NFL Lockout, Good or Bad for the CFL?

With a good chance being that a lockout might occur in the NFL I just wanted to get a CFLer fans perspective on if we would benifet or suffer from a NFL Lockout.

Good or Bad for CFL and why?

The good:
-Would mean the CFL would likely get massive exposure and have it's best year numbers wise by far.
-CFL players looking to jump down south would have to wait and play here, for at least another year.
-We may be able to sign a couple NFL FA's to a 1 year deal if they don't wanna sit around.

The bad:
-One less thing to watch in an extremely long and boring CFL off-season.

  • Adding to your comment… Players will really have to think long and hard before making a decision. At minimum they would probably want to be guaranteed a signing bonus at least as much as their CFL salary. If a player signs with an NFL team and then there is a lock-out, the player can’t return to the CFL unless he obtains a release from the NFL team.

  • The minimum CFL contract is still 1 year + 1 option year so an NFL FA could not sign for just one year. I’m not sure but I wonder whether the date of the lock-out might also have an effect on who is a free agent. Free agency in the NFL starts in late February (?) so if the lock-out occurred before the FA date then players may not have the freedom to sign with CFL teams.

To clarify as I understand the matter of the new CFL minimum contracts, though a one-year option still exists it excludes players from signing with the NFL unless they get an unlikely release. Sure they could go play in some other pro league (and why would they and just where? :roll: ), but practically speaking the new contracts mean that players must sign on for two years in the CFL minimum now.

The way I understand the NFL lockout by team owners is that all existing NFL contracts are held in abeyance as far as salary and bonuses but not for revenue-sharing, and so on a case-by-case basis free agency opportunities would be determined depending on the way the contracts are written and a player’s discretion to wait things out or leave the NFL behind for awhile.

Otherwise all free agents are freer than ever.

I would think that some players would have the incentive to trade a doubt for a certainty if the lockout issue is not resolved by July 2011 when training camps would begin and more than likely the games with regular players would start later anyway. Also the question of whether owners will have games played with scabs, as they did back in 1987 as I remember, still remains.

Some players particularly with special teams experience and aged anywhere from 25 for RB to 30 for QB not playing much for their position could look at the opportunity to actually play offence or defence in the CFL for a likely minimum of two years knowing that one of those years in the NFL has a full paycheck in jeopardy anyway. There is no guarantee of course that any given player in any given position will work out in the CFL either, but in this regard I am talking more about the many players who could especially at positions other than QB.

As such a player either you get some real playing experience by age 27 and open doors for more veteran roles later, or for the most part your career will be over as more NFL teams will turn to talent at least five years younger to develop it and invest in the extra time afforded by such youth.

A standard operating procedure for the 53-man chosen for each NFL team, with 45 of these players plus any emergency QB dressed per week, is to churn and burn several players who are not yet good enough to play in the positional rotation except in perhaps garbage time.

These players are otherwise extremely talented athletically but are used in mostly special teams play. After a young player makes it through that meat grinder of about two or three seasons without major injury, that is when it is time for said player to consider his actual football career options because very, very few make it long as career special teamers.

the Practise roster players I believe are free to go.

It can't hurt.
I think it would mean better ratings on the NFLnetwork for games and couldn't help spark "greater" interest in the CFL in the States. I think it actually will help the CFL more in Canada though. When the NHL locked out, the CHL was the major benefactor of that. Similarly I expect, people who don't watch much CFL to take more of an interest in September and October since there wont be any NFL. And we all know once you actually watch Canadian Football, there's no going back..

As far as players go, teams will be able to retain their players, but, now anyways players must generally commit to the CFL a minimum of 2 seasons. Players may also realize that the grass isn't greener on the other side.

Whether the NFL or the CFL, there are no practice rosters during the off-seasons; once a team is eliminated, players on the practice rosters are signed to off-season rosters or released. No player is free, once signed to the off-season roster.

A lockout could benefit the CFL,provided the off-season rosters-CFL- are increased from 75 to 80 players,excluding draft choices, the maximum cap is increased by as much as $150,000 and the "dressed" players increased from 42 to 44.

Richard

It'll help give the CFL more exposure in the US and have less to compete with in Canada in addition to helping keep players here. I doubt you'll see many if any move north.
I can't really see how it could hurt the CFL.

…I agree it’s about time our rosters were expanded…the present cap is too low…definite advantage CFL IF an nfl shutdown occurs…We may also keep a few players from slipping south with the uncertainity down there…I see a few guys doing some serious ‘soul-searching’ about the immediate future, in the next little while :wink:

ya but…

then you’d have to increase the Salary Cap in order to accomodate this increase.

…i believe that’s what i said…at least meant to say…the present sms is too low along with the roster size…There should be an increase in the salary cap this year but the increases we’ve seen so far don’t cut it as far as i’m concerned :roll:

It could really only do good, its probably why the NFL Network took on CFL games because they knew they needed something to showcase if the NFL season goes down the toilet. The only thing the CFL can hope for is close exciting finishes like last year, to draw in the US public.

If all teams have some sort of decent offence unlike the Blue Bombers and Eskimos for too much of last season, that would be best.

The standard spread and West Coast sets (Calgary, Toronto) used by all teams just make for plain exciting ball that I can’t get enough of and am hooked! It it such a long time to July damnit!

It’s great the CFL has 18 games but how I wish you had 2 more teams!

short term gain, long term pain.

The short is that there would be plenty of players for the picking. However, you would see mass exodus upon the NFL firing up again, crippling teams that gorged on talent. The smart teams / GMs will eat up the talent that people let go to bring in short termers.

also good is that TV ratings should go through the roof, which is great. Maybe more people will realize what they have been missing, and that a league can still be fun.

You seem to be forgetting that the CFL’s minimum contract is two years (1 plus an option) and with no NFL window anymore. I’ve read at a couple of websites that the lock-out isn’t expected to last the entire season - if that’s true I wouldn’t expect many players who think they can make the NFL this year committing to 2 seasons in the CFL.

just speaking for southern alberta area where i am from, most the nfl fans i know, HATE the CFL. so i am thinking my peers wont watch CFL. or if they do, they wont be admitting it to me. lol

Good point BlueBlood, though I see compared to a typical year a few more players as I explained below having that much more incentive to roll the dice on the NFL season being too short and to go North if they want to be all but assured of actually getting some playing time and some paycheque.

IF there is a nfl lockout AND an American network comes calling for the right to broadcast CFL games as filler then the CFL and TSN BETTER make sure they PAY this time!!! $$$$$$

You are correct, for here is the evidence that there is plenty of money from the media conglomerates there already even with what I think is more than likely to be a scab season down here akin to 1987 at least in part:

[url=http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81dc2f3f/article/union-league-confirm-that-collusion-claim-has-been-filed]http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8 ... been-filed[/url]

Also this is even more evidence that there will not, at the very least, be a true full NFL season next year.

This will only be a bad thing if they run a scab season, and the reason is anyone in the CFL who isn't tied down to a contract is going to head south and unlikely to return. Lets be honest, one season of NFL football even at scab wages is going to pay a lot more then a couple seasons of CFL ball.