mbrg

It's truly amazing. It's like they think the fans are completely unfamiliar with the CFL. Every time Flory speaks he pushes my loyalty further towards the owners. We need to keep in mind that firing coaches and management costs the Bombers money? Gee, thanks Flory. So you're suggesting that we should still have Kelly around? Go shove a pineapple up your arse. That does it. I honestly truly wanted the players to reap some benefits this time around but I'm done with them. Flory is an imbecile. For all I care they can continue to play under the exact same terms as the old CBA. Screw their raise. Flory can stop insulting our intelligence. He can stop trying to carefully shape crap into facts because he's terrible at it. All he ever needed to say is that many of the players are underpaid for the jobs they do because that's true. That might be the only true thing that's come out of his mouth in the last month. Jackass. I don't think I've grown quite as sour as you... yet.... but I do believe the players deserve a raise... maybe something along the lines of the very fair deal the CFL offered when they went public last week... a bigger initial bump in the cap would be ok too. I agree. And the thing is, since the CFL made that offer, they clearly assumed the PA would then counter it and they'd meet somewhere in the middle. It wasnt presented as a take it or leave it. So as reasonable as the offer was, the league was still willing to move a bit. The reason we dont have a deal right now is because of the PA. Period. That's where they will get to, the last offer from the owners + 5% or so. It won't happen until the last minute because there is no real incentive for either party to resolve this until the last minute. I really do support the players in the sense that most of them are great guys who live in our community, do lots of charitable work, are down to earth people who take a lot of physical punishment purely for our entertainment. I think anyone making the CFL minumum deserves more for what they do and everyone who isn't making 6 digits deserves some kind of bump. BUT the CFLPA has done such a horrible job of presenting it's case and such a fantastic job of shooting itself in the foot and then shoving their bloody footstump in their mouths at every opportunity that I'm entirely done with them. The first 15 million of the Bomber debt is interest free?? Well go ahead and cover it then Flory if you're so convinced it's chump change. Jackass. It was so simple. Demonstrate an awareness that this league has a fragility to it. Demonstrate an awareness of it's history. Demonstrate an appreciation for the fans who haven't been passive sports viewers but have been actively trying to keep these teams alive for decades. Demonstrate a simple awareness that certain owners have eaten losses in the millions for years and years purely for the love of the game. And continue to point out that there are players who deserve more than what they get for the services they provide. Point out that the league is now in a position to pay a fairer wage for those players. They have done almost none of this. Twitter wars? Jackass. I'm now thinking of joining twitter just so I can put out #floryisterribleathisjob every few minutes. The players will need to send a bouquet of apology flowers to Morreale when this is all done.

My favourite takeaway from the article - the Argos have to get out because football is too hard on grass. Yes, people running and doing athletic things will create a bigger impact than 9 guys standing around motionless for 4 hours. In conclusion, the Skydome confirms baseball sucks.

It's truly amazing. It's like they think the fans are completely unfamiliar with the CFL. Every time Flory speaks he pushes my loyalty further towards the owners. We need to keep in mind that firing coaches and management costs the Bombers money? Gee, thanks Flory. So you're suggesting that we should still have Kelly around? Go shove a pineapple up your arse. That does it. I honestly truly wanted the players to reap some benefits this time around but I'm done with them. Flory is an imbecile. For all I care they can continue to play under the exact same terms as the old CBA. Screw their raise. Flory can stop insulting our intelligence. He can stop trying to carefully shape crap into facts because he's terrible at it. All he ever needed to say is that many of the players are underpaid for the jobs they do because that's true. That might be the only true thing that's come out of his mouth in the last month. Jackass.

There are places on the internet that have already changed the name for them - they're now called the Washington Racial Slurs. Dan Snyder is awful and I have no problems with making that their new name. Simply never reference them by the old name again.

Every team will claim they're honoring/celebrating the natives/tribe as their rebuttal. In a few instances it's even true, but very few. Most teams just wanted to put a scary warface on their jerseys and didn't give it much thought one way or the other. Redskins is so breathtakingly racist it boggles the mind that people argue otherwise.

4 Rifles is at least 2 more junior/university players than I can remember ever being invited before. That's fantastic. Good on the Bombers for doing what should be a no-brainer every year - getting the junior programs involved. The Bombers get a free look at some guys, the players get exposure to a pro camp and pro players and coaches. Win win win win win.

