Esks were fined by the CFL for $10,000 for tampering with the rules for talking to Odell Willis before he was officially a FA
I think this is not enough. $10,000 to the Eskimos is nothing.
I say, you lose your player you signed and he become a FA again. but the Esks aren't allowed to sign him.
that SHOULD be the punishment for all teams.
...cheaters
I'm not gonna lose my mind over it, we never really offered him a contract, and he did tell us he had NFL aspirations but in the end it's $10,000 I don't think we should be yelling for it to be more when just 10 months ago we were fined 5K for having non rookies at a mini camp in Florida. We defended that so we shouldn't be crucifying the Esks.
yeah...because clearly he was the only one who was talked to beforehand :roll:
It is good that they are setting a president though. They were likely being watched pretty carefully due to ET's dealings with Andy last year.
If it was anybody but Willis I would have an issue. Good riddance to the most selfish player in the CFL.
Im confused, didnt Willis' agent get ahold of the Eskimos? Not the Eskimos calling his agent?
Thats what I heard...
Don't know what to say about this.The bottom line I guess is it's against the rules and I could see why.I mean if I was a GM playing by the rules and I wanted Willis for my team just to find out that it was never an option is ridiculous.I see people debating whether cash fines are the appropriate course of action, but I think I side with those seeking draft picks as punishment.The rules are clearly laid out there and you danced all over them and disrespected the integrity of our league.If you're that desperate to sign a certain player, i'm sure you wouldn't mind handing over picks to the other team as compensation for not being able to wait your turn.Just my two cents :cowboy:
Doesn't matter who called who. No one forced Hervey to take the call.
What if he doesn't have caller display? or its an unknown number? A GM has to answer the phone. Duh. :roll:
Seems pretty silly to me. But who cares... whats $10,000? I think I have that in my jacket pocket... :lol:
Ill take a $10,000 fine for Odell Willis anyday i guess... he just better be good for us
And your team didn’t talk or have “someone” talk to Labatte last year, right ? This is rampant and everyone knows this. The Eskimos aren’t fined for tampering, they are fined for making it obvious. They deserve the fine but so do most other teams.
You think Hervey couldn’t say “we can’t talk about this” when Willis’ name came up? And I wonder if Hervey has a secretary who might possibly screen his calls. And in this day and age who doesn’t have call display.
Great cheap advertising. Go ESK Go wasn't signing with riders any way.
City of Champions? , Poor state of affairs already starting in 2013 , c'mon Hervey you are more professional than this , aren't you?
LOL not sure why people are up in arms about this. Seems to me every year most free agents know where they will be playing before the deadline. Nothing new here. I would also have to think Hervey knew what the fine would be and he figured that by announcing like he did was worth more to the Eskimo organization in PR value then the $10,000.00 fine. That seems to be smart business decision to me as the Esks did steal all the headlines that day.
As a Rider fan who believes this is nothing new, I have no issues with it or else every team should lose picks every year for tampering. Just saying.
One dumb move after another with that organization. First they trade away Ray (thanks for that, btw) and now they resort to cheating. Unreal...
I'm curious as to how they draw the lines here. Now I know one is a trade and one is FA but...
BC would not allow communication over Reilly with Winnipeg.
But somehow Edmonton knew he was fine with coming to Edmonton as did BC.
Is it a matter of Reilly saying "I'm not going to go to Winnipeg" so BC saved Winny the hassle? Strikes me that BC would want more than one suitor.
Common sense says that both Edm and Winny would have to have made contact first. Or do potential trades allow contact?
anyone know? Outside of speculation?
Well this is where it gets interesting. If Edmonton jumps the gun but Winnipeg plays by the rule. Is Winnipeg damaged by Hervey’s actions ? Now you can say Reilly would become a FA anyway. But from the reports I’ve read Edmonton had made contact with both Mcpherson and obviously Reilly. So if Hervey can sow in the agent’s mind that if he does not play ball the contract will go to the other QB… It is a problem but it has always been accepted. These are the problems you get when you have a weak commish with very little power. CFLPA and the Board like it that way so be it…
IIRC Buono gave the Esks permission to speak to Reilly before the trade.
Yawn.
From Rob Murphy (so take it with a grain of salt as I think he is kind of a blowhard but I digress)
ROB MURPHY?@BIGMURPH56Tampering in #CFL is a running joke amongst players, coaches, & upper management. There are no teeth in the consequences so it will continue