‘Players want to play, coaches want to coach’
Pair of football lifers believe CFL has what it takes to create safe path for 2020 season
Mark Nelson and Don Yanowsky are gridiron lifers, like so many professional football coaches.
Yanowsky’s career began in 1981 when he was a student assistant at Toledo; Nelson’s in 1992 with the Edmonton Eskimos. Between them, they have coached for 25 different NCAA and Canadian Football League organizations and crossed over just once when both were on the staff of the Ottawa Redblacks.
It’s football season again and they should be coaching; Nelson with the Toronto Argonauts, Yanowsky with the B.C. Lions. Instead, Nelson is at home in Ottawa, Yanowsky in Memphis, Tenn., both waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic, both hoping the CFL can find a way to play games safely in 2020.
“I hope that we can pull it off and I honestly believe the CFL will do all it can,” said Nelson. “Is that going to be enough? If they get some (financial) help from the (federal) government, they may be able to do a little more. It’s a situation none of us have been through before. But players want to play, coaches want to coach and people want to see the game played.
“And I think the CFL, to be honest with you, is in a great situation because we’ve already decided we’re not starting until probably September. So colleges are already going to be starting. We should learn from what they’re doing. The NFL is going to start July 28. We should be watching to see exactly what they did and didn’t do, so any mistakes they make, we don’t make.
“Now, the difference is they can spend beaucoup money and we’re doing it on a shoestring budget.”
That is indeed an issue. But officials with the league and CFL Players Association continue to conduct regular Monday medical meetings aimed at plotting a safe way forward. Those discussions will surely have to encompass the potential for a player, coach or other employee with underlying health issues to opt out of a 2020 season. How that would affect contract status and compensation is also tied into negotiations between the CFL and the CFLPA aimed at amending the collective bargaining agreement, whenever those talks begin.
The Minnesota Twins earlier this week announced that after consultations with team doctors, it was decided that two coaches, both in their 60s, would not be working in the dugout or the bullpen this season. Both will be paid their salaries.
Nelson turns 64 in late July, Yanowsky is 60. Neither said he is concerned that age creates more vulnerability in a CFL return-to-play scenario.
“To be really honest, I don’t,” said Nelson. “I like to think that generally I’m pretty healthy.
And I know there’s a little bit of stupidity in there, too. But I wear my mask when I go to the drugstore and the grocery store. I try to do the social distancing and all those things. I’d like to think health-wise I’m pretty good.
“And hey, if I guessed wrong, it was meant to be. You know, I hate saying that, but that’s kind of how I am. Now I’m not going to be hitting all the bars. Not rolling the dice that way. I’m going to be smart and do what
I’m supposed to do.”
Yanowsky is of a similar opinion.
“I’m going to live my life. I want to coach. I am a coach and I want it to be safe for everybody, and when they tell me it’s time to go, I’ll be excited.
“You take the right precautions, the distancing and the face masks. The mask thing, the way I understand it, is to protect other people from you. So I’d be a pretty selfish son-of-a-buck if I said I’m not going to wear that. If it’s about taking care of each other, which any team is, then most certainly you should do those things.”
There are myriad health and safety protocols to be hammered out. And the CFL still hasn’t committed publicly to a single-hub city, though that’s the most likely route to a 2020 season. A source said Tuesday that Winnipeg has been the consensus choice of CFL leadership for at least a couple of weeks.
If that’s the model and the city, then some players and coaches could be living away from their families for four months, incorporating a quarantine period, a shortened training camp and a Grey Cup game played in mid-december.
Yanowsky said he has essentially lived that way for years, as his wife and sons reside in the U.S. while he works in Canada. It’s inconvenient, but it’s also part of the game for a professional football coach.