CFL decides it’s four strikes and you’re out
Drug policy better, but only ‘close to being on a par’ with other leagues
After a full season without a working drug policy, the CFL and its players association have agreed on a program that will see increased testing of players and stiffer penalties for those caught cheating.
The policy, released by the league and CFLPA Thursday, calls for a significant increase in the number of tests conducted, from 35 per cent of the players in the league to 100 per cent.
Players caught using a banned substance will face two-game suspensions for their first failed test, nine games for a second, one year for a third and a lifetime ban in the event of a fourth.
In addition, players will be publicly identified after they have exhausted their avenues of appeal.
“We accomplished our goals,” CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge said, “which were to safeguard the health and safety of our players, protecting the integrity of the game, sending the right message — particularly to young people and people that aspire to join this league.”
The changes come after nearly a full year of criticism of the league’s former policy from leaders in the fight against doping — criticism that caused the league to shut down its program entirely before last season.
Testing is expected to resume Week 1 of the coming season, after players undergo a new mandatory education program during training camp, required by the end of June.
The number of tests will equal the number of players in the league, although because they’re random, some players could be tested more than once, others not at all.
While the league and the players are touting the policy as on par with other North American pro sports leagues, it still falls short of the NFL’s four-year ban for first offences.
“Our penalties, including up to a lifetime ban, are extraordinarily significant, and will be an adequate deterrent,” Orridge argued. “We never compare ourselves to another league ... we need to gauge ourselves by what is best for the league and all those concerned.”
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport will once again oversee the testing, after the league fired the agency early last summer.
“I feel very good about where it ended up, considering where it was last June,” CCES president and CEO Paul Melia said. “The changes the CFL has made in their policy are in the areas we had identified as weaknesses in their existing policy. Having a meaningful first sanction — and one can debate whether the two games is — is certainly more meaningful than a warning.
“In terms of North American professional sports, it’s getting close to being on a par with the others.”
Melia says a more transparent results management process and the public disclosure of offenders is also significant, along with the increase in the number of players tested and a much stronger deterrent for university players entering the CFL.
The plan falls short, though, of complete independent results management, Melia said — meaning the league remains in charge of releasing information.
The breakup between the CFL and CCES occurred after the head of the CCES-contracted lab in Montreal went public with her criticism of the CFL’s lax policy in June.
Orridge reacted by cutting ties with the CCES and trying to find a testing partner in the U.S.
However, the only other two North American labs accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency turned the league away for the same concerns expressed by the Canadian lab.
The league had put together terms of a new policy by Grey Cup week in Winnipeg, but the players union, then led by former player Scott Flory, was slow to agree to significant changes.
Flory was replaced by Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman Jeff Keeping this month.
“This new performance-enhancing drug testing policy meets the needs and concerns expressed by CFLPA members to ensure that all players compete on a level playing field while improving player safety and making drug testing consistent with all other professional sports leagues,” Keeping was quoted as saying in the joint statement.
The CFL’s old policy, trumpeted as cutting-edge by the league and players at the time, was in effect for five years, but drew negative attention when more and more university players were caught cheating at the CFL’s pre-draft combine over the last two years.
The players faced the WADA standard of a four-year suspension at the university level, but knew their first offence was, in essence, a freebie as they graduated to the Canadian pro level.
The league vowed to close that loophole, and did so in time for this year’s combine in March.
But the changes only addressed players entering the league, forcing them to wait a year before they can sign professional contracts.
That policy remains in effect.