NEGOTIATION LISTS ARE NOW OPEN FOR FULL VIEWING
Plenty of quarterbacks among names released by CFL’s nine teams
The CFL has lifted the lid on what for so long was a cone of silence.
What was spoken about in whispers — each team’s 45-man negotiation list (giving the team exclusive negotiating rights with college and junior football players) — is finally out in the public domain. The CFL publicly shared a list of 10 players from each team Tuesday, with 10 more to follow in December.
It’s part of a plan by CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie to bring more transparency to the league.
“It was all part of a broader conversation at the league meetings in January,” said Ambrosie. “We can no longer afford to operate in a vacuum. There’s a big world out there, we have to be in the news. The idea of an off-season where we go quiet is not appropriate anymore. We’re going to be, to the best of our ability, the most fan-centric league in the world. The best part of this, fans will be talking about who is on the neg lists. That’s super exciting for me.”
Fans of NCAA football will know several of the names. Remember, many of these players will never see the CFL, and some could go on to be stars in the NFL.
Big names? How about former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose CFL rights are owned by Montreal.
The B.C. Lions listed eight quarterbacks among their 10 neg list players, including Louisville’s Lamar Jackson (the 2016 Heisman winner), Georgia freshman Jake Fromm and Boise State’s Brett Rypien (nephew of Mark Rypien).
The Ottawa Redblacks have Greg Little, a former secondround
draft pick of the Cleveland Browns (2011), on their list.
Not everybody in CFL circles wanted to release names. They’d rather the players who are on the neg lists not know they’re on the list. If a player is a free agent and says he wants to come to the CFL, the team with him on its neg list has 10 days to offer him a contract, giving them his rights for a year. A team with a full roster may not want to make an immediate move once a player triggers the 10-day period.
“There are lots of different views on why the neg list is good or bad,” said Ambrosie.
“The concern is they have to protect the efforts they make on scouting and the neg list accomplishes that. They’re not obstinate, they’re not trying to block anything. They’re willing to be open minded and look for a better approach.
“One of the things we could do was improve our transparency and this was a really positive step in that direction.”