https://www.tsn.ca/naylor-many-questions-but-few-answers-on-a-2021-cfl-season-1.1543725

The Canadian Football League has been outrageously quiet since it pulled the plug on its season more than two months ago, leaving behind a wake of speculation about where things are headed next.

With the reality setting in that COVID-19 is likely to still be around in some form next summer, there is real concern about what the 2021 season might look like or if it will occur at all.

There are teams that believe it is vitally important to play in 2021 and that without a season the CFL is in danger of being mothballed. Whether every team believes that is another question. And there is a lot to sort out before anyone can accurately predict what a season might look like and how much pain the teams are collectively willing to stomach to make it happen.

The league and its franchises are currently running through various scenarios for next season, trying to get a handle on true costs of each and working at ways to trim budgets and save money. That’s likely to continue until the league can truly choose a course of action, which feels like next April at the earliest.

Why? Well, there’s not much point in fully committing to a scenario that’s seven months away if that scenario might be totally unrealistic by the time you get there.

There has been no 2021 business plan presented yet, only regular updates to the presidents and governors about what the league is doing to prepare for the unknown.

It should be noted that teams will need to make decisions about retaining assistant coaches with expiring contracts by December, which will be the first real economic commitments to a 2021 season. Restrictions on signing players will need to be lifted well before the opening of February free agency, where players are likely to meet a cautious market – one in which signing bonuses will probably be absent.

There’s a collective bargaining agreement to amend, if not renegotiate, with the players, which will require some kind of pressure point because it always does. But the league can’t sit down with the players until it gets a true handle on revenues and it can’t do that until it chooses a course of action.

Will CFL teams be allowed to have full stadiums next summer? It doesn't seem likely. But just what percentage of capacity will be allowed – if any at all – is impossible to guess. It seems as if the league is counting on the restrictions that currently prevent fans from being in stadiums being lifted. But to what degree?

When will we see a schedule? Good question. Or could we see multiple schedules for different scenarios? Never say never.

Could it be a 21-week, 18-game season played in home stadiums? Unlikely, given the losses teams are expected to take with reduced numbers of fans in the stands. Could we see a return to the 10-week bubble? Maybe. A nine-game schedule played in home stadiums before fans? Perhaps.

The point is no one knows, so demanding answers to questions that can’t possibly be answered right now is a waste of time.

All we know is that there’s going to be a lot less revenue for teams to operate with under any scenario, not just because of crowd restrictions but also due to older fans choosing to stay home for their safety. The CFL’s fan demographics do it no favours in this regard.

Getting consensus on a best course of action won’t be easy for the CFL’s nine teams. Back in the summer, there were teams that were willing to play without government support and teams that weren’t. And just like then, the biggest challenge commissioner Randy Ambrosie faces now is finding a scenario they can all live with.

Adopting a revenue-sharing model so that each team absorbs the same amount of red ink would certainly make consensus-building easier, which many believe should be the direction for the future, COVID-19 or not.

The other elephant in the room is federal government, which many in the CFL believe left it high and dry last summer after months of back-and-forth talks where the league believed it was making progress.

Is the CFL prepared to go down that road again, knowing it doesn’t control the timeline and larger forces can change things in an instant? Perhaps, although it’s not as though the feds don’t have a long list of people coming at them with their hands out.

There will be voices demanding the owners suck up the losses of playing a season under any circumstance, as owners have done in other sports. But the business calculation in sports such as MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA is different because of the percentage of revenues those leagues derive from television.

Losses sustained by playing in those leagues can also be viewed as investments towards protecting massive franchise values. That’s not the case in the CFL, where teams can’t just float money on the backs of their franchise values, and where one third of the teams are publicly owned.

It would be beneficial for the league to soon announce its formal commitment to play some kind of season in 2021.

But beyond that, get ready for months more of waiting with lots of questions and speculation but very few answers.

