Barker's idea for bringing in Canadian QB's got me wondering: If an American player born in the U.S. becomes either a dual citizen or Canadian citizen (say he marries a Canadian woman) is he still an import player?
quick answer is yes, he’s still an import. It has to do with where he played his first football, not his citizenship (how dumb is that!?). That’s why players like Cahoon and KP8 (played first Football in Canada but were raised in the US, heck, I’m pretty sure KP8 was even born in the US!) are considered NIs.
I’ve often said that players who become Cdn Citizens (even as duals) and/or those who have spent more than X number of years in the CFL with no attempts to go south (see Pinball Clemons) should have their status changed to NI.
Players like burris live in Canada mire months a year then some of my niebors who fly south for five months in the winter. Who is more Canadian?
I guess it depends on how one feels. I can only speak for myself; when I meet and spend time with Americans while on vacation for a period of time I feel American. Or perhaps North American? :cowboy:
According to his Wikipedia entry, Cahoon was both born in the U.S. (Ogden, Utah) and played his first football in the U.S.: “Cahoon spent part of his childhood in Southern Alberta and is therefore considered a non-import under the CFL’s import/non-import ratio rule. Cahoon played his high school sports at Mountain View High School in Orem, Utah, where he earned All-Region and All-State honors in football, basketball, and soccer.”
Noel Prefontaine is another example of this:
“Prefontaine was born to a Canadian father and a Vietnamese mother at the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California. His father was born and raised in Verdun, Quebec and Noel lived with his grandmother in Verdun as a child, which enables him to be considered a non-import for CFL purposes. He returned to the United States and attended El Camino High School in San Diego County, California.”
It’s a bit absurd that someone born and mostly raised in the U.S. can win the “Most Outstanding Canadian” award but them’s the rules.
This is the CFL's Non-Import designation rule:
"A player who was physically resident in Canada for an aggregate period of seven years prior to attaining the age of fifteen years qualifies as a non-import player."
see [url]http://www.cfl.ca/page/game_rule_ratio[/url]
Also, surprised more folks don't have the rules downloaded so that they can check before they make assumptions (not saying that about anyone here, just that with what I see in some of the other threads it's pretty obvious that some of these supposedly HUGE CFL fans - especially ones who can't abide anything bad being said about the league - don't have a copy of the rules at hand). Anyone who wants the rules can easily download them at: [url]http://www.cfl.ca/page/game_rule_rule1[/url]
(Even more disconcerting that someone from the CFL itself doesn't answer these questions and provide this kind of info - considering this is a CFL run forum! :roll: )
good info! :thup: I agree with your final statement, and still think that there should be a way to allow an Import to ‘change status’ … call it the “Pinball Rule” so to speak.
I agree – stay with a team for “x” years (maybe seven, bar should be set high) and your status becomes NI – but only for games played with that team. If you are traded or released you revert to import status. That would encourage teams to keep guys, IMO.
If they did this, they should change the “Most Outstanding Canadian” rule so that only genuine Canadians qualify. Maybe do that anyway. Nothing against Cahoon but he (as one example) is not a Canadian in any meaningful sense of the word.