What's wrong with the CFL?

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1

I have to agree with the Mike Toth, he tried to discuss this on his show too. I have been saying this for a couple of years now:

"The import ratio requiring teams to carry 20 Canadians, which excludes a lot of Americans who are more talented " We have to get better talent on the teams. Carrying 20 Canadians is just too much. Look at the last two Canadian drafts, really disappointing. I love the CFL and the rules but the Canadian content rule is not right.

[url=http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl/2009/07/14/toth_whats_wrong_cfl/]http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl/20 ... wrong_cfl/[/url]
2

The Problem is how many is two many
Some say 20 some say 15 10
Some say This basically a Form of Affirmative Action for Canadians.
some say Canadians should battle for jobs Straight up.
But this is the CFL (C=Canadian) Where would our league be without Canadian players.
It may have folded without them who knows.
Some Kids Dream of their NFL
If they are good Enought they go there 1st.now
No Longer is it Cream of Crop Coming Here 1st.
as a Kid I dreamed of a CFL shot and playing for The Black and gold

How can we take the Canadian out of the CFL ..
if we keep dropping the # of CFL Born Guys down soon it will be nothing .
That would be a real Shame :oops:

3

We have to change the content rule!! we don't have the Canadian talent. As he says how many Canadians give a damn about the CIS. Time to talk about reducing it and lets see some better players on the field:

"3.) An open playing field

The Oilers are hanging their netminding hopes on a Bulin Wall from Russia; a set of Swedish twins are Vancouver's most popular hockey players; and Toronto hoops fans think it's terrific that the Raptors have signed a Big Turk.

But if you dare suggest that the CFL would be a more entertaining product by doing away with its Canadian quota and bringing in more Americans, you might as well set our flag on fire and get it over with. Rhetoric aside, however, there would always be a place in the CFL for talented native sons such as Kamau Peterson, Brent Johnson and (provided he doesn't flip out) Adriano Belli.

Some people say that a failure to protect CFL roster spots for home grown talent would do serious damage to university football in our country.

But since when did Canadians care about the CIS?

I've been to a number of college games -- including Vanier Cups -- that have been played in half-empty stadiums. Most of the kids playing university ball certainly aren't in it for the glory and the majority realize that, even with the CFL, their chances of a pro career are slim and none.

On the other hand, there are countless Americans with superior ability who need a job in pro football much more than their Canadian counterparts.

Graduating from a big time U.S. school with a phony degree, only to wind up flipping burgers definitely isn't a good thing.

But it's no less a crime than a Canadian kid taking up a $40,000 roster spot just because of his birth certificate, when he could be using his education to make a lot more money on Bay Street."

Mike Toth is a Connected anchor and writes weekly for Sportsnet.ca.

4

I do not agree I like the cfl rules just fine it makes the game more of a challange for the coaches and more interesting for some fans like me.

5

We are not talking about changing CFL football rules. Its about redudcing the number of Canadians and getting to see better players. I don’t see how it’s more interesting to watch a Canadian offensive lineman.

6

I don't care where the players come from ... these days the job of the team is to put the best players they can find out there and " WIN GAMES " if Hamilton won the grey cup next year but only had 2 canadians on the team would anyone care? No they'd be all happy and thrilled they won .. same for any fan for any team in the league you'd be hard pressed to find someone who is a fan who would say "ya but it doesn't count becaue there are not enough canadians on the team" unless it's a sore loser from the opposing team.. look at hockey none of the fans in the usa complain that their teams are filled with canadians, russians and swedes... but they sure cheer them on and celebrate when they win .
also noone complains when "good" canadians go and join the NFL... when someone goes to the NFL and doesn't make the team or is not good enough to stay on the team they try to create a buzz about that player and say ohhh was a member on such and such a team ohhhh he was in this teams training camp we really need to get him and then ensues a media and fan hype on a player .. who wasn't good enough to make the cut but they are better than what we can find here ... it says alot about what people think about the talent of the CFL rosters ..

7

All the teams have to deal with the import ratio which makes for a level playing field. Eliminating or reducing the canadian ratio wouldn't make the on field game any more exciting or competitive. Many of the most exciting plays game after game are made by the canadian players. Drafting and employing your canadian talent wisely is part of the 'strategic chess' of the game, the successful coaches know this. I can't really see any upside to eliminating or eroding the canadian content.

