TORONTO — Following an annual audit, the Canadian Football League (CFL) has levied fines against the Montreal Alouettes, Ottawa REDBLACKS, Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers for exceeding the league’s 2022 Salary Expenditure Cap.
The 2 biggest “cheaters” were the Grey Cup participants. Who says crime doesn’t pay?
The Cats were the only team in the East that apparently played things fair and square . 
It’s only cheating when you get caught. Sorry 
Less of an infraction in my opinion than playing too many Americans as we have seen other teams do over the last couple of years and also no different than having extra coaches on staff disguised as “consultants”. Ho hum. Nothing to see here.
It’s not cheating, if a team can afford to pay their players more then they can do it and then just pay the fine. Good way to keep your star player form going to the NFL, give him an extra $500k a year and pay the fine.
Or you could say it’s easier to keep more talent if you just open the chequebook and ignore the rules other teams are following.
Wonder if that was why Lawler came to Edmonton? Winnipeg was hugly over the cap and it was a godsend when the Elks took him off their hands?
Or having one of your star players employed by a member of your Board.
You exceed salary cap you don’t play in the Grey cup!!
Period
Can’t see it having anything to do with Lawler.
And I think you are being preferential in singling out Winnipeg. Yes they were over the cap last year. I think they have been previously as well as has almost every other team at one time or another. The penalties are as set out and will be paid.
I fail to see the difference between that and being over the coaches cap as Toronto was with Chris Jones and Hamilton was with Khari Jones recently. No penalty that I am aware of. Look at Winnipeg’s extra player as an “ on field consultant”.
Also Hamilton cheating on field by ratio dodging only garnered a fine.
I have pointed out these inconsistencies before. If you are going to make silly rules such as the ratio and the coaches cap they need to be enforced. Selective enforcement makes no sense and is inherently unfair. As I said, nothing to see here.
I have read this misrepresentation of Bighill’s status before on some of the team boards.
Until recently Dayna Spiring was the chair of the Bomber board. Her husband Charlie owns a financial services company. Adam Bighill works for that company as a budding financial advisor in a completely legitimate job. He is permanently resident in Winnipeg and intends to make that job his career after football.
This is not a mafia type dockworker no show for full pay type job. Maybe those exist with the Bombers and every other team, but not here. This is Adam’s career after football and after football is getting closer all the time. This isn’t the first time a player has made such a decision. Willie Jefferson has also made Winnipeg his full time home as did Buck Pierce before him. There is no need for jealously just because these players chose Winnipeg over every other CFL city. Some players actually prefer to live in Winnipeg, believe it or not, and the intimation that a star player must have some hidden strings attached to his contract to want to play in Winnipeg is false and quite frankly ridiculous.
Not just financial … at a certain point ($100K over?) the fines double AND you lose draft picks.
For context, the fines were dollar-for-dollar: Montreal was fined $794 while Ottawa’s penalty was $11,994. Toronto will have to pay $49,735 while Winnipeg will be forced to ante up $64,499.
Right and Winnipeg got caught ! They are now branded as *CHEATERS! * Something everyone speculated last year by their re-signings. Along with Toronto! Interesting enough they have been speculated a few years in a row with their free agency signings. However this time they got caught. Ottawa & Montreal was a surprise .
If Teams are going to ignore the CAP rules they should get more than just a simple fine. It gives these cheaters an advantage over the law abiding teams.
I would say accusing other teams of infractions without proof is not right. If teams were playing too many Americans the Officials are responsible and I think they do a pretty good job given all that they have to do during a game. I’m sure the Officials would give out a penalty during the game when/if that happens. I watch pretty much every game and never heard of a penalty for incorrect substitution.
Again I must point out making unfounded accusations is off limits unless you can back it up with proof.
You accuse almost every other team of being over the cap at one time or another. Well Calgary, Edmonton & BC (possibly Hamilton too) have NEVER BEEN over the CAP ! Sask, and these other 4 now have that brand of CHEATING on them. And Winnipeg being more over ,followed by Toronto, and getting to the GC is really disgusting.
1/3 of all the teams is not almost every.
I think that you are overreacting.
This was discussed in detail on several threads in the last couple of years. There was plenty of proof.
Hamilton got nicked for skirting the ratio in 2021. I can’t remember all the details and don’t have the time to look it up at the moment, but I remember that Banks was involved. They weren’t penalized in game (probably because no one noticed) but were fined a week or two later. I poo poohed the whole situation at the time and am on record about how silly I feel the ratio is.
Clearly as well both of the Jones were hired as consultants to avoid the coaches cap. I also made light of that as well. As far as I know there was no punishment. I also think the coaches cap should go or at least apply for only one year.
I am also making light of the salary cap infractions. Again I don’t have time to look it up but do remember posts about salary cap infractions by most teams in the past. The Bombers did at least once before, maybe some 15 years ago or so.
You can call all of these teams cheaters if you want. I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t think any of these examples seriously affected competitive integrity and I also don’t think that your Stamps are lily white and have been perfect in obeying these types of rules for all time.
There are more serious concerns about the league I would suggest, such as the geographical based playoff system that greatly hurt your Stamps this year, essentially turning a 3rd place league finish into a 5th seeding.
No. We’re not in a court of law. People can say what they want as long as it doesn’t constitute libel or hate speech.
No surprise the Bombers and Argos were over. Get some money out of CBS and increase the cap.
From a Regina Leader Post article…
The Riders went over the salary cap by $76,752 in 2007.
So I guess the Riders shouldn’t have played in the 2007 Game.