topping his salary another 25K
According to the most current facts and figures book the average CFL career is 3 years... How can fans attach themselves to players if their careers are over 18 months after they buy their jersey..... It really destroys player connection to the fan and is bad for the game and the CFL in general....Players like Tom Canda who were still very serviceable are cut because their salary is too high... If the team was allowed to keep players who's skills slightly diminished because the league payed part of their salary would be a win win win... A win for the players... awin for the teams...and most importantly a win for the fans...
I was watching the 2004 West final today on youtube and I think that Geroy was the only player still in the league... Well Burris and McCallum too but they are on different teams.... Thats sad... We need a little more continuity and the SMS is destroying that.... Needless to say..This would stop players from jumping ship as well to other teams... A five year vetran would not jump to another team if they offered him 30K more because the difference would only be 5K once he got his bonus for staying with the same team.... It would be a two way street... Players would not be so quick to jump ship and teams would not be so quick to throw players out on their ear for the next young prospect.
My final point is that this would improve the over all quality of play...Fewer rookies would result in fewer penalties and in the case of imports...fewer player unfamiliar to the CFL game.

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You don't need something that messy. How about this : Players with 5 complete years of service would have 50 percent of their contract guaranteed and you add 10 percent for every additional year regardless of what team or teams the player has played for. I think this would be a fair way to treat veterans. So in Burris with 12 years of service. Calgary would have to pay him out his last year if they were to cut him or pay a portion of his last year and the team that trades for him would be on the hook for the difference.

Another case was Ricky Ray last year who had his contract replaced by a megalomaniac GM who took Ray's money and basicaly handed it to Chris Bauman. Treatment of veteran players by the CFL is terrible. Some teams had predicted this would happen when the SMS was brought in.

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[url=http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl/2008/02/14/cfl_salary_cap/]http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl/20 ... alary_cap/[/url]

What bothers me the most about the SMS is that there is no cap for coaches.... So basicly teams are still slitting their own throats finacially because they are overspending on coaches now instead of players.... It was rumored that the Riders were willing to pay close to seven figures for Kent Austin...meanwhile they got Greg Marshall on payroll... The Riders should be more responsible and use that money to help pay for the stadium that the taxpayers are going to build them....
Making this all relevent to Tate.... He probably signed for under 200K and If he doesn't work out, all the Stamps have to do is cut him....Meanwhile Hufnegal is hauling in 500K/year and he's not the one who is going to get his brain scrambled 18 times this year.
Quite frankly... I'd rather see the coaches in the CFL make slightly more then they do in the CIS and forget importing all of our coaches... Lets use Canadian coaches who have actually coached CANADIAN football their whole lives... Then take that million dollars and increase the salary cap to 5.3 million... Thus we could bring in better players and we wouldn't have situations like Marcus Brady ,where it makes more sense to start coaching then continuing to play.We need to get the best players available... Yet the best new coaches available are rotting in the CIS...For some strange reason we over pay Americans who often know nothing about Canadian football... Strange really.

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According to this http://www.esks.com/uploads/assets/EDM/ ... ort_cp.pdf the Esks increased their spending on players and coaches by over 300K from one season to the next... Meanwhile the cap only went up 50K... Also it appears that the amount spent is a full two million over the SMS.... Some of the 2 million probally went to players on the 9 game IR....but I'd assume that most went to the coaches... I fully advocate that coaches salaries be slashed in half..... Id rather see coaches leaving then star players quite frankly.... If they don't want to work for those wages...tjhere are plenty of volenteer CIS assistant coaches who would gladly work for pay....
I hope Tate flops and Hufnegal gets fired and sent packin back to New York... I'm not a huge Burris fan but he still managed to finish 3rd for passing despite the fact he got the axe...The least Huffer could of done is let Burris finish the season and then trade him.... Now he has a completely untradable player because other teams know that they can get him for free.... Also teams want Burris cut so that they can negotiate a cheap contrct... Burris could start next year in Hamilton ...but he won't barely see half the money he's getting in Calgary.... If I was Burris..I'd get the Stamps to hire me as a cordinator... He'd probably make the same money.....