8

You said it much better than I could have thanks . :thup:

9

A few observations:

  1. Toth suggests three changes that the CFL needs. And for each of the three, he cannot help but talk about hockey. Well, guess what: the CFL is not the NHL. You can't just take something that makes sense in one league and assume it will work in the other.

  2. I think Canadian content helps maintain equilibrium in the league. No team can succeed in the long term without making effective use of the draft, and making multi-year commitments to bring its Canadian talent along. Also, weaker teams get a higher pick in the draft to help them climb out of the cellar. A free-for-all, quota-less system would favour whatever teams have the most money to invest in U.S. scouting. And the fan-pleasing excitement of "negotiation lists" would become even more important to determine who succeeds.

  3. "Bay Street jobs" are not so plentiful that any jock with a B.A. can grab one. I would guess that less than 5% of Canadian university grads in a given year even have a shot at an interview, with most of these concentrated in a small number of disciplines (e.g. business, law).

10

Here are the issues we (as the CFL) face right now.

  • Many teams have new players because of the salary cap.
  • Only 2 preseason games and not enough camp time to evaluate means the first few weeks become an extended training camp. (See Montreal as the exception as they came back mostly in tact)

As much as I hated on a guy like Craig Yeast, he was surely good enough to get a job somewhere wasnt he? I would speculate that theres many middle of the road players like him that come to Canada, get paid "decent" money but then they get lowballed in favour of a younger, cheaper option. Meaning that guy has to now learn the CFL and that takes time.

11

This ^.

P.S. the colour of pants cannot be overlooked aswell.

12

What Toth fails to realize is that the CFL may stay as it is in structure or change to become more "professional" ie. pay more money to it's players, or on the other hand, become less "professional" and more "amateur" and pay the players less. I know some of you will disagree with me but I see the primary issue here not the CFL but rather the Grey Cup and who plays for it. In my mind I can be happy with a 50,000 crowd and a big "professional" image for the Grey Cup, or I could be happy with 1,000 people attending the Grey Cup and it be a purely amateur championship. In the end, the Grey Cup championship will live on with or without the CFL as long as rugby football is played in this country, this is a legacy of the trophy itself. How it all plays out in the future, who knows, it has had quite a past with some university teams winning it. There is no right or wrong here. Now we have the CFL that controls it and that is great but who knows, it might not be like that forever, the CFL almost went defunct not too long ago.

I can appreciate him and everyone else who wants the CFL to be "bigger" in image and like the American leagues, hey, I sort of on one hand want this as well. But what do we value here with Canadian football and the CFL? What's it all about? In the end, the Grey Cup is the primary issue IMHO.

13

I think they should just simplify the import rules, i've said it many times, just make the rule 3 candians on the field, instead of the silliness of 7 canadian starters where six of them end up on offence and one on defence.

Just put a small canadian flag on the canadians jersey or decal on their helmet and have the ref count on each play and now things will be fair and see an increase in offensive production as you wont see slackers like Nowaki starting in the league no more. I was so sick of seeing replays last week of that guy jogging his routes.

14

I find it funny that people talk about the CIS and good players coming to the CFL and we should support the CIS.........lol
Yet the CIS plays its championship game in Toronto and they get a crowd of 15 to 20,000, they decide to move the game to Hamilton "we should host it here outdoors where we appreciate CIS football"
No one from Hamilton buys a ticket to watch the two best teams in Canada, the crowd is made up of 8,000 fans mainly from Montreal!!

A month later a US college bowl game is held in Toronto over 25,000 fans attend, teams are rated 28th and 29th in the country!!! Quite Ironic

15

Leave it alone. Even without the import rule, do you think the so-called 'best' players won't still end up in the NFL? Of course they will. It may mean that the over-all quality of players coming to the CFL might be marginally better but at what cost? I'd rather see guys born and raised in Canada and who will probably live the rest of their lives here. Community counts in my book.

An Argo-Cat fan

16

I would actually like to see more Canadian content.

