Worst days in CFL?

Looking at the East history...its no wonder Montreal was so "successful" in the 2000's with GC appearances

The Buffallo Bills coach was my demon. Doug Flutie went to the NFL and was made a second string QB. As the Bills stank with their first string QB, the coach put Flutie into the starting role. Flutie was able to win enough games to enter the playoffs. AS a Flutie fan, I was delighted. However in one of the playoff games, Flutie was benched for a young Rob Johnson. The Bills lost.

:thup:

This brings back memories.

81 Als. The next great dynasty to replace the aging Eskimos.

Ferragamo, Billy Johnson and the great Fred ( why can’t I use stickum in Canada ) Bilitnikoff.

The bank was broke open with these 3.

Broke for good.

The rug being pulled out from under the Atlantic Schooners.

The US expansion jersey templates.

http://cfl-scrapbook.no-ip.org/images/Birm-top.JPG

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2892/9322628348_3af9f26e62_o.jpg

Those were weird and ugly. Not just the Cudas and Dogs ( dumbest name ever BTW ), but the Argos had those logo uni’s also.

I remember thinking " this is football, not hockey " logs on the helmet only please.

Unless in Australia .

Worst days in CFL?...

are behind us!!!!

Kevan: You are remarkable with your posts as, they are always so positive,

Thanks! :slight_smile:

US Expansion can be debated back and 4th.

There was some good, ( influx of players and the return of the Als ) but most of it was bad.

The worst was the waste of time.
They did it for the money. There was no money as the expansion fees were deferred.

After thinking about the past , I am going to say next to the folding of Ottawa and Montreal teams was the 1993 season.

The East was so bad, that 3 teams records combined, did not equal the 1st place Bombers . :roll:

As a result the CFL decided a 4 th team in the West would be added to the play-off system. It was not a cross over.
My 1st place Stamps were forced to play an extra game just because the East division sucked. :?

Why was a cross over not thought of at that time ? Crazy thing was , they decided it 3/4 of the way through the season.
Teams owners kept arguing. There were those who wanted the 86 system of 4 West teams and 2 East teams in a 2 game point series. That was voted down as they decided the stupid way was the way to go. :thdn:

Also, I bought my Grey Cup ticket in July and was forced to watch Esks and Bombs.
What a disaster of a season. :thdn:

Fred Biletnikoff was not part of the team in 81. David Overstreet and James Scott were the other newly-signed big name imports. Overstreet would run 900 yards, while White Shoes and Scott each had over 1000 yards receiving. A little surprising considering their offense that year was so bad.

True. In 16 games too.

OK, so I was off by a year. Thanks to wikipedia, I was able to look it up.

I think the honest answer is "the year your team went - or was close to going - bankrupt."

The worst days would have to be any number of dumpster fires that took place in the lost decade of the 1990's.

-The decade started off with the Grey Cup having to be papered in order to get even a half decent crowd out. The Stamps, Lions, Riders, Rough Riders, Ticats were all in major trouble of going under.

-The WLAF had established a franchise in Montreal and it was felt that the then new Skydome had outgrown the CFL and it was time for the NFL to come to town (with Montreal thinking the same with Olympic Stadium).

-The major superstar in the league wasn't paid in full and had to be shipped out to another team for largely financial considerations.

-The major star player coup from the NFL had to leave the league because the team that signed him couldn't pay any more.

-The league had a string of possibly the worst owners in Canadian and perhaps any sports history.

-League coffers were empty on a yearly basis. Rumors one of their member teams had to bail them out one year. (Their broadcast partner DID bail them out with a $$$ advance or the league would have went bankrupt.

-Faced with bankruptcy, the league is forced to expand to the US and subsequently grants franchises to whomever comes to them with cash.One team was added and a 2nd expansion team in was cancelled when financing did not materialize. Even worse one team is granted a franchise that doesn't even make it through their first press conference never mind actually ever seeing the field of play. Some of those owners later decide they don't want to pay the full expansion fee or accommodate a CFL regulation field, but the league is powerless to do anything about it. American experiment dies after the NFL returns to the best American CFL market.

The year after all American teams die, the Grey Cup is a financial disaster that again threatens to take down the whole league. And only the strongest franchise in the entire league is able to pull of a Grey Cup on short notice that allows the league to pocket some much needed money.

-Players are forced to take even further salary cuts in order to save the league. Sponsors jump ship in droves.

-One of the greatest teams to ever step on a CFL field is drawing Triple A baseball type crowds to their home games.

-The league gains back one market, only to see another fold with a whimper, and watches over a century of tradition flushed down the drain.

-One singular guy comes along and offers to buy the entire league.

-Rival (not really) league steps up with a financial loan to keep the league from going under.

-Grey Cup sellouts are a distant memory now. Even smaller venues (except one exception) fail to even come close to selling our the marquee game. Long term TV partner doesn't really feel like putting any effort into production and proposes to start airing games only after Labour Day (ya, cause their other programming is so great :roll: )

Then there was the Gliebermans, Forrest Gregg, Nick Miletti, Donald Crump, Jo Anne Polak, those ridiculous jerseys with the logo on the front, Horn Chen, holding training camp in local area high schools, having players sleep in livestock barns, practise roster guys sleeping on soiled used mattresses, players making more at their off season jobs than they do on the field, American announcers who know nothing about the game, parking lot practice field, center field logo at Ivor Wynne being harder than cement to fall on, drafting a dead guy, TV black outs, O' Christmas tree anthem etc etc etc.

Yup, the 90's were a banner decade for the CFL :cry:

I will suggest the worst days are yet to come.

I am not one of those paranoid disaster types.
However, there is some natural reality that needs to be faced.

That will be the demise of the BC Lions.
Not because of lack of fan support , marketing or poor ownership.
It will be because of BC Place Stadium ending up underwater.

As we sit, work and go about our lives the Fuca Plate is shifting and pushing into the North America Plate.
If / when it pops there is to be a 9.2 hit that will cause a major earthquake and/or tsunami .
The location is expected to sink or flood the upper Pacific US Coast and lower BC Mainland.

There would be no more BC Lions ever.

Think it will not happen on our side of this world ?
Take a look at Japan back in 2011 , or whatever year it was.

There is no science fiction here people.
Just mother nature and reality of what can happen to any coastal region on earth.

I’ve officially heard it all now :roll:

Yup. when that happens and millions are killed my first concern will be " wow, tough day for CFL"

My second thought will be Rogers did it!

Third thought will be I betcha Sportsnet will benefit from this

But he’s not a “paranoid disaster type”, lol

In 2010 I was in Vancouver for a Lions game.

This was when they were renovating BC Place and the games were at Empire…

I was on one of those small boats that jet around False Creek.

Nice clear day, smooth water , then out of nowhere, waves started to bounce the boat.

My sister, who lives in Mission informed me that there was SMALL earthquake in LA that rippled up to Vancouver.

She felt a slight tremor in her house .

This was a small quake that was felt for a few seconds in Vancouver.

BTW, think nature can not do damage ? I am in Calgary and when we had major flood.
What they showed on tv was nothing compared to what we saw live and in person.
Our Saddledome was under water. That was very minor compared to what the coast could face.

They have experts and scientists on watch with this.
They will never predict when it will happen.
They can predict what will happen.

Perhaps next year or in 100 years.
All depends on those shifting plates.