If Michael Bishop Can Start, Why Not a Canadian?

ya, the numbers for Football in Canada, despite the increase!! which is great to see is still low compared to like Hockey.

in some provinces, like Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec.. Football is definitely big, and growing all the time!

Ontario, they are odd.. for some reason they don't get it. especially when you have a situation like St. Catherines plays 4 down football at the HS level, now where's the sense in that???

Here's the best example, locally where I live.

Edmonton Alberta back in 1989 had 2 minor leagues. ages 9-14

they weren't 1 league yet. and there were 5 teams in Sherwood Park (just east of Edmonton) which consisted of 1 team from Leduc, 1 from Spruce Grove and 3 from Sherwood Park (all local cities) then the City itself had a minor league system. not too many teams ..

in 1994 the two leagues combined.. there were three age levels consisting of about 10 teams in each level.

now in 2009 there are like 50 some teams within the league.. ranging all over Central, Northern Alberta in Ft. Mac, Camrose, Lloydminster, and it's grown immensely.

like where I live? Spruce Grove.. in 1988 had 2 football teams period, 1 team 12-15 yrs and then a HS Senior team.

NOW, in 2009 there are 14 minor teams in the entire county. that includes 2 HS teams, both Senior and Junior.. 2 midget teams (between Bantam and HS) and then a bunch of minor level teams.

and their system is extremely talented. HS juniors won 3 straight league titles, HS Seniors won in 2008

Riders own Keith Shologan is a product from this system! :slight_smile:

they have produced a few others too, Marc Tolbert who played for the Eskimos, sorry can't think of the other names.. but 2 more as well.

So in 20 years they have come such a far way.

Most Canadian kids go to school to get an education, so they can get a good paying job when their finished and not have to kill themselves on a football field against bigger stronger players. :wink:

they’re

with spelling like that, 6 years of university didn’t do me much good. :lol:

I keep saying, all the CFL owners have to do to bring back the Canadian QB in the league, is do away with the present three QB system. Teams would be able to dress 20 Canadians and 22 imports, (or 21 and 21) whatever. Let the QB's play any position if needed. The Coaches will then use two import spots for QB and find either a Reggie McNeal or a Canadian kid to be the 3rd string guy. They would keep your young American QB on the PR much like the Argos did with Reaves this year to learn the game.
It can be done, but right now it easier for the GM's to go out and bring in American QB's. They would gladly do that for all other positions if they could. But we have the ratio because it's the CFL and the Canadian QB should have the same chance as the other positions.
Canadian QB's have played and played well in the past. Russ Jackson was the best of the best, but other like Frank Cosentino, Don Getty, Joe Krol, Gerry Doucette, Gerry Dattilio and others that escape my memory played and in some cases started as well. You can't tell me they were better than the kids coming out of the CIS now and during the last 10-15 years.
The Coaches back then had less imports to use and wouldn't want to waste an import spot on a backup QB standing around with a clip board. So they would look for and develop a Canadian kid as well as have another import that could play DB or WR as the backups.
It worked back then and would now, but the Coaches won't do it unless they have to. They're just like the rest of us. Always looking for the easy way out. :slight_smile:

Finding a QB who can succeed at the pro level is exquisitely difficult to do. Think about it. Forty pro football teams and thousands of college players available each year, and teams still struggle finding the ONE who can lead them to victory. Some teams NEVER find one that rises above mediocrity, let alone excels.

Mandating a Canadian QB just handcuffs teams. Remove any obstacles to playing and developing local talent certainly, but do not force teams to play players who are not ready and may never be. That's a recipe for failure.

Besides, these are fine Canadians these American guys are. Many stay and spend the rest of their life in Canada, raise a family, and contribute to society and maybe even help develop Canadian talent.

I think you'd have to likely have to add a 4th spot for quarterback, and one must be a Canadian.

But, I think it's unrealistic to think there's 8 Canadian quarterbacks able to start or back-up in the CFL. Maybe if teams developped them though, a few years down the road, those guys may be, even if just a depth or role quarterback.