The game is at it’s best when teams have a handful of local guys playing on the home team as well. I miss Hitchcock and Morealle and Smith and guys I went to high school with or played against in high school ball.

Sure, some of my all time favorites were American players who have done a lot for this game, this team, and the community, but I like homegrown talent. Lumsden was so exciting to watch and locals came to the games to see their hometown boy. Yes, he had a lot of injury issues but healthy, he is one of the most exciting players to watch. When I seen him for the first time almost single handedly clobber U of T, I was desperately hoping he would become a Ti-Cat; and very excited when he came here - and sad when he left. Wish he could stay healthy. He would have been a great lifer here in Tabby Town.

Canadian players grow up playing the Canadian game, and perhaps it would be a better game played by a bunch of guys who know this game. Not that our game can’t be learned because so many imports play it well, but I wouldn’t want to see the Canadian roster limits lessened at any rate.

Better yet, how can we promote the CIS and high school football? If I won the lottery I would love to see high school stadiums. Perhaps not as crazy as in the US, but some bleachers and a little more money put into the programs.

When I was in high school, Barton and Glendale where the places to play and we had great football programs. Would have been nice to have had more of a following though. Heck, you get to get out of school if you go to the game so what are people thinking? :slight_smile: We had a few more fans during the playoffs when we played at Ivor Wynne but you would think you’d get more when the game is right outside your classroom.

We were an exciting team to watch. I know as I rode the bench most of my two year football career. I had a blast though practicing every night and being a part of a team sport I had not known until grade 9. Football is a fun game to ummm… play. lol

Hockey is still my favorite to play, but outdoor football is my favorite to attend.

Get fans and kids into this game at a younger age. I think that is what we need to focus on. This game needs to stay Canadian and it needs to grow. Two teams out east, perhaps one in London or at least expand to a third team in Ontario. (fourth sorry - Ottawa will be back).

I don’t know the demographics of the west, but if there are other places that could support the CFL, we need to work towards that. And we don’t need to pay the players more. We need to keep the costs down and make sure EVERYONE can afford to be a fan. IMHO, prices are already too high. I know too many people who love this game, but just can’t afford to go to the games. I for one don’t think that is very Canadian.

It’s not enough for it to be a Canadian game with Canadian rules and a majority of Canadian players, everything about the game has to be Canadian. That is when this game will be at its best and it’s strongest.

I don’t have a lot of CFL loving friends. I would like that to change for my childrens generation and I wholeheartedly believe that is possible.

I think the CFL has the best motto. “This is Our Game.” Let’s do our best to keep it our game and bring back the parts of our game that are no longer ‘Our Game’.

17

Mike Toth is brutal...he'll do these poorly thought out rants that are so clearly taking the 'counter point' in a usually-failed attempt to get a rise out of people.

18

Want better CFL football?

Start putting in a full practice day, 4-5 days a week depending on the length of time between games and where they are. This agreement with the CFLPA is ridiculous in my opinion and really limits the ability of coaches to properly teach the players the skills and schemes.

This is the big difference between Canada and the States in my opinion. We don’t take it seriously enough as opposed to hockey.

The American players that come to play here must think it’s like summer camp with the lack of intensity we have concerning practice time, one on one coach/player time, study time etc.

If we took football more seriously in Canada, it would force our University and college level players to work that much harder knowing that once they get to the pro-ranks, it’s not a joke…

In America, this pursuit of excellence starts at the high school level and increases in college and once you’re in the pros, you’d better be awake and productive on each and every play or you’ll be packing your bags.

In Canada, it appears we accept mediocre play more frequently…as far as football goes. Again, hockey is taken extremely seriously here and always has been.

19

If an american player gets 5 years of service in the league he should be considered an non import the caliber of play would pick up and you would get more players wanting to come to the league :thup:

20

When the CFL expanded into the U.S - I don't REMEMBER the 100% American content of the Memphis Maddogs,or Sacramento Goldminers, or Las Vegas Posse TRANSLATING into ANY measurable competitive ADVANTAGE ... so go BLOW IT OUT YOUR EARHOLE Toth ... and anybody else, for that matter, who prefers to RIP the Canadian heart, and SUCK the Canadian blood out of the League we call "Ours" ...

Peace.