CONTRACT FAIRNESS
Vanstone calls for level field
Kevin Glenn is known for his rapid-fire delivery but, at times, his employer also demonstrates a quick release.
On Jan. 4, just one day after the Saskatchewan Roughriders announced the acquisition of quarterback Zach Collaros, the CFL team cut Glenn.
It mattered not that Glenn was under contract to the Roughriders for 2018. Such deals might as well be written in chalk.
See ya.
The 38-year-old Glenn quickly resurfaced with the Edmonton Eskimos, who announced his signing on Monday.
Later that day, the Montreal Alouettes informed the world that Darian Durant had been released.
The move came shortly before the 35-year-old quarterback was due to receive a $150,000 roster bonus.
A year earlier, the Alouettes excitedly acquired Durant’s rights from Saskatchewan and signed him to a three-year deal with a reported value of $1.25 million.
Durant signed that contract in good faith. Ditto for Glenn when he put pen to paper.
Both quarterbacks, as it turned out, were penalized by a system that is weighted in favour of the teams and their well-compensated coaches, general managers, etc.
In many cases, someone making $400,000, $500,000 or more will inform a player who earns a fraction of that amount that his remuneration is excessive.
The player is often given a “renegotiate ... or else” ultimatum due to the inequities in the system.
Suppose that a team decides to cashier a coach/GM. In such a situation, the club would be obligated to pay out the remainder of his contract.
The Roughriders, for example, kept issuing cheques to Greg Marshall, Corey Chamblin and Brendan Taman long after they were fired.
However, the team’s obligations to Glenn ended the moment the transaction was processed.
Such is the system, one with which the players are all too familiar.
Durant had seen a comparable fate befall two of his former Roughriders teammates — slotback Weston Dressler and defensive end John Chick — in January of 2016.
Dressler and Chick both demonstrated a commitment to the team and the community, becoming year-round residents of Regina.
And how far did loyalty get them?
Dressler, for his part, was let go after playing the first season of a four-year contract.
“Going into that, having signed for four years at that stage, I understood that going through the four years might not happen,” Dressler said last March during CFL Week.
After all, that is how the game is played off the field. It has been this way for so long that nobody even blinks.
The players deserve better. The fans deserve better. The league, which stands to benefit from player identifiability, can and should do better.
It can start by pushing for a level playing field in upcoming negotiations with the CFL Players’ Association.
Instead of limiting the salary cap to players, how about an all-encompassing ceiling on expenses?
Across-the-board cost certainty could make the league more enticing for possible franchise purchasers or people who might look to establish an expansion team.
And how about finding a way to reward players of long-standing service? At the very least, institute a buyout provision that deters teams from releasing players who have made significant commitments.
The players, after all, are the show — the ones who put their bodies on the line while playing a punishing game, while coaches prowl the sidelines and GMs occupy climate-controlled booths.
For the players to absorb more hits off the field, in the form of no-strings-attached contract terminations, is simply a shame.
Going into that, having signed for four years at that stage, I understood that going through the four years might not happen
WESTON DRESSLER