GCn20

Anywhere would have under 20K with this kind of weather. But Saskatchewan isn't just anywhere...it's the home of the self proclaimed best fans in the league. You gotta back up that kinda claim with more than a watermelon on your head.

Ottawa is a brand new team that has no returning cast. They will make mistakes and a lot of them. We need to capitalize on them and we should be victorious. This game shouldn't be close.

It's true. That's why the attendance was low. They sold over 30K still. I agree about Rotten Roddy though. Can't stand him. Very feeble attendance for a home opener. Normally I wouldn't care but Riderfans went to great lengths to insult us about 25k. Fairweather fans I guess. Team just wins a Grey Cup and only 19k to greet them at the home opener. Sad.

Willy would have done just as poorly behind that OL today. They were absolutely awful.

and to think there were a lot of very vocal people who actually supported the crap Kelly was doing especially on the other forum. It was dark times for those of us grounded in reality.

Are you suggesting that Kelly was to blame for the 2009 season. I never really thought about it like that until now. lmao

Our scouting is rapidly looking like an epic failure this year.

Whether we sign Romby or not, I think this illustrates pretty clearly that Kelly is on borrowed time right now.

No, there is no order to who can claim someone off someone else's PR. First man up to claim him. Of course, all Calgary would do is activate him and that ends that. The smarter play might be to try and trade for him. It is obvious that Calgary will have a very hard time holding onto him over the long term.

Hickman did a good job on a crap OL, but he was a pretty one dimensional DE. He struggled badly against the run, and Hamilton put up horrific numbers against the run the year he finished 2nd in the sack race. Not saying a pure pass rusher is a bad thing under certain defensive systems but he would be a below average player in an Etch defence. Since I don't see Etch going anywhere this year I would take a pass on Hickman.

I am wondering if the Argos are a little closer to being sold than we think and Braley is releasing him so he can go back to BC.

Get Ottawa down to one non core import starter and a 3rd round pick and then pull the trigger Mr.Walters. Show us you have what it takes to negotiate a trade of this level for a fair market value. His extremely cap friendly contract only makes him even more of a no brainer acquisition imo.

Pigseye, the owners losses have been underwritten for years. They knew what they were buying when they purchased a CFL team and weren't all that worried about it. The CFL has been on solid ground for the better part of a decade. The players deserve their share.

Atomic, the best stability for the owners is having a league able to attract talent and is not known for screwing it's players. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that one of the keys to business success is to treat your employees equitably and fairly.

Even the owners don't agree with you. At the last CFL BOG meetings in November the owners and league agreed that the players deserved an equitable share of the new TV contract. What that will be? Who knows....but I guarantee you they will not offer them a measly 200k over 4 years. That would be ludicrous....even the owners think so. The current SMS is based off of roughly 50% of revenues. The owners and players are happy with that. Will the players get 50% of the increased revenue of the TV deal....it's doubtful, but I think 35-40% would be a number both sides would be happy with when all is said and done. That is an increase of 1 - 1.2 million dollars over a 4 year span with the bulk of it coming up front. If you don't think that's a great deal for the owners then you just simply aren't understanding how SMS numbers are arrived at.

Their used to be a revenue sharing before this last CBA that saw the players receive 56% of revenues. In the last CBA, revenue sharing was taken out from the CBA in favor of set salary caps with set increases. The initial SMS for year one was based on 56% of the revenues of the previous year and then the revenue sharing ceased to exist once the basepoint was established. Increases to the SMS were scheduled according to a projected increase in revenues but at no defined %. I suspect that the SMS will increase somewhere around a million over the course of the next CBA. It's a fair number to all sides I would think.

Again what's with the hate ? Marcel Desjardins is a goof. No hate...just fact. My apologies to all the closet Ottawa fans for ruining the big reveal.

Again what's with the hate ? Marcel Desjardins is a goof. No hate...just fact.