Correct. Rookie camp should proceed as scheduled, regardless of CBA negotiations. Typically the QBs still show up for rookie camp though, don't they? (this thread will quickly devolve into a CBA talks thread) My expectation is that they still will, at least for the first day until Flory finds out and figures he can use this as leverage. I'm not getting the impression that his mind works far ahead enough to have thought of this already.

Old stadium - super easy and convenient for me to sneak over and check out training camp. New stadium - not at all. Any chance the boys could run some drills in the food court at Polo Park?

It's a common misconception that freedom of speech should mean you are free of the consequences from what you've said. i agree however with that being said, what did sterling say exactly? just that he didn't want his mistress hanging out with blacks. He didn't call them the n word, he just said he didn't want her hanging with the blacks, what if he said i dont want you hanging around those african american people? is it still a big deal? Just for the record, i'm not applauding sterling here or saying he's innocent, i just am asking, if what he said, in the big picture, is it really that big of a deal? or was it maybe just blown out of proportion a bit. He is an old racist for sure, it's well documented the dislike the guy has for minorities, but...outside of his cnn interview where he totally killed himself, what did he say really? Yes it was blown out of proportion, like I said before the irony is this might be one of the least racist things he's said in his life. He's green-lighting his ...girlfriend... to sleep with black people. Just don't bring them courtside because my racist friends will look down on me. The NBA cares because for the first time ever this kook is going to cost them significant money. They've known all along what he is. I'm sure they didn't like having to deal with him but there were decades of worse transgressions that they could have acted on if they really wanted to.

Scheifle's injury was likely the reason Jokinen wasn't moved at the trade deadline. For a team making a playoff run he would have netted the biggest return to the Jets by a long shot. We would not have gotten much for Seteguchi or Montoya, but a veteran former all-star center? Chevy had to take the tent down on that one unfortunately (although I still think he'd have decent value as our 3rd line center next year as long as he's getting 3rd line $). If Buff is viewed solely as an asset then I'd want a large return on him. His skill set is unique in the NHL; his value is tremendous. If a team isn't offering us something that will make our team better now or significantly better in the future, why should we make a deal?

It's pretty silly to think that anything about the CFL can relate to a real life business situation. If that was the case the old Bomber stadium would have been siezed by the bank and sold for parts 20 years ago. I would like the players to get more money, especially the guys at the bottom end. At the same time, I am also aware that to call the owners greedy when they have historically been consistent money losers while players have consistently been paid requires me to either forget the definition of greedy, be hypocrytical, or just talk out of my arse. I'd prefer to do none of the three. As a fan of the CFL I feel like that kind of makes me an owner. Seriously. There is no way this league would have survived without our tlc. But that's not the way it should be; it should be independently sustainable. Every single year people wait for the fan forum in April to find out if the Bombers made or lost money. Think about that. Every single year the profitability of a professional sports team is completely in doubt. Year after year after year after year. Pro-union? Anti-union? I'm pro-CFL. I'm pro-9 profitable teams that never need to expand to the US, take loans from the NFL, or ask for debt forgiveness from local business because they are unable to pay bills. I'm pro-not lending those 2 stinking Ontario teams money anymore. I'm pro-having fan forums where the question of year to year profitability of the Bombers is no longer a mystery. And I'm pro-paying the players more. Except Burris.

I don't mind when the US players have no sense of the history of the CFL; when they act like it's the NFL's little brother. Why shouldn't they? How much time do I spend learning about the history of Peruvian soccer? It's when guys like Pottinger do the "slap in the face" routine that I get bothered. He grew up here. He should know. Harris gets it. Something good has happened to this league. Not everyone at the factory went in on lottery tickets and now were all rich kind of good. More like the company landed a big contract and we finally know the plant won't be shutting down. A raise is definitely in order for the guys at the bottom end of the payroll scale, but no player has ever lost money playing on a CFL roster. Owners have lost money with stunning regularity. I'm amazed that I'm 100% behind the players getting paid more yet with every dumbass comment they make it forces me to advocate for the owners because the owners have no choice but to care about the survival of the league. Harris is the first player who has said anything remotely close to caring about the CFL's existance. Give him ALL the money as far as I'm concerned; the rest need a history lesson first.

