TrueBlue4ever

That’s quite the bar they have set for themselves. Oops. Too soon, Rider nation?

Yeah, but we lost Sayles and Rose in 2019 and Walters found Alford and Nichols to more than adequately replace them. We have stockpiled Grey and Tui on our o-line as back-ups who could slide in. And if Lawler goes, maybe that frees up cash to take a run at bringing Lucky Whitehead back (his West Final appearance in the stands has me hopeful he is pining to come back). All in all, my faith in Walters’ and our scouting staff’s track records have me less concerned than I might otherwise be.

Well done.

Here are the articles I looked at. You can parse them for whatever specific quotes you would like: On his Ottawa signing: https://www.google.com/amp/s/ottawasun.com/sports/football/cfl/ottawa-redblacks/two-year-deal-with-nick-arbuckle-gives-ottawa-redblacks-a-no-1-qb/wcm/95e123b4-84a4-41cb-8bae-516ca8b7c462/amp/ On how contract re-negotiations broke down: https://3downnation.com/2021/01/18/redblacks-quarterback-nick-arbuckle-involved-in-contract-staredown/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/ottawasun.com/sports/football/cfl/ottawa-redblacks/qb-or-not-qb-if-redblacks-dont-reach-deal-with-nick-arbuckle-before-midnight-sunday-hes-likely-gone/wcm/3b736b7a-6e4e-4e05-8986-f432a80959ba/amp/ Santino Filoso’s timeline from LaPo and Arbuckle hirings, contract stalemate, trade, Desjardins firing, and post mortem where the narrative moves from “cut for contract reasons which puts into question the GMs competency” to “LaPo forced his GMs hand to get ‘his’ guy and made the GM the scapegoat” and certainly feels one-sided in favour of propping up Marcel (also one could read the post game reports he filed to see a shift in his attitude to LaPo and the increasing blame laid at his feet from “he has bad players” to “he is making his players bad”, rightfully or wrongfully): https://3downnation.com/2019/12/10/what-paul-lapolice-brings-to-the-redblacks/ https://3downnation.com/2020/02/03/bold-move-by-general-manager-marcel-desjardins-pays-off-for-redblacks/ https://3downnation.com/2021/01/19/redblacks-gm-marcel-desjardins-not-panicked-about-contract-restructure-discussions-with-qb-nick-arbuckle/ https://3downnation.com/2021/02/02/following-quarterback-switch-redblacks-fans-are-questioning-gm-marcel-desjardins/ https://3downnation.com/2021/10/26/during-his-time-in-ottawa-lazy-narratives-emerged-about-former-redblacks-gm-marcel-desjardins/ https://3downnation.com/2021/12/19/the-ottawa-redblacks-2021-post-mortem/ And here is Filoso’s byline on 3 Down showing his residency: Santino Filoso 364 POSTS 0 COMMENTS Santino Filoso is originally from Ottawa and has written about the Redblacks since 2013. He is the only CFL writer currently living in Brazil (as far as we know). Why that may or may not be relevant: If he is quoting other writers or papers to get hard numbers, easy enough, but when he veers into opinion pieces to support Desjardins or blame LaPo for the internal moves the club made, one would imagine he would have inner access to the club to verify these viewpoints that it was LaPo truly guiding the ship and not Desjardins who controlled the roster, therefore making the Arbuckle move a personality firing and not a money move, especially after the story changes halfway through. And if he was just a random blogger on a fan site, then his opinion, although entitled to it, would not be worth much more or less than anyone else’s. But if written as an accredited writer for a national CFL website purporting to be a beat writer for the team, one can fairly ask how a guy apparently writing from 7,000km away can be considered an unassailable source of credibility if he has no physical contact with the inner sanctum of the RedBlacks. Now it is possible he is in Ottawa and only lives in Brazil in the off-season, but his byline is then very misleading to me. And maybe he uses Justin Dunk as his inside source if he is out-of-country, but he has made a point to quote his source in some stories but not in his opinion pieces. Guys like Tait or even Friesen who many do not care for at least can say that have access to the locker room and can directly see the day-to-day workings of the team,and can then opine on club issues with some more credibility as an “insider” than someone blogging from the southern hemisphere, IMO. Toronto trade to Edmonton and the money issue there with John Murphy and assessment by Dinwiddie: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6225603 Edmonton’s Arbuckle contract signing: https://www.google.com/amp/s/edmontonsun.com/sports/football/cfl/edmonton-elks/edmonton-elks-ink-quarterback-nick-arbuckle-through-2022-season/wcm/5c5b303b-e8d8-4e78-a0b1-f7079695b00b/amp/ There you go.

The answer to that is probably somewhere between “the riddle of the sphinx” and something these guys could solve:

My head hurt researching it. Amalgamated from about a dozen newspaper stories from the last 2 years. Short version, teams would not agree to his contract demands and moved him for what assets they could.

