Time to put the Canadian back in Tiger Cat

I have been reading with great dismay the comments from our new "all-American" coaches and their general disdain for any need for a CFL football background. Adding to this trepidation is the fact that the coach is quoted as saying there is only room for one starting Canadian running back and that's Julian Radlin. Guess Jesse has no place in his home town. As a season ticket holder I am not going to pay to watch nothing but Americans playing a Canadian sport. The CFL is unique and is NOT the NFL or an NFL wannabe. Dissing Canadian talent is not the way to keep bums in seats. Wake up and realize that local players create interest and loyalty.

Canfan

dude who cares, as long as we win ill watch a bunch of players from japan in our uniform, anything beats watching a team go 0-17

Jesse is such a tremendous athlete that I don't see him not playing in some respect... maybe that comment was more in the direction that they're considering converting him to another position.

[quote="Canfan"]I have been reading with great dismay the comments from our new "all-American" coaches and their general disdain for any need for a CFL football background. Adding to this trepidation is the fact that the coach is quoted as saying there is only room for one starting Canadian running back and that's Julian Radlin. Guess Jesse has no place in his home town. As a season ticket holder I am not going to pay to watch nothing but Americans playing a Canadian sport. The CFL is unique and is NOT the NFL or an NFL wannabe. Dissing Canadian talent is not the way to keep bums in seats. Wake up and realize that local players create interest and loyalty.

Can somebody provide a link or direct to another thread on this - did Taafe say only 1 Canadian back will start and it will be Radlein? - no need for competition and winning jobs in TC??? hard to believe, but maybe not overly surprising - a lack of respect for Canadian talent is a fairly common theme by a lot of CFL thinkers now. I hope there is real competition in TC; but I have a feeling this new regime will use pre-determined thinking that only 7 NIs will start and if tailback is pencilled in for an American, Jesse might be viewed more as a back-up; same at MLB with Barrenchea, recievers and maybe another position or two - the Ticats have lots of good young Canadian talent - hope they get real shots to compete rather than American coaches handing jobs to American players for the sake of it - but then, that is nothing new in the "radically canadian" :roll: CFL.

Fortunately, we still have the ratio, so there will definitely be 20 roster spots filled by Canadians.

I'm not worried about Americans as coaches. Carl Voyles, Jim Trimble, Ralph Sazio, Jerry Williams, Al Bruno and Ron Lancaster were all Americans who coached us to Grey Cup wins. The key is that the coaches understand the Canadian game and are able to make good use of that knowledge. Charlie Taaffe does I believe.

I was a little concerned that our new D Coordinator didnt know about the three downs until he got here though. I hope he will quickly learn that it isnt just NFL ball with one more player and one less down, but a specific game with its own dynamics. Every US coach has to learn that. The ones who don't fail. The ones who quickly "get it" are successful.

Fortunately, we still have the ratio, so there will definitely be 20 roster spots filled by Canadians.

I guess the CFL should keep this even if the situation becomes that our universities are putting out poorer talent because less young kids play the game and the pool of players is less. Funny also how our high school kids who grew up here and play US college are able to come back and play in the CFL as a Canadian.

A large part of me wants to completely scrap this import thing. I just don't need it. :thdn:

Canfan, please provide a link to your readings?

I find that as an unusual statement from the coach.
What does that mean "there is room for only one Canadian running back"
There is room for as many Canadian running backs as the team wants to carry.

How reliable of a source was it that wrote this???

I havent read anything about this myself either . Any coach would be crazy to not respect the Canadian aspect of his talent because you cant win without it . Sure your import players have to be productive and most often your stars. But if your Canadian talent isnt up to snuff or they have injury problems and you dont have depth, your going to have major problems trying to win games .

I wonder if people think that there is enough Canadian talent available each year to keep the import rule as it is now when teams get a lot of injuries? I don't know. I will say that our Canadian kids are excellent in my opinion although I am certainly not a coach who really can tell, just a fan watching from a fan's perspective only.

You wont finding Taaffe saying that because it was Ken Peters that said it.

