Maas deal still reeksBackroom bargaining hangs cloud on Esks' Grey Cup win
By STEVE SIMMONS, SUN MEDIA
The Edmonton Eskimos continue to celebrate a murky Grey Cup victory earned beneath a cloud of suspicion.
Jason Maas is now the quarterback for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Canadian Football League says all is well with the world.
It says all that with a straight face.
But the smell -- and this time it's not just another Hamilton joke -- of the transaction won't go away no matter what Hugh Campbell or Danny Maciocia or Tom Wright say about it.
The fact Maas was, in essence, dealt to Hamilton during the season, the fact the particulars of most of the trade were revealed prior to the Grey Cup and the fact the deal came off as reported just after the championship, puts the league in question, the Ticats participation in question and puts the long-standing Eskimos control of the CFL in question.
The Eskimos don't win the Grey Cup, period, if they don't have Maas to bail them out of two playoff games. And they don't win the Grey Cup if they don't have Troy Davis at running back.
The league can swallow hard here, look the other way and pretend nothing happened. But we all know what happened. And we all know it should never be allowed to happen again.
I agree with Simmons, this trade stinks! Maas was traded to the Ti-Cats during the season and should of gone to Hamilton immediately, no matter what the Esks and Ti-Cats say.
hes right, but steve simmons is still an idiot who should not be aloowed to talk about the CFL. What makes Simmons' opinions so valueable? The fact that he gets paid to write useless articles and ridicule the best league this country has. Or is it that he is just a moron.
Hey Billy did he say something nasty about the riders or something that you dislike him. After all he reports in the Edmonton Sun which makes it odd for him to write this.
he reports in ALL the sun newspapers....and the reason everyone hates him, is his habit of knockin the CFL....( altho hes been turning a new leaf lately )
As a league, you make a decision that if there is a player to be named later in a trade, you cannot allow the player to be named later be the main part of the deal. Players to be named later are usually in the minors or fringe players.
You can't allow the main part of the trade (especially a starting CFL Quarterback) to stay with the team until the end of the season, and get the main part of the trade coming your way too.
Maybe you only allow draft choices as future considerations.
In this case, it was not officially a player to be named later trade, it is being sold to the world as 2 seperate trades, that have nothing to do with each other, and it is being done with a straight face.
Tom Wright could of asked at the time of this trade (when a lot of people were saying how one sided it seemed at the time, and also Edmonton was getting exactly what everyone knew they needed, in a top running back and O-lineman and not giving much up) and if the truth was told that Maas is going to Hamilton at the end of the season, he could of refused it. If not, then there is not much you can do, except to say, Hughie pulled a fast and dirty one, maybe a brilliant one (depending on your outlook) with Hamiltons help and got away with it.
The only reason anyone thinks it's unethical is because the Esks won the Grey Cup. If the Esks lost to Calgary in the semis even after putting Maas in, nobody would say crap.
And I tell you what else, the Eskimos would have won more than two Grey Cups in the last decade if there was as much sabotage and conspiracy going on as you whiny fans of other teams claim there is.
I don't get this whole trade Issue, so people say that Davis was traded for Maas? but only Davis came over to Edmonton cuz Hamilton was already out? and both put up performences that won the Esk the Cup?
Edmonton should have been in Frist in the west at the end of the season. and they were only oine game away for being number 1.
Due to having Davis of course. I notice there's not a whole hell of a lot of Edmonton fans trying to defend this one, because it's indefensible. This is like if the Bruins had just sent Thornton to the Sharks for literally nobody, and then in the off season the Sharks (after winning the cup) send over Stuart and company. It's bull. And people were complaining long before Edmonton won the cup, they were complaining the moment the trade occured and we all smelled fish on the air. I don't know why every GM in the league bows down to Hugh Campbell like they do, but it's just more bush league antics that cause the CFL to continue to be a sixth page fixture, when with the players and play they have to offer, they could be on page one.
....a statement in the latter part of your post is where disgruntlement should be placed......it takes two to tango and if there is blame ot be laid then lay it at Hamilton's feet as their GM is as guilty as anyone in making the deal........maybe even more guilty in that when the deal was delivered they had the chance to blow the whistle on it and chose to be quiet......no love for the TiCats when they come wandering into McMahon or BC Place next year.........
All the complaints here just prove that Hugh Campbell is the smartest GM in the league. What exactly is wrong with it?
Hamilton did what they needed to do in order to get a quality starting quarterback that they can build a team around, and in the process got rid of a few veterans that they were planning on replacing in 1-2 years anyways. The Esks lost some prospects, a starting quarterback, and gained some veteran players.
The fact is, the CFL said it was okay, so obviously other teams are free to do the same.
Maybe instead of whining, they should learn something and take a page out of Hugh's book on how to run a succsessful club.