The news reports out of Ottawa said it came down to money. Arbuckle got a huge signing bonus ($210,000) in 2020, collected salary for a year when the league did not play (although he did take a pay cut), and then would not renegotiate his deal for 2021. Was going to make almost $500,000 and was due a $150,000 bonus three days before he got cut. When Nichols (who was due his own bonus and was cut by Toronto in a cost-cutting measure), Ottawa had an out and jumped to sign him and cut Arbuckle. Toronto, now short a QB, grabbed Arbuckle since all other teams were settled at pivot. It was also mentioned that Nichols veteran status at QB was more roster-beneficial according to CFL rules for Ottawa. The “LaPo forced Marcel’s hand” angle was overblown (he certainly had input and probably ID’d Nichols as a solution once the Arbuckle contract talks broke down) but became the new narrative for some (especially 3Down Ottawa writer and not-so-subtle Desjardins backer Santino Filoso - who apparently writes out of Brazil, by the way) once the move went sour after Nichols showed his injury was more permanent then anyone knew and Marcel was being thrown to the wolves by the fan base. In Toronto, Arbuckle had 2 hamstring injuries that slowed his progress. Again, he was getting starter money, including his $150,000 signing bonus with the Argos, but once MBT emerged as a guy who could win some games, John Murphy was quoted as saying they could not afford to pay two starting QBs and fill the other holes that needed filling,and Ryan Dinwiddie said MBT won the starter’s role. So off to Edmonton he goes. Now, despite not playing a single down in Edmonton, the club has re-upped him for 2022 at a cost of $340,000 but only a $5,000 signing bonus this time), so it would appear they consider him a starter for that kind of dough (if that means anything given the non-guaranteed contracts of the CFL). At least this is what I gleaned from the various newspaper reports of Arbuckle’s last couple of seasons. He may still be very good, but he has been given some pretty big salaries for a guy with 11 career starts, and those salaries seemed to play a role in teams abandoning him, especially with COVID wreaking havoc on CFL finances.

Don’t need to. Hellebuyck had COVID in the summer before training camp.

Anything further reported on the Gainey incident in the WSF?

Here is the full breakdown for the entire playoffs. Winning the Grey Cup is worth an extra $23,000 overall, per cfldb.ca What is the playoff compensation for CFL games? How much are CFL players paid for playoff games? What is the history of CFL playoff compensation? For the five year term of the 2019 CBA, playoff and Grey Cup compensation is as follows: First Place Standing (Bye) $3,400 Semi-Final Participation $3,400 Division Championship Participation $3,600 Grey Cup Runner-up $8,000 Grey Cup Winner $16,000 This was last increased in 2012 by $100 for First Place Standing, Semi-Final Participation and Division Championship Participation over the 2011 amounts. See Article 12 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement for full details. The CBA provides playoff compensation to all active roster and injured list players, but not practice roster players. This payment comes from revenue from the playoff and Grey Cup games and a minimum of $469,200 is paid to 46-man rosters of 3 teams (2 semi-finalists, 1 bye) for each of the division semi-finals ($938,400 total), $331,200 to 2 teams for each of the division finals ($662,400 total) and $1.104 million for the Grey Cup. Practice roster players continue to receive the weekly pay stated in their practice roster agreement paid by their club. Practices for sharing playoff compensation will vary from year-to-year and team-to-team.

And yet in the biggest game of the year both times he was outplayed by the guy he lost to. 2019 Jefferson puts up 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles to Lawrence’s 4 tackles. 2021 both Bighill and Simoni get 5 tackles, but Lawrence disappeared in the second half and blew downfield coverage on both Demski’s and especially Adams’ TDs as well as the Bailey 2 point convert. Was wildly out of position on the convert and had initial coverage responsibility on the Darvin TD play, left flailing his arms in confusion both times. Bighill meanwhile got stronger and made two huge plays late, first making a TD saving tackle early in the 4th near the goal line to keep the Cats from going up 26-10, then stuffed the screen play in OT on 1st and 20 to force the 2nd and 18 INT throw. And when Stanley Bryant was truly snubbed for lineman in 2019 against Van Zeyl, he didn’t complain, he let his Grey Cup play show how badly the voters had messed up. Just like true winners do.

Have uncovered an official transcript of what really happened in that 2-point convert conversation:

From these bloopers it was clear who talks for a living vs who writes for a living. All the “mistakes” were Tait’s.

Sometimes I really don’t get the IS legal system. I thought when Roger Stone got pardoned that he was unable to then please the 5th. Or maybe that was for his other crime. If no consequences for pleading the 5th, then why wouldn’t every single person ever compelled to testify before Congress just do it?

Well even a broken clock gets to be right twice a day.

Always. I supply the keg.

And repeated by Glen Suitor. You will now burst into flames.

He literally stole that from Rod Black. Old joke.

According to this site, each player on the winning team for $16,000, the MVP got another $10,000, and the outstanding Canadian got $5,000. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.totalsportal.com/others/grey-cup-prize-money/ No indication that CFL award winners or all star team members get extra cash from the league.

Neither did the Argos. Or apparently the Elks since he did not take one snap once he went there. If you are rejected in favour of a guy with a dead arm, rejected by a team despite being the only QB to beat the best team in the league when they weren’t playing scrubs, and can’t get a start on the worst team in the league , then there must be something severely toxic about you beyond your passing abilities. LaPo clearly bet his season on a healthy Nichols and got burned big time, and the GM had zero back-up plans for all the personnel losses. As an aside, that insider analysis was written by a writer who doesn’t even live in North America, much less Ottawa.

So with 13,000 season ticket holders, wonder how they will do this? And what of those who aren’t season members but have tickets already for individual games?

One of my favourite Maurice speeches: https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/jets-maurice-defends-winnipeg-sharks-ripped-city/

Here is Maurice’s presser. The man has more class in his little finger than all of the haters and armchair coaches on Twitter screaming for his head the last 3 years combined. https://www.tsn.ca/paul-maurice-resigns-head-coach-winnipeg-jets-1.1736180

That ties the record for most CFL all-stars from one team.