It's a common misconception that freedom of speech should mean you are free of the consequences from what you've said.

I thought his season ended with a knee injury last year. Inclined to say he tore one of his CL's, ACL maybe? Someone else will remember the specifics. And he was never very solid in Philly, but he did enough to keep a roster spot. I think they rostered 7 DE's, so as long as he's the 7th best one he's been able to keep a job.

Oh the dude is a crazy old racist, the irony is that the comments that he is in so much trouble for aren't. His remarks about being embarassed are regarding his old racist friends - he doesn't want his...girlfriend...to be seen with black players because of what his friends might think. That said, his history of racist actions are fairly well documented, not worth re-hashing. As for the...girlfriend..., as I understand it in California it is illegal to record a private conversation without consent. She certainly has no ethical high ground to stand on; she might not have any legal ground to stand on either. Of course, once you pull the pin on a grenade and thrown it into a room, pointing out the legal ramifications is just a wee bit too late. She accomplished what she set out to do. This is a story full of horrible people. I'm sure they'll all get book deals and reality TV shows as punishments for their actions.

Compared directly to other goalies nothing about Pav or his deal will look favourable. However when you view it within the context of the Jets' build-thru-the-draft philosophy it isn't the disaster some make it out to be. If they are going to stick to their guns on avoiding free agents with high price tags, and it looks like they will, then consider the following points: - When the deal was signed the Jets didn't really have any prospects at goalie. - While Pav will never ever ever ever be an elite NHL goalie, I can see what Chevy sees in that he could become a pretty good one. He will need better coaching to get a handle on his rebound control and he will have to apply himself in the offseason. This may never happen, but if it does I can see him being a middle of the pack NHL goalie. - The timeline on the development of our prospects is still long enough that the length of Pav's contract is a non-issue. Of the three guys we have my money's on Hellebuyck as our future starter, but that doesn't mean it's happening this September. More likely in the 2016/17 season after a season with the Icecaps and a season as backup. Comrie seems to be less ready than Hellebuyck right now. Hutch is still entirely unproven at the NHL level. If he can put together a nice run in the playoffs he might make Montoya expendable, but he does not push Pav out of his job. By the time any or all of these guys are ready to start in the NHL there will probably only be a year left on Pav's contract. If necessary we can eat that. - The non-goalie prospects on this team are still a year or two away from impacting the Jets' fortunes in a meaningful manner. This team is not likely to be a playoff team this season or next. That will piss some people off, but if it's part of the process of turning the sad-sack Thrashers into perrenial cup contenders then I can wait. Jets 1.0 gave us 17 years of scraping into the playoffs only to flame out in the first round over and over again. Making the playoffs this season is a short-sighted goal. - Montaya was the 6th overall pick in 2004 (Ladd was 4th and Wheeler 5th) and the highest rated goalie prospect of that draft year. He has been typecast as a backup at the NHL level. While he's currently scheduled to become a free agent, IF the Jets re-sign him (Hutch's playoff performance is probably the biggest deciding factor) he potentially could take over the #1 job if Pav falters once again. Chevy/Maurice aren't annointing Pav as an undisputed starter when they call him the man going into next year; they are trying to cut out the legs of the news hacks in wpg who want to get pageviews by crying "goaltending controversy" everytime Pav lets in a bad goal. They have eyes. They know who's playing well and who isn't. They also want to be driving the bus, not letting the ginger wonder over at the Winnipeg Stunned try and make the coaching decisions. None of this sounds particularly appetizing in the short term. Pav remains the starter. He might not get better. The Jets will continue to finish 10th in their conference. When you step back and look at the long term philosophy it is possible to say that neither Pavelec's play or his contract go against the Jets plan for building a winner, and that rolling the dice on him being the goalie of the future was never really the high-stakes gamble that it seemed like at first glance. While it would be nice for Jets fans if Pav would play better, things are still largely going according to plan. And if you really want to take a long term view, Pav's play might be helping build this franchise thru higher draft picks.

