Suspended NFLers may not be welcome after this season!

CFL commissioner Tom Wright will be making a bigger statement next year regarding drug-using NFLers.

The Winnipeg Sun reports that Wright revealed plans Wednesday to close the loophole that allows CFL teams to sign suspended NFL drug offenders such as Toronto Argonauts running back Ricky Williams and Blue Bombers running back Onterrio Smith.

“We’ve got a soft spot or a deficiency in the policy we need to address,” Wright told the newspaper.

“Right now we do not have language in our current cooperative arrangement with the NFL that prevents what has happened, not only with Onterrio Smith here, but Ricky Williams in Toronto, and many players in the CFL over the last several years.”

Wright also told the Sun he’s already spoken with NFL officials about amending the agreement so that both leagues will honour each other’s suspensions.

EXCELLENT!!!!!

Its about time , this has been long overdue

…I thought you wanted Tom Wright fired ,sambo…why you ol’ bandwagon jumper you…i guess next you’ll say …well maybe i was wrong …and the Bombers were right in pursuing Hebert…hmmmmmm…could i be right… :lol:

When hell freezes over just wait for a Winnipeg winter I guess! :lol:

If he does this, its the only thing he will have ever done thats good for the CFL during his tenure… it should have been done yrs ago,but diff commishes just ignored the problem… which is why Wright will join them as former commissioners…

it depends, ban the steroid users and anybody that plays will drugs that enhance their performance, allow players that use drugs that don't enhance their performance, like herbal tea.

and no, I'm not in favor of this, as a libertarian, I can't be.

I agree totally and Iam not a Liberitarian...This is a victimless issue therefore a non issue.

how about the athlete that is concerned enough about their health not to take steroids but is a step behind a steroid user because of the steroids

How about he advances his second career plan and gets a regular job like the rest of us.

To have more cooperation between the leagues, excellent idea.

… Of course, his contract ends this year, so…

I say that the league should have a ban on players that use drugs that enhance your performance and have a major criminal record.

For the other drugs like marijuana, it should be up to the teams to decide what players they sign, it will be THEIR image that's on the line, not the CFLs.

and players that have commentated minor criminal offences (like a DUI) should play, unless you want another Terrance Tootoo incident, where a player shoots himself cuz of one minor violation that could effect the rest of his life as a player.

WHY ON EARTH SHOULD WE NOT SIGN PLAYERS THAT HAVE BEEN BANNED IN THE NFL??? Just because the ultra conservative fascist NFL bans a player doesn't mean the CFL has to (and have you seen what they ban players for? Herbal tea???). It's their problem, not the CFL.

We shouldn't jump cuz they say so!!!

This is one of the most beautiful things a poster has said on here, and I hope that SC doesn’t mind, but I’m reposting it here for all to see.

Kanga, stop doing margerine. :wink:

why should I? it should be legal! and I will not rest until it is!

heck, our politicians north and south of the 49th do it!

Firstly that is not what this league is about. If we were really about having hte absolute best players available then why do we have the ratio rule.

Second this says to kids that in order to be a pro athlete you need to be willing to endanger your health which is a terrible message for pro sports leagues to be sending.

Also theres a difference between weed and white bread. Right now weed is illegal and the NFL saw fit to suspend Williams because they felt he was commiting a crime. By allowing him to play in the CFL were saying that its OK to use drugs here and that it doesnt matter if the NFL suspends a guy because he can jsut get jobs here.

Who cares if there are many functional adults that use weed? It is still illegal and it is still something that the majority of canadians do not want their kids doing

You do realise that for every suspended NFL player that comes up here to play out his suspension, a CFL players who chose to follow the rules loses his job!!!!!!

But since there is no drug testing in the CFL collective agreement this really means that the CFL will honour the NFL’s drug related suspensions.

Its the hypocrisy of the whole argument that bugs me the most. Allen Pitts gets caught with steriods at the border - nothing happens. A truckload of criminals from the US come up to play here - no objections. But Ricky Williams smokes a bit of weed and everyone goes crazy. I think the whiners are just scared that their defenses won’t be able to tackle the guy.

John Avery has yet to lose his job. Neither him nor Jeff Johnson were released since the arrival of Williams.

And the Argos even have the pseudo-tailback Keith Stokes.