TACKLING THE HARRIS ISSUE
Should running back be considered for CFL awards?
The Canadian Football League has an Andrew Harris problem. Or at the very least, an Andrew Harris issue.
So, too, the CFL Players’ Association and the Football Reporters of Canada.
It’s fast approaching time for members of the FRC to vote on end-of-year awards like Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian, for which Harris would and should normally be considered a serious candidate, based on his performance. Normally.
But the FRC will have to balance Harris’s obviously deserving stats — a league-leading 1,316 rushing yards in 15 games — against his two-game suspension for violating the CFL’s substance abuse policy. He tested positive for methandienone. He maintains the banned substance was contained in a dietary supplement.
Some players and media members have said publicly they believe him. Others like Montreal’s John Bowman have straight up called Harris a drug cheat.
With a positive test on his record, he’s fair game. But after serving the league-mandated suspension, what is fair treatment of Harris?
There isn’t a single word in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that negates a player’s eligibility for end-of-season awards in the case of a suspension for PEDs.
The CFLPA and CFL would have to agree on language before any such inclusion could take place. CFLPA executive director Brian Ramsay said he looks forward to having conversations on the issue of eligibility with both the FRC and CFL, but wouldn’t offer an opinion on the matter prior to those talks.
There should, at the very least, be language that deals with this issue in the FRC’s directive to its voting members and in a set of player eligibility requirements that would be made public.
The FRC will be formally addressing this issue long before next year’s voting. But for now, Harris is going to be a problem, or at least an issue, for the seasoned media professionals. They will vote the way they feel about Harris, and in the absence of any formal direction from the league, the PA or the FRC leadership, they will be well within their rights to do so.
Mexico’s Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional will be drafting at least 16 Canadian players next month, as the scope of its working agreement with the CFL expands.
The draft pool will consist of former USports and NCAA players not under contract to any pro team.
An LFA source said its eight teams will be considering players at all positions, but have particular interest in quarterbacks, offensive linemen and receivers.
A report on 3downnation.com said Canadian players will be paid US$350 per game, after taxes, and will receive free room and board. In 2020, there will be two LFA teams in Mexico City and others in Monterrey, Toluca, Puebla City, Queretaro, Saltillo and Naucalpan. The season runs from January into May.
The 107th Grey Cup in Calgary next month is taking on some decidedly international flavour.
The ATCO Stratosphere venue, an 18-metre-high inflatable dome replete with 360-degree video projection capabilities, will be transformed into International House on the Friday before the big game, for that day and night only.
“It will be completely branded with Canada and all of its partner countries as it relates to CFL 2.0,” said Duane Vienneau, the CFL’s chief Grey Cup and events officer.
“So for the first time at Grey Cup you’re going to see an international presence. We’re working to highlight each of the countries. It might be through food, through visuals, through some sort of activation.”
Vienneau said visitors will be able to mix with football federation officials from all of the league’s partner countries. The CFL is also engaging with local consulates and cultural societies in Calgary.
The dome holds up to 500 people, and on Friday night it will take on a party purpose not unlike the country-run venues that pop up during Olympic Games.
Vienneau said International House will become a staple at all Grey Cups and could be expanded to two days in 2020 and three in 2021.