CFL needs more action for racial justice: panel
Leaders needed ‘ to start training’ next generation
Awareness and education, while vital to any cause, are simply not enough to move the needle in the quest for racial justice.
Even the Canadian Football League, an organization that can point to a litany of black quarterbacks as proof of its progressive history — sobering and admirable — has to take more action.
That was just one of the messages coming from participants in the Racial Justice Roundtable, an online co-presentation of the league and the CFL Players Association.
Toronto receiver Natey Adjei said the league already has a ready- made template that can create pathways to success for people of colour.
“You look at training camps and we all agree that Canadian quarterbacks are slow in their development compared to their American counterparts. So the CFL has created a way for Canadian quarterbacks to develop every training camp in a CFL setting.”
He was referring to the Canadian Quarterback Internship Program, which kicked off in 2010 and became mandatory in 2012. The initiative places at least one U Sports quarterback with each of the nine CFL teams through training camp. The pivots attend meetings, participate in onfield drills and receive professional coaching that has been key to career success. Graduates of the program include CFL draft picks Michael O’connor and Andrew Buckley, as well as Chris Merchant and Noah Picton.
“Why can’t we have somebody come in to learn, a member of a minority learn coaching or have somebody in the front office every training camp? Create an internship,” said Adjei. “I know money is tight but this is important.”
Saskatchewan assistant coach Jason Shivers took that ball and ran with it.
“There should be some type of internship to find out about being a GM,” said Shivers, who cited the names of influential black executives Roy Shivers, Ed Hervey and Michael Clemons.
“We need these people to start training the next generation. And it’s not like we’re saying, ‘ Oh, there’s not other people who should be interns, too,’ we just know that it just doesn’t happen that fast for people of our skin tone or colour.”
League statistics bear that out, as there are currently two black head coaches, just one black GM. Even so, B.C. receiver Bryan Burnham praised the CFL for routinely giving a platform to players of colour.
“The CFL has done a great job with the whole Diversity is Strength campaign and making the voices heard of the black players in the league, and not just the black players, but the brown players, because the CFL has gone global with the Mexican players who came up.”
The league and players have been working toward actionable items on the racial justice file since last spring, when CFLPA president Solomon Elimimian reached out to CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and worldwide protests that followed. Elimimian was adamant that the league and its players produce something concrete.
“This is something we should be leading,” he said then. “This is something we should be doing, asking the questions. How can we put actionable items forward to initiate change and do our part?”
As Winnipeg defensive lineman Jackson Jeffcoat said during the roundtable discussion on Wednesday, putting the words Black Lives Matter on a basketball court or football field is a first step that has to be supported by action.
“To figure out what’s needed for change and how to go about that process, I think that’s important. Don’t just talk about it, be about it. Let’s change. Help us change. If you support us or listen to us and have any compassion, help us grow and change.”
Burnham, who has spoken at length about his personal experiences with systemic racism in the United States, was eloquent during the roundtable in his defence of the Black Lives Matter movement and its social relevance.
“To say all lives matter insinuates that at some point we didn’t appreciate life and that lives didn’t matter. To say blue lives matter would insinuate that at one point in our history cops didn’t matter. That’s absurd.
“Historically, black lives have not mattered. From the beginning of the United States black men and women started as slaves and had no rights and had to earn those rights and have worked harder than anyone in the United States to become citizens and follow the rules and become equal.
“To see them still being murdered for being Black, those people who don’t believe that ( racism) is here need to open their eyes and see it.”