WildPath

Shayne Gauthier re-ups this morning, as per Twitter....

Last year.

The Bombers are developing their backup QB in a refreshingly innovative way.  They obviously have a number of "Streveler" packages that include pass/run options primarily centered around intermediate to short gains (less than 20 yards).  Last year they consistently inserted him into the game when the stakes were real "the game was obviously still in contention" to play those Streveler packages.  It's WAY more consequential playtime than any backup I've ever seen get outside of injury to a starter.  Allows him to build confidence in a more natural way while simultaneously providing additional offensive depth to the Bombers attack.

They didn't want Lapo anyway!!!

All joking aside, the Riders faithful are upset at the situation but the blame should solely rest on two men Chris Jones and Reynolds. In 2015 these two men engaged in back room negotiations during the season in order to completely blindside a divisional rival. This stunk so badly the CFL had to create new rules to make sure it didn't happen again. For the first time in CFL history other teams now needed league approved consent to hire a coach away from another team. Rider fans cackled with glee at how they screwed over the Evil Empire.
3 years later the man who tampered with Jones got a heavy dose of karma by trusting him. Gone was the savior because Reynolds was too stupid to get a cutoff date on Jones NFL out clause. Now faced with needing to poach another coach got an even bigger dose of karma when the rule created because of his cheating bit him in the nads. Rider fans are still crying foul...but the rest of the CFL says ..HA HA Karma beyotch! Hows the tampering and acting in poor faith working out 4 you now?

I don't agree, Demski's versatility as a RB/receiver makes him difficult to replace, the only other player currently on the team that can fulfill that role is Flanders and we've seen the problems getting him on the roster.   A key element of LaPo's playbook is creating distractions away from Harris so defences can't key on him, that includes running and passing options and Demski adds both.

Whether LaPo is happy or not, I'm just glad the Bombers have a G.M. in place with enough common sense and the cojones to say N.F.W..  If LaPo is so offended that he wishes to leave the team at the end of this season it gives them a full year to search for his replacement. It's probably happening anyway, so best prepare.
 
 
 

Ya I'm not concerned at all about losing Lapo, but I'm concerned about the Bombers hard work becoming a "classy" organization that people want to come to, is taking a hit... 

The guy is a jerk.. However...  He did the bombers a huge favor.  Perhaps without having his salary freed up it would have been spent elsewhere and we wouldn't have been able to sign and later extend Bighill.  Had he not done what he did Steveler would have a whole lot less experience now than he has and I would argue he helped the team more last season than Durant would have or an alternative to Durant like Kevin Glenn would have.  It really worked out well for the Bombers and poorly for Durant lol

amazing hit that never shoulda been a penalty...

No different than in 1935 when the Winnipeg business community decided they weren't going to lose to those Regina bums anymore and ponied up to start signing US players. Along came Fritz Hansen and the legend of the "Blue Bombers" was born.

I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that BLM's wife has a high paying job in Calgary working in the Provincial health service.
Which reminds me of the George Gratzer case. Back in the late 60's I used to eat lunch with, among others, a couple of guys who were studying mathematics at the U of M. I remember them telling us about Professor Gratzer, who was on the maths staff, and saying that this man is a world class mathematician and there's no way that he should be here. He should be at Harvard or Standford, someplace like that.
The thing is that both Gratzer and his wife were Hungarian, and his wife qualified as a dentist in Hungary. She wanted to work as a dentist but the American dentist's union wouldn't recognize her qualifications. Someone from the U of M's math dept was at a conference and found out about this. So he phoned up the Dentistry Dept at the U of M and said that we'd love to make him an offer but can you sort out his wife's qualification issues. Problem solved. Gratzer came to Winnipeg and has been here ever since.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Grätzer
It's good to see the Bombers continuing this tradition.

Love the move, but pairing the announcement with announcing Bighill will be working as an investment advisor on the side seems strange. Open flaunting they found a way around the cap? Slap in the face to talk about not being able to find work in Regina in the off season? Agreement with the investment firm that it would be included in the press release?

There's no way to grow the revenues within Canada? None at all? Toronto is now lost to the CFL? BC and Montreal are sinking and there is no way to grow revenue in Canada? 
I don't buy that. 
Go ahead and spread the game to Mexico, and hopefully it will pay off, but the opportunity cost and saying that we can't grow Canadian revenue will hang on Ambrosie's tenure. 
Getting Bell to move the Grey Cup, the premiere Canadian sporting event each year, to CTV would grow revenue on the next television deal. 

Yeah getting a guy a 2nd job isn't anything more than that. I doubt they're paying the guy to do nothing, he will be expected to perform his duties in this other job in order to get paid just like he will be expected to do his job on the football field to earn his paycheque that way. 
If the guy is concerned about his family and where they live having a job to fall back on to help convince them to move cities is a big boon. All in all the Bombers played this well (up yours Saskatchewan, trying to make Regina seem like the only place there's a career outside football, go **** yourselves). This organization has become one of the most desirable in the league. NIce change after all the chaos they had firing everyone at the drop of a hat. 

Love the move, but pairing the announcement with announcing Bighill will be working as an investment advisor on the side seems strange. Open flaunting they found a way around the cap? Slap in the face to talk about not being able to find work in Regina in the off season? Agreement with the investment firm that it would be included in the press release?

Also think guys are going to not wait for CBA to be resolved to sign deals. If they do might be out of luck to get any big raises.

I'm not surprised to see that Reinebold tweets in all-caps.

SUCKS to see character gys and true pro's as well as great ballers have to be released, but so is the business and game that top teams need to do this, and once the worth is less than the value you are getting, decisions have to be made. He will definitely catch on somewhere and kudos to the Bombers for allowing him more time to do this before free agency.
Hopefully this is the evolution of our management team as well in being more Wallyesque and making the decisions as a players best before has started to show, as opposed to before where we held on far too long..wasting valuable SMS money that could be re-allocated elsewhere.
Cornerback is the easiest of the linebacking/defensive back spots to fill in the CFL with American talent as the learning curve is pretty much nil, so not too worried about us covering that position with a cheaper option and using the extra money we would have payed to Randle toward a JSK/Biggie/Jeffcoat

Yeah Randle will catch on with another squad undoubtedly. Really sucks about Mo, however. Dude was an absolute game changer 

Great video!
 

I
Id also like to see some form of compensation when you draft a Canadian in the first round and the player leaves as a free-agent after just 2 seasons. Depending on the quality of the guy there could be a compensation system similar to MLB.

I don't feel that's quite the right comparison.  The Als management has been too much of a disaster which is why their QB problems have suffered continually over the years.  We have a stable enough front office where I feel a QB change wouldn't totally disrupt the team.
 
Now, having said that, I would not move on from Nichols just yet.  I know everyone says he's not a big enough play maker and can't get it done in a Ricky Ray manner.  But elite QBs like that are tough to find, and I believe in Streveler, but don't think it's time to say start him from here on out yet.
Now, if Nichols is in a bad funk or has any worse injury problems over the course of this next season, then I'm all for starting the Streveler era.  But only if that's indeed the case.
I think a better idea might be to hope Lapolice leaves for a HC job in Toronto and promote Buck Pierce into his job.  The offense needs a play calling shakeup.

LOL