CFL knuckles under
By PAUL FRIESEN -- Winnipeg Sun
So much for dealing from a position of strength.
You know that player transfer agreement between the CFL and NFL, the one that allows the NFL to raid CFL rosters every off-season?
It's a deal that's allowed dozens of star players head south since 1997, including Blue Bombers Arland Bruce III, Albert Johnson III and Mike Sellers. Most recently, quarterback Ricky Ray, one of the top young players in the game, was plucked from the Edmonton Eskimos.
Well, get this, football fans: CFL commish Tom Wright has negotiated a new arrangement, and the roster raids continue.
And you'll never guess what the CFL teams affected will receive in return: a thank-you card -- if they're lucky.
It's a startling development for a league that used to be hell-bent on re-working the deal, if not scrapping it altogether.
When this arrangement first began, the CFL was desperate, so it agreed to give the NFL access to players in the option year of their contracts in exchange for a $3 million US loan.
The loan was paid off late last year, and since then Wright has been negotiating a new deal.
The Bombers, among the most vocal critics of the agreement, have long called for tangible compensation for every player lost -- a player transfer fee, for instance.
But the only significant new benefit to the CFL is the chance to broadcast a few games each year on the NFL Network, a specialty TV channel starting up in the U.S.
So you'd think the Bombers would be jumping up and down in anger, right?
Think again.
"I used to rag on it," GM Brendan Taman said. "It is what it is. Just grin and bear it, and go with it. I leave those decisions to the guys who run the league. I've got my challenges in getting this team on track."
Bomber president/CEO Lyle Bauer even went so far as to suggest this was a good deal for the CFL. This is the same guy who, back in '01, almost blew a gasket when he found out the agreement ran another two years.
"I'm not going to apologize for those comments," Bauer said yesterday. "Back then the team was in debt for $5 million. Any way the club could find to pay back that debt was a good idea. All the clubs approved this deal. It is good for us."
Wow. Bauer better check his transmission after a reversal like that.
The only member of the Bomber brass grumbling yesterday was head coach Dave Ritchie. At least some things never change.
Bauer insists the transfer agreement brings players like Sellers to the CFL in the first place, that they might not come without it.
But where are they going to go? Their only real option is to not play anywhere, and as far as I know the NFL doesn't have a ton of openings for couch potatoes.
Reached at his office in Toronto, Wright stood by the deal, sounding not at all like somebody who'd been had at the bargaining table.
"Everybody says unless somebody writes a cheque, you're not getting anything for it," the commish said. "That's really short-sighted."
Is there any other way to look at a league that can't seem to go a year or two without a financial crisis?