Edmonton was so unhappy with their running game they signed their RB to a shiny new expensive contract. The Riders were happy with Cates before Sheets and weren't looking for a new RB. Don't confuse a team settling for mediocrity with them being unable to upgrade. Improving your ground game can't happen if you're not looking. Our backs last year didn't light a lot of fires because our starter was injured for most of the season, our backup was also nicked up, and we were rarely in a position where we didn't have to abandon the run game early in the game. RBs are a dime a dozen if you're looking. Can they be immediately found? Maybe...maybe not. It is likely the easiest position to recruit for though because there is not much adjustment needed between our game and theirs. If you can run well in NCAA, or NFL the chances are high you can run well here, We may have to go through 2 or 3 before we find the right fit. However, I don't think there is much chance we will not have a very good running back by mid season of this year, Unlike a lot of other positions, there is a lot more quality supply then there is demand.

As a former resident of Calgary myself, I think that interprovincial migration definitely hurts the Stamps somewhat. They do nothing to lure new residents to their team. I, also, think that a lot of long time Calgarians have a sort of elitist attitude towards the rest of Canada in general and believe that they are too cool for school and do not want to associate with a league in Canada. I spent a year and a half in Calgary, albeit 25 years ago, running a couple of bars on what was Electric Avenue. People were great until they found out you were from Manitoba or Saskatchewan and then they shunned you. I couldn't take the clique like culture there anymore and went home. Best decision I ever made.

That's exactly right Dr.CFL. As a former Head Coach, I can tell you that the more cooks you add to your kitchen the more potential there is for confusion. Whenever I was assembling a new staff I only built the staff as big as it needed to be to cover what I needed. If I had an OC with good experience as a QB coach then why not let him do both jobs and take away any potential for confusion. Same on defence or STs etc. People seem to think that a coordinator doesn't have the time to work with players on the fundamentals. That's just not true if he is committed. At any rate, I often (due to lack of volunteers, or volunteers taking vacation etc.) had myself, and assistants doing several tasks. With proper time management and commitment from both staff and players we were able to get it done.

Calgary is a pretty fickle CFL town by Western Canada standards. In the West their fan interest ranks last imo. It is so bad that Stampeder fans who want to talk football must visit other fan forums.

Oh gawd. So Mike O'Shea, a reputed leader both as a player and coach, is a poorly qualified HC, because he's never been in a co-ordinator position? Can I get you some Burke or some Stubler as HC to appease you? If you can find me a hot-shot co-ordinator who's also a leader, I'll take him. But I'll take the leader over the co-ordinator... all day, every day First of all O'Shea was a coordinator. He was ST coordinator in Toronto. Even if he wasn't it is irrelevant. One has nothing to do with the other. A HC does not necessarily need coordinator experience nor does being a high level coordinator necessarily make someone a good HC. Too many examples to list that prove this. Richard Harris was a positional coach with no coordinator experience, I defy anyone to come on here and seriously suggest that he would have been a poor HCing candidate.

Besides, could anything be worse than watching the wounded puppy dog look in Burke's eyes as he threw yet another player under the bus for failing to execute a ******** play call by Crowton/Creehan? I will take this year's staff over last year's every single day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

I am about as non-plussed about our offseason so far as anyone. I think it has been a borderline failure thus far, in regards, to the amount of ground we needed to gain. This offseason was like being in 2nd and 25, and unless things change on the player front, it looks like we called a running play for 8 yards. Positive yardage to be sure...but nowhere near enough. However, I am a little more optimistic about the coaching staff than many people. I believe that a coaching staff's biggest strength is in the collective. Coaches need to be on the same page philosophically, and preach the same message to the club. Oshea, Etcheverry, and even Bellefeuille are all known for instilling work ethic into their groups. They are also known for being taskmasters and holding players accountable. I think the sum of their strengths working together will make up for the flaws they show as individuals. One of the toughest, yet most necessary, aspects of coaching is getting your players to believe in your program. I think with the experience these men have in handling a locker room, which can be very political at times, will pay dividends. Believe it or not I think Etcheverry's mad scientist ways will keep the players interested and motivated once they start seeing the dividends that the mad doctor's defences almost always bring in the early part of the season. I think Bellefeuille will be a steady, but firm hand, on a somewhat fragile offence. I think O'Shea brings a boatload of attitude, respect, and mystique to the job. Players will listen to him. Tracey is an unknown really at this point, but brings a very impressive resume. If we can add Wylie/Himebauch, and McDiarmid to the mix it will round out a nice stable of position coaches. I see this group collectively as better than the sum of it's parts.