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Did I miss something? When did Burris get the "axe"? I was certain I saw Henry Burris behind center during the West Semi-final, in fact if memory serves correct, he was the last quarterback to play for the Stamps this season. As for any suggestion that Burris should have "finished the season" as the starter as if to throw him a bone or something, I am sure that Hank would be the first to say that is totally out of the question. As a Stamps season ticket holder, I expect the coach to do whatever it takes to win and ego or being nice has nothing to do with it.

Playing in the CFL is a job, if I don't meet my performance expectations in my job I'm gone, being a pro athlete should be no different.

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Burris is gone. he's just waiting ...

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Probably, but the post seems to state that he wasn't allowed to finish the season with Calgary. Which I still am very sure is incorrect.

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The league is financially sound that it must bring back the franchise player rule making same exempt from the cap.

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Why, just increase the cap. The purpose of the SMS is to create a level playing field and to prevent teams from spending rediculous amounts of money to try to buy a championship. Kind of like Toronto nearly bankrupting the team and the league to get Flutie then the league bending over backwards to help. Didn't work then, why would it work now?

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Going from top dog to bottom dog, happens in every league. The average playing time for both the NFL and CFL is close to 4 years. With free agency the way it is now, player move around in every league. The CFL is no better or no worse then any other league when it comes to player movement. As far as cutting good players due to them making to much, that happens in the NFL too. So the CFL gets a lot of good players due to the NFL union contract that states any player in the their 3rd or 4th year must make X amount. A fourth year NFL player must make a min of 800,000. Most NFL teams willl cut that guy to go with a cheap player. So then he comes to the CFL. That is why on a NFL team you have a bunch of guys making big money and a bunch at the bottom, very few players are in the middle

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Because then the league nearly went bankrupt.
Different time and a much better financial situation.
You are right about increasing the cap, so in addition to the franchise player exemption I would increase the cap to $5M and allow the 46 players cutrrently on the roster to play.
And not the current stupid rule of 42 play out of the roster of 46.

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OK, how would your franchise player exemption work, would there be a cap on how much you could pay that player? How do you stop a meglomaniac owner from just buying the best player with no regard for what it will do to the league? Think it can't happen, check out the career of one Doug Flutie in the CFL. Breaking the bank to buy him from the last team that broke the bank, which broke the bank to buy him from the first team that broke the bank. What kind of controls are you going to put on the exemption. What do you suggest next, going back to the personal services contracts. I am a big Doug Flutie fan and consider myself lucky to have got to watch him live and in person but in my opinion the league can't afford another one. In my opinion going to a Franchise Player exemption or a personal services contract would kill the CFL.

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Increase the cap to $5 millions? Where the funds will come from? You are talking an addition of $5,6 millions for the 8 teams; most of the teams would have a huge operating deficit and would not survive.

Unless/until the TV/TSN revenue increase substantially,you cannot increase the SMS maximum substantially. In 2012, it will probably increase by no more than $50,000, to $4,350,000.00, as per collective agreement.

When a new TV deal is signed-may not be until the 2014 season- I expect it to be in the vicinity of $30.0 millions per year,compared with $16.0 millions since 2008. If so,then the maximum SMS could be in the vicinity of $4.8 millions.

Personnally, I have always been an advocate of the franchise/designated player rule,provided their is a maximum that can be paid to each franchise player; for instance, for 2012 I would see a franchise rule and the franchise player to be paid no more than $450,000 a year-there would be no minimum- and the maximum salaries for the other players would be $4.1 millions. A team would have to spend no less than $3.8 millions on these other players. If your franchise player is paid $250,000 a year, you cannot use the unused funds or $200,000 to increase the $4.1 millions.