Given that slur, I’m now sure the original point of this thread is really about anti-Americanism as much as it is about opportunities for Canadians, and as such it doesn’t do anybody any good.

Hey we never said that.I dont know any American who feels we shouldnt have the best people playiing.You think we want that?lol thats funny

This Post are very Anti American and for reasons I dont know.Really I think americans have brought alot too the cfl in a good way.Dont get mad at americans for canadians not being Quarterbacks in the cfl.

Dunigan has also said the qb rule should be amended to allow teams to dress an additional import if one of the quarterbacks dressed was a non-import. It would encourage teams to dress a non-import quarterback without requiring them to.

One of the biggest challenges American QBs have is adjusting to the pace of the Canadian game and the size of the field. At least Canadian CIS QBs wouldn't need to make that adjustment. :cowboy:

You don't think the pace of the game is faster in the CFL than it is in the CIS?

IMO, differences between NCAA/CIS football and the CFL are average athleticism of players, complexity of offenses and defenses, size of field, number of players on the field.

For a NCAA QB coming to the CFL

Athleticism: 1 step up
Complexity: 1 step up
Size of field: bigger

Players: more

For a CIS QB coming to the CFL

Athleticism: 2 (or more) steps up
Complexity: 2 (or more) steps up
Size of field: same

Players: same

Neither is an easy transition. But the fact that it has been decades since a CIS QB had more than a cup of coffee in the CFL (aside from from Matthieu Bertrand types who transition to another position in the CFL) leads me to believe that it is harder for a CIS QB to make the transition.

I'd still like to see a 4th QB roster spots for NI's.

How big an adjustment was it for Any starting Canadian at any other position, this proves the argument that CIS QB,s cant make the adjustment as False, There surely has been Individuals who could have made it no doubt. they Are Not getting the opportunity. that's the problem nobody really knows if they can because of bias and discrimination.

I'd like to clear some things up here.
First thing, this post has nothing to do with anti-Americanism.
Second, no slight was meant towards the japanese.
And third.
I agree with Mass Destruction.
We bring up these half assed US college QB's and former NFL backups who are pitiful.
Why not instead use a young Canadian and train him?
Nobody can tell me Michael Faulds couldn't do a better job then the guys Toronto or Winnipeg had out there this year.
And to the naysayers.
How do you know it won't work if you don't even try?
Or are some for some reason afraid it may work?????

The two highest paid players in the league are QB's and NI's.

Now combine the salary of those two, and maybe the cost is prohibitive to have a NI QB ?

Just throwing it out there.

what if the teams were told if they put a canadian qb on the roster, it would be outside the salary cap, and outside the max number of players aloud? not forcing the team to have a canadian, but making it easier, and more attractive for theams to get a canadian qb. if the qb is third or fourth on the chart, im sure with coaches like karari jones, and dave D now in the league, they could easily get the canadian qb's up to spec in a couple seasons.

oh come on now, that’s Total BS!

there’s so much more to go into a QB than a receiver or DB or Lineman or Running back… don’t pull that one on me.

QB’s are the central focus of an offense… without an adequate QB, you can’t have a good offense…

case - look at Toronto and Winnipeg!

poor QB’ing… look at where they are today?

why do you think at the beginning of the season, the media was calling for Saskatchewan to finish fourth? Because they claimed that they didn’t have a Bonafide QB!

they weren’t saying cause they don’t have a Running back or receivers… the Quarterbacking spot is the most important position in the game! bar none! if you’ve got a Great QB, you can build your offense around him!

there is no argument. you ask ANY CFL head coach and they’d say the EXACT same thing.

You’ve ‘removed all doubt’ as the expression goes.

The amount of training and practice the americans get is just so far beyond what we have in Canada that going with a QB just because he is canadian is such a huge risk. It is extremely tough for teams to develope QBs that restricting a spot to a canadian who may never be ready to start is really crippling to a lot of teams. QB you really need to go with the best player available and right now thats americans