Mike

Behind a paywall but big yikes for Saunders

Hence why I don’t really think they’re going about it the right way. At all. Agree completely with what you said.

It’s so stupid lol why do we have to complicate it so much

While I generally agree with the premise of what you’re saying, it’s not as simple as Wolitarsky vs McKnight or a comparison such as that one. There are players right now in every single training camp who are probably cut out to be stars in this league but are going to get cut because they’re fighting for a spot earmarked for a Canadian and they either don’t get enough reps, can’t afford to sit on a practice roster to develop, just don’t fit the makeup of the roster, etc. There are players sitting at home right now in the US who got offered contracts but opted to not come up here because they know there’s (for example) only one American spot available between 20 recruits at receiver and the odds aren’t worth dropping what they’ve got going on in their life. Those are the situations the league thinks they can improve by reducing the ratio. Whether or not I agree is one thing, but that’s more in line with their theory.

How many owners do you think would be happy to walk away from ownership tomorrow

Too much of an ask. I’m not commenting on fair or not fair, I’m just saying the PA has extended their demands too far to be taken seriously at this point. Do I think it was a deal they should’ve voted in originally? Absolutely. But I don’t have a vote and that’s not up to me. I’m in a union myself and I do respect everyone’s right to choose based on what they prioritize. But to think they can go back to the bargaining table and ask for MORE when the CFL is just going to turn around and say why should we offer more when you can’t even get a proper voter turnout? It’s just poor bargaining work, which is why I say they’re very clearly out of their depths with this. The NFL had poor turnout but the CBA got voted in (barely) and that’s a huge difference. There’s no swing in leverage there. Now that it’s been voted down, the first question the league is going to ask at the bargaining table is “why was the deal good enough then but not good enough now?” and they’ll point to the poor turnout and argue that with a better turnout it would’ve passed. The tough part is that as they do it, they’re also likely right. It’s a huge swing in leverage in favour of the league, especially paired with the fan optics trending in their direction all of a sudden as well.

Then it’s a misread by the bargaining committee. It’s become fairly obvious by all the news being leaked that they needed the American voter turnout to get the deal passed and they didn’t do what they needed to do to get that turnout. I’d also argue the NFL and CFL vote is like apples and oranges because the NFL doesn’t have the passport dynamics that we have up here.

Yeah. I do know what they want. Too much. They “held strong” long enough to get a proposal that ticked off the top six financial items on their wish list, put it to a vote and clearly did not explain the importance of actually bothering to vote to their membership. They then turned around and went back to the league after a rejected proposal and said “make it better.” You think it was the PA that leaked the poor voter numbers? It absolutely wasn’t, it was 100% the league and they did it because they know there’s absolutely no reason to improve an offer for an uninvested membership. The offer the PA ends up eventually pushing through (if it happens) isn’t going to be the best offer, it’s going to be the offer they accept because the paycheques are going to be missing and the players are going to want to play. 30% of the Americans clearly don’t care about the Canadian labour issues, but they’re going to care about an empty bank account. The PA completely blew this whole thing. They’re out of their league.

You’re right, I guess they rejected it because they felt sorry for the league and wanted them to offer less.

I don’t have to read the offer to know the players have mismanaged this. They had an incredibly bad voter turnout on a deal they proposed and now they’re naive enough to think they’re going to get a better deal. That tells me all I need to know.

They won’t get the original offer again.

These players are just a total bunch of dummies. You can tell they’re not on the same level at all with the businesspeople who own these teams.

The CFLPA bargaining committee

Wondering if he was the one who chose to pack it in

Not surprised at all

And that DE with the crazy hair … Moaka?

That video was going viral in a big way, I saw it multiple times before the news came out that it was a CFL player. Honestly though, unless something else comes out, good for Langley. He apparently used a wheelchair to roll his luggage to the drop off instead of a $5 cart which while … weird, is not worth the employee trying to pick a fight over it.

Great for the overall quality of the game, especially when it’s been trending downward for years

The bargaining committee was majority Canadian

So do it and get on with it

Not going to lump them all together but these back of the roster Canadians can get bent

If they don’t ratify, the players can go **** themselves lol

I absolutely love Manitoba so I’m with you on that. Just bought a cabin last fall (in Ontario, but still) because my wife and I have fallen in love with the life that rural MB can offer. my gripe is solely with Winnipeg lol

I mean I love Winnipeg too, but I don’t think I would if I was from somewhere else. Awful weather, deplorable conditions downtown, a generally filthy city, roads that are typically made up of at least 53% pothole, constant construction ruining any ability (that’s already so incredibly hampered) to get from point A to point B in a reasonable timeframe, an incredibly neglected homeless population, constant murder … I love it because it’s our dump, but I would definitely not hesitate to call Winnipeg a dump. Commonwealth seems like it’s basically in Edmonton’s version of skid row so I did find his comments surprising

i mean he's not wrong, Winnipeg is a dump lol