TBURGESS

If it comes down to Bighill or Harris, I'm taking Bighill.

Assuming the SMS stays the same, and I think that's a pretty good assumption, where do we get enough money to sign everyone, when a lot of them deserve a raise?

Cost is always a factor. Harris is the highest paid RB in the CFL. He's always been worth the money, until this year. We've got his replacements under contract for way less money and we may lose them if we don't play them. I could see us making a lower offer than Harris wants and him retiring instead of taking it.

SMS, not Financials are the limiting factor to signing players. Every team has the same SMS & have to spend at least to the bottom of it. Teams need to be competitive if they want fans in the stands. Under spending = less fans = bad financials.

40% increase in NFL money doesn't matter to 90+% of CFL'ers as they'll never get a chance to get it & for the 10%, the CFL can't/won't match it. XFL/USFL avg pay is $50K US and their QB's get a lot more. Players who want to take the chance, will, with or without a slightly bigger player SMS. The CFL can't afford to up the SMS much if at all. Guaranteed contracts are a huge risk. Player gets hurt, or doesn't do the work off season and he still gets paid? I don't think so. Pay bonuses even if the player gets cut? Why would teams agree to that? The players have almost everything their own way. They have 1 year contracts. They can go the the NFL. When they come back, they're free agents. They go where the best paycheck is or to teams who have the best chance at playoff dough. That's why I suggested less games for the same money. A raise with less wear and tear on the players bodies.

They've agreed to it in the past and they don't have any bargaining strength. Go on strike, the CFL dies, and 95% of them don't have football jobs. The XFL and the USFL may start up and may last a year or two and they will take CFL players no matter what the CFL SMS is. Less games played for the same salary isn't nothing.

They want to look at everything. My ideas: 3 downs. Same number of guaranteed Canadian starting spots. X Americans, Y Canadians, Z Globals. QB's don't have special rules. Canadian QB's are Canadians, roster as many or as few as you want. QB's can play any position and more than one can be on the field at the same time. Eliminate the 3 or 4 year Americans who become pseudo-Canadian backups. Minimum 2 year contracts, not guaranteed. NFL window from day after GC to January 15th. CFL retains players rights if they come back from the NFL for the contract length. SMS goes down to current low limit. No change to bonuses. 16 game season. Every team plays every other team twice. (Lower SMS = less games) Longer than 4 hour work days. More contact practices. Single division. No east/west. No cross-over. The top 4 teams get home playoff games. No waiting for both teams to make changes before starting the play clock, unless there is an injury, set the ball, whistle time in. Eliminate triple headers by playing on Thursday thru Sunday until NFL starts, then Thursday thru Saturday with a double header on Saturday. Grey Cup on the same week as Remembrance day every year. Saturday playoff games. Sunday Grey Cup.

Re QB's: BC - Reilly stays at a reduced contract & Rourke sticks around. Calgary - BLM & Maier. Edmonton - Arbuckle Regina -Faj-jj at the decided on contract $. Wpg - Status Quo. Hamilton - Masoli. Montreal - Adams & Harris. Toronto - MBT & Pipkin Ottawa - Masoli or Evans, whichever the Ticats let go.

This year's team reminds me of the great teams of the 80's. Expect them to win every time they play no matter if it's at home or not. We kept most of our '19 team while other teams had to re-tool, which helped us get wins early on. Good teams are built from the lines out and we have the best O and D lines. That's where we were better than the rest of the league. Collaros gave us the kind of QB'ing we haven't seen in decades and the defence shut teams down completely and consistently. On the other hand, the level of competition this year was really poor compared to the 80's. We didn't play team that made the post season for almost 2 months which juiced our stats. Ottawa, BC, and Edmonton were all free spaces on the bingo card. Calgary, Hamilton and Montreal were too, for the first half of the year. Toronto and Regina were better than the rest and we were better than them.

These are the best of times in Bomber land and yesterdays game will go down in GC history as one of the best of all time. I'm enjoying every minute of it.

1. Castillo - All the FG's and a couple of extra points on kick offs. 2. Bighill - All over the field. Sideline to sideline. 3. Nichols - Made THE play to save the game. HH: Adams - Not our #1 threat anymore, but came up big when it mattered.

Today my drink of choice will be Gin and Tonic and my dinner will be Nachos.

I resent that.

You're saying that no player should ever throw a ball into the stands? 🙄 OK Boomer.

Keep your eye on the field and you won't have any trouble seeing if a ball is coming. Everyone around here believes a mouthy 17 year old heckler that those dirty rotten Riders specifically targeted him instead of any of the other hecklers in the stands. I understand that he coulda got a broken nose from the frozen football. Musta been really scary for him.

They have to stop Harris from consistently getting 7-8 yards on first down. They need to force turnovers. They need to make their FG's. They need to complete a few deep balls. They need to play an almost perfect game.

MOS should win, because this is the first year he's had a dominant team. Before that he was the coach of a middle grade team, so no one outside of the 'Peg would vote for him.

If you get hit with a ball or a puck for that matter in the stands, it's your own fault for not paying attention. If you think the kid was the only one heckling, then then you may buy a bridge from me. If you think a player would get so annoyed about a mild heckle, then then you may buy a bridge from me. If you think a mouthy 17 year old is telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then then you may buy a bridge from me. If you're still thinking about the Riders this week, then they are living rent free in you head.

Football player makes a great play and throws the ball into the stands. Fan says it's cuz of the heckling he did and it could have broken his nose. Keyboard warriors use it as another excuse to whine about the Riders. Just another day at the forum.

He who must not be named doesn't count.

Ottawa would give him a starting spot based on his play, just ask PLAP.

I can't see any reason for Streveler to come back to Winnipeg. He's earned a starting spot and the salary to go with it. In Winnipeg he'd be a glorified RB who gets a few downs a game.

Yes there was, but folks were saying it shouldn't have been a penalty because Faj-jj was sliding late. Re Riders Turnovers: The first one was Demski's mistake, one pick was Collaros' mistake, the rest were good plays by the Riders D. Faj-jj had a pretty good game except for the 3 open deep balls that he missed. Those were turning points in the game.

There should have been a 15 yard penalty on Alexander. Not only did he hit a sliding QB, he hit him in the head with his elbow. That's a penalty every single time.

We need to play better this week if we want to beat Hamilton at home. If you look up 'Ugly Win' on google, the first link should be to yesterday's game and the 2nd link should be to the Riders win last week.