Most franchise players would be QB and if we want to keep/attract good QB, we have to pay well; with a franchise rule, you can pay good money to your franchise player and there would still be enough monies available for your other players. Presently, it is not always as such; for instance, while the Argos have traded for Ricky Ray and will have to pay him $400,000 or so,the monies for under players will be more limited than in 2011 or 2010; they may have to forget signings of top free agents and maybe some of theirs. A franchise rule would be more beneficial to them.

For the 2012 season and beyond, I ,unfortunately, don't see and change in the SMS and no increase beyond collective agreement. An increase above $50,000 will be a pleasant surprise.

Richard

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You guys are missing my point.... Why does Wally Buono have to make 500 K /year?
Why does Trestman have to make 400K/year... Why does any assistant coach make 6 figures?
I'll tell you why... Coaches salaries are high to attract import coaches who often times don't even know the CFL rules...Trey Junkin is a clasic example... The Stamps overlook hundreds of Canadian coaches in the CIS,and junior to hire some yank who didn't know a rouge from a rose...
I'm not advocating increasing any CFL team's budget... I'm saying just pay the players more and pay the coaches less... Bart Andrus made more money in his CFL career then Jason Armstead... Is that right? Armstead has had a long career because he plays for rookie like money... Meanwhile Andrus never even grasped the Canadain game and walked away with 7 figures....
More Armsteads and less Andus's in my league please.
Set assistant coaches salaries at 75K set head coach salaries at 120K and GM salaries at 200K. Hopfuly this would discourage Americans from coming her,e and we could have atleast 50% coaches that are Canadian.
A further point I'd like to make is that I don't agree with a marque player rule... Instead I'd like to see the minimum player salary rise to 60K and the top end salaries could stay where they are.... People in Toronto don't laugh at the CFL because Ricky Ray makes 400K/year... They laugh at the CFL because they know that many players make less then they do... Raise the Min salary to a level where it is more then the average person. Then the laughing should subside.

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Who cares!!! Screw the NFL... Why should we copy a league from a country that doesn't even have healthcare... Of course the rich and the poor have a huge divide in the NFL.... It is America after all.
Since CFL players have a history of conecting with it's fans through community service work...why would the CFL jeporidize this... Since players are making a workman like salary...should their careers not be long? Yeah some dude can warm the bench in the NFL for 4 years and make more money then Geroy Simon has made in his entire CFL career. That's all the more reason to ensure that CFL players have a long career and are not brutally cut like they do in the rich leagues... If we could raise the average CFL career to 7 years our players would be even more attached to their communities and would hopfully stay in that community post retirement like the good ole days... That sence of community is always what set the CFL apart from the other leagues and is responsible for the league's very survival.

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Am I missing something? Tate is better. Thus Calgary has moved on. No big deal. This move had nothing to do with the salary system in the CFL. I wouldn't worry too much about Hank. I'm sure he's saved up quite well making elite QB money in this league. Not to mention he'll still be starting on a team next year.

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Again, I don't get it. How is increasing the salary Cap going to cost too much and a franchise player exemption for the same amount somehow not going to cost too much. The purpose of having the SMS is for teams to live within that range or be punished for not living within that range. If you put a cap on the franchise player, how is that different from putting a cap on the team payroll. Putting your Franchise player outside of the cap is no different than raising the cap. You have x number of dollars to spend, how you handle thoses dollars is what GM'S are paid big bucks to do.

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[url=http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl/2011/12/28/stamps_tate/]http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl/20 ... amps_tate/[/url]

Here’s another article on Tates contract; Huff says he would like/wants a veteran QB behind Drew Tate. It will be interesting on who the Huffer has in mind? With Burris (re structured contract) heading elsewhere on a trade or…?; the Henry Burris camp says they have a couple of teams in mind with Hamilton being one, but the other is a mystery that will be revealed in time I guess.

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The vast majority of players only play 4 years due to the nature of the game and the toll it takes on their bodies, has nothing to due with their salarys. The same % of divide holds true in the CFL when you have guys making 41,000 and QB'S making 500,000 or other starters making 200,000 and other starters making 50,000