He's a steady eddie type player. No real flash or dazzle, just consistently above average, and waaaaay more assignment sound than some of the guys we've had coming off the edge. If we had Hall, Vega, Willis and Hunt back here I'd buy Peach a grand slam at Denny's on the way to the airport. For now he's a decent enough option. If our bird-dogs did their job he will have plenty of competition for his roster spot in camp.

Not specific to last year, but in general I have the sense that over the last decade the consistently profitable teams are Saskatchewan, Edmonton and Calgary (amounts will obviously vary). BC and Winnipeg seem to be more of a year by year scenario - some years it's red and others black. If we didn't fire coaches semi-annually that might change. Hamilton and Toronto (in non-Grey Cup hosting years) are consistent money losers. Montreal seems hard to pin down. They have the smallest stadium in the league, so in a year like this last one where a coach got fired that might be enough to turn a small profit into a small loss. Or a small loss into a bigger loss. Wettenhall seems to want to keep that all private. Ottawa? We'll see, but my expectation is that they will need 3 years to make money, at least if attendance and local sponsorships play as big a part there as they do here. The new TV deal might be enough to move all those teams into the black

The ham-n-eggers getting more money is probably the point every CFL fan is universally behind, and yet the PA somehow managed to get me off board of that with their ridiculous first proposal. 10% annual increases over 8 years you say.... If they send me their address I can mail them a calculator. Obviously they don't have one. I suppose they'll argue they can't afford one.

The PA instructed the players to vent on twitter? This might be the dumbest PA in sports history.

It's about time we just made this a fill-in-the-blank for all defensive line players.

There is no possible way Hamilton made money last season. I would guess losses in the millions, the only upside of which is it was a one time thing that will hopefully lead to profits in the future.

Goodness no. Their "sacrafice" was conceding on moving from a revenue sharing model to a cap model for player salaries during the last CBA negotiations. Moving back? Go right ahead, as long as the numbers keep the CFL healthy and sustainable. Is the CFL strong right now? Absolutely. Strong isn't an objective word; it's a word that can only be used relatively. In the PA's minds, they are trying to act like the CFL is now a roided up Russian weightlifter. Nope. The CFL is strong now, in the sense that life support is no longer needed and the CFL can now resume life as a carefully monitored outpatient. That might be a minor miracle considering the amount of time it spent in paliative care in the 90s. Did the PA buy Bomber Booster certificates in the 90's to help prop this team up when it couldn't afford to pay it's bills? No, that was us, outright giving donations to a football team and not even getting a tax deductable receipt for it. The players need to choose their words carefully at this point. The fans are the CFL, plain and simple. For 100+ years this league has been a gate-driven league. If the players keep making careless comments that sound like they have no perspective of where this league has been and how amazing it is to have survived at all then I have no choice to stand by the owners, who at least understand that we are not that far removed from a finanacial tipping point. I'm guessing almost every CFL fan wants to see the players get more money. I sure do. But it does not sound like the players give much of a hoot about the long term health of this league or what it took from the fans to get to this point.

june 26th

The league doesn't want 9 separate owners, or more if you're counting ownership groups and boards of directors, speaking on their own. They want complete unity and a single voice. The also don't want anyone considered part of the CFL to be beaking off in back-n-forths with players. That is incredibly counterproductive. At this point the cone of silence policy was replaced with a new strategy of just plainly stating what their offer is. I'm fine with that. It doesn't go against either of the above two principles I think they're trying to adhere to. Media battles are always a big part of this and the talking heads were starting to get vocal about being completely shut out by the CFL. Wiecek and Lawless were wringing their hands and crying on each others shoulders about it on H&L yesterday. While you don't want to negotiate thru the media, you don't want them turning against you either. It was a necessary move and based on the numbers and concepts thrown out, it also looks like the first real step towards a resolution. Fans have an understanding of the economics in the CFL, probably a lot better than the players do. The players weren't around 20 years ago when Bomber staffers had to bring their own toilet paper to work. They think this snapshot in time is all that is relevant. Some of these guys will have had to get a map to know where Winnipeg was after they signed their contract; they have no concept of the journey this league has been on. If the PA comes back with cries of foul after this proposal they will have very few fans left in their corner. Maybe just Noeller. I'm sure there will be some give and take, a few tweaks here and there to shift this slightly closer to the players numbers, but in terms of dollars and cents this is reasonable for this league.