CFL deserves a break during COVID crisis
The CFL, which has established a new standard for malleable drop-dead deadlines, is in a second-down, 83-yards-to-go predicament.
Once upon a time in Riderville, the situation would have called for a hitch screen.
However, there isn’t a playbook for dealing with the new realities faced by the guardians of Canadian professional football, who are trying to navigate their way through a global pandemic without the practical prospect of being able to go it alone.
This is not the NBA, NHL, NFL or Major League Baseball, remember. At this point, it isn’t even Major League Soccer. Gulp.
CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie and friends are making it up as they go – and what choice do they have? The circumstances are unprecedented in our lifetimes and, ultimately, the league will not have the final say on whether games are played in 2020.
In the absence of money from the federal government, or without the sudden intervention of a benevolent benefactor who has an insatiable desire to relinquish tens of millions of dollars, the league will be in next-year country.
Fans, of course, are getting antsy. Deadlines have come and gone without anything hinting at a resolution.
Big-league hockey is being played in August, but there is nary a whisper from any representative of a football league that would ordinarily be approaching the midpoint of its regular season.
Players are beyond impatient, which is inevitable when you consider that they have yet to receive a paycheque in 2020.
Some players have vented on social media, with Ambrosie being a frequent and obvious target.
Remember, though, that Ambrosie has bosses – the muted, yet influential, presidents/ceos who comprise the CFL’S board of governors – to whom he must answer.
The congenial commissioner has absorbed an inordinate amount of heat when you consider that some of the issues are simply beyond his control.
It is a lucrative gig, though, so the second-guessing comes with the territory. Cheque, please.
The league has generally opted for silence and has therefore allowed itself to become a piñata when frustrated fans and players are inclined to vent.
People need to calm down – just a little – with the overheated critiques of Ambrosie and, moreover, the CFL.
Anyone who presumes or asserts that Ambrosie is indifferent to the plight of the players is wallowing in delusion.
Anyone who mistakes silence for inactivity is simply off-base.
Careers are at stake. The league’s future is imperiled. Nobody is asleep at the switch here.
Ambrosie grew up in Canada. He was a CFL offensive lineman from 1985 to 1993, so he certainly understands and empathizes with the plight of the players.
Yes, they would welcome an infusion of income, and that is to be expected. But how do you compensate the players at this juncture?
Training camps, even if they materialize, will not be held until September. Nobody has tried out for, let alone made, a team.
Even if there was money available for the players, who would be paid? Everyone who is currently under contract? Just the veterans? What constitutes a veteran? Et cetera.
The league’s modus operandi and illogical business plan are open to dissection, but let’s not lose perspective.
There is little doubt in this cluttered home office that Ambrosie and other CFL power brokers are exhaustively searching for a solution … any solution.
But they, alone, cannot make it happen. The money must emanate from an external source, such as the federal government – or perhaps, as Rod Pedersen has asserted, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
Without a virtual lottery win, what else can anyone realistically demand of Ambrosie?
The inclination here, and even among some players, is to expect the worst regarding 2020.
“For me, I think at this point it’s probably best for us just to focus on 2021,” Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Cody Fajardo told CKRM’S Michael Ball on Friday.
“As an athlete, I can’t get through my mind ‘2021’ because there’s still that slim chance of playing, and I think that’s the hard part.”
Until “slim” becomes a definitive “none,” Ambrosie will hold out hope that somehow, some way, there will be games in 2020.
But nobody is blessed with 20/20 foresight, which is something to keep in mind during these troubled times for the CFL.