I'm paying to watch the best most exciting football possible and if that means that an American is more exciting than a Canadain then I want to see him start ahead of the Canadian.
I don't want to see someone start because they have to meet a quota.

I'm paying to watch the best most exciting football possible and if that means that an American is more exciting than a Canadain then I want to see him start ahead of the Canadian.
I don't want to see someone start because they have to meet a quota.

My thoughts exactly. The CFL is a pro league and I heard Tom Wright say once he wanted it to be "more major league". This surely is one way to do it and enhance the image of the league.

Here's the link to which CanFan refers:

link

The comments regarding Lumsden come from Desjardins, though the implication is that Lumsden will be forced to compete with Anthony Davis for the starting spot. This topic was also discussed in the Border Shopping thread started by Blitz:

link

Exactly!!

And I don’t want an average or mediocre American player handed starting or playing time because American coaches favor him over Canadians at the same position that the coaching staff has pre-determined bias towards. Let the players compete in TC at all positions - and yes they still have to work within the ratio - and stop with the pencilling in imports at certain positions because the coaches ASSume they’re better - I hope this coaching staff does not show that thinking but IMO it happens lots in the CFL.

Just make it so each team has to have so many Canadians in camp to look at but in the end, have freedom to who they sign. Surely this makes sense to most here I hope.
But I don't care really in the end, I love the league no matter what.

Don’t worry, stryka-17 and mikem, it looks like
the Tiger Cats are making room for a couple
exciting American Offensve Linemen on the roster.

The excitement they create for the two of you
will make up for having to watch Jesse Lumsden

make so many boring, smash mouth first downs
up the middle and long tedious breakaway TDs. :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley:

OK - so Canfan’s original post is inaccurate if he was saying the “coach” said there would be no room for Lumsden at running back. This is Peters’ article with his slant and opinion and the comments are from the GM Desjardins. Surely the coaching staff will be able to decide on their own who should be playing/starting (maybe not always the case on all teams - i can think of an example where a young HC didn’t have full say with some veteran football guys in the background whispering wisdom) - but Taafe is a vet (sort of) CFL coach who’s been a winner - hope he has full authority.

And Desjardins may be Canadian, but seems clear he was brought up in and indoctrinated in classic CFL good ole boy think that becomes standard party line. Safe to ASSume that the imports at any position you have in TC will be better than the NIs and it sure makes sense to think just 7 of thems inferior Canadians only need apply for starting / playing time. No big surprise to me from his comments there. But maybe he should brush up on CFL or Ticat history some - perhaps do a count of the number of NIs starting & getting playing time for the last Ticat GC Champ team; maybe he even forgot those numbers on the Als’ teams he was involved with that went to a few GCs. Could be he was just doing a little pre-season spin/selling to let people know the new team would have a quite different make-up and that some of the old crowd fave vets might get let go or that Lumsden might not be a shoe-in for playing time - to help fans prepare for lots of change.

No, this doesn’t make sense to me, Earl.

Even if two player’s skills are almost equal
the coaches will pick players who they know
will have had better training and competition.

In other words, U.S born players.

To compensate for shortcomings in this area,
Canadian born players need time to develop.
[especially C.I.S. players]

The ratio assures that Canadians can be kept
as back ups to learn their positions better
and to immediately play on Special teams
for 1 or 2 years before they have to start.

G.Ms and Coaches aren’t risk-takers.

Look how they dismiss players from consideration
by their physical dimensions and by measuring
their strength, speed and physical skills.

P.S.

My old comparison. Canadian singers and musical groups

Before the CRTC* demanded that Canadian radio and TV stations
play Canadian musicians a certain percentage of the time
Canada had NO big national stars in the musiic industry.

Before that, 99% of the music we heard was from the U.S.

It wasn’t that our musicians weren’t good enough,
it was because we weren’t exposed to their music.

Once our musicians got exposure many
became big stars, even in the U.S.A.

CRTC* Canadian Radio and Televison Commission

What you wouldn't like the Anne Murray all the time radio show?