Boomers don't have to prove anything to anyone....never have ..never will...Speaking for my generation ,a lot of us were born to vets. from a world war....much bigger than this pandemic....The children born to PTSD veterans of that war carried a heavy load in the initial part of their lives....Looking back most of  us have done well considering ...This pandemic will end....most will survive...including boomers....In the end and at present it starts with getting a vaccination...encouraging others to get it definitely helps

AND ...our music is and was better than that rap crap

Music achieved perfection in 1994...everyone knows that. It's a scientific fact. 

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

also, our (boomer) music is much superior to theirs. their music is crap and they should be ashamed for thinking its any good. 

what generation are the idiots I always see driving giant pickups with one person in it to get a coffee at 7/11?

with the truck running with air con on while they go in the store. look like thirty year olds.

generation dumb.

chopping down the ladder, selfish stupid idiots.

 

Yes, please let's talk boomer music. 

1 hour ago, JCon said:

Yes, please let's talk boomer music. 

so you agree about the dumb part. good, that is a start.

1 hour ago, JCon said:

Yes, please let's talk boomer music. 

I’d talk with that blonde on the right. 😁

You know ****'s getting stupid when people start arguing about which generation is what....how bout this. You're all idiots!











I'm not though....

Clearly I am in the best generation because of this essential truth!

 

 

4 hours ago, JCon said:

Yes, please let's talk boomer music. 

That guy in the red pants and his wiener tugging friend are making me angry

1 hour ago, Jpan85 said:

 

I was intrigued by a Yoshi quote from the other day saying that he doesn't want to get the vaxx (yeeeeeeesh...) but if it was the only way he could come to Canada and play, then you could stick him with it 8 times....whatever it takes to play, he's in. 

 

17 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

That guy in the red pants and his wiener tugging friend are making me angry

I think he's trying to flag that blonde cross from him but she's only got eyes for the spangle dangler with the mic and high heels

7 hours ago, Stickem said:

Boomers don't have to prove anything to anyone....never have ..never will...Speaking for my generation ,a lot of us were born to vets. from a world war....much bigger than this pandemic....The children born to PTSD veterans of that war carried a heavy load in the initial part of their lives....Looking back most of  us have done well considering ...This pandemic will end....most will survive...including boomers....In the end and at present it starts with getting a vaccination...encouraging others to get it definitely helps

AND ...our music is and was better than that rap crap

My Dad & six uncles fought in WW2. My Mom didn't see my father for nearly 5 years. My oldest brother was born when he was away. I never heard my Mother bitching or complaining ever about having to be a single Mom in a World War not knowing if my Dad would ever return. They put up with shortages, rationing & life was not easy. I can't imagine the stress (that lasted for years) these women were under at the time. These alt right conservatives & entitled snowflakes today crying about a conspiracy with vaccines & how their rights have been taken away forced to wear masks with restrictions can go **** off.

Oh yeah, my father was an alcoholic. A quiet man with a loving family but much preferred being drunk to being sober. Was it from the War? I don't know as it was never discussed in our house & my Dad never sought treatment but he obviously was in pain. So yes, Stickem, those soldiers carried a heavy load. 

Edited April 23, 20214 yr by SpeedFlex27

Back then, they called PTSS "shell-shock" and alcohol became the usual self-medication for too many to help them live with the memories of the horrors and fears they lived with.  In the US, more military have committed suicide than have died in all the foreign wars. For many, booze was only a brief respite and then they passed the trauma down to their sons and daughters. Now, there are effective treatments for those who are brave enough to seek help. For every untreated PTSS sufferer, there are 5-6 people (parents, siblings, partners and children) affected.

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

Back then, they called PTSS "shell-shock" and alcohol became the usual self-medication for too many to help them live with the memories of the horrors and fears they lived with.  In the US, more military have committed suicide than have died in all the foreign wars. For many, booze was only a brief respite and then they passed the trauma down to their sons and daughters. Now, there are effective treatments for those who are brave enough to seek help. For every untreated PTSS sufferer, there are 5-6 people (parents, siblings, partners and children) affected.

Yep. They were expected to suck it up. 

Edited April 24, 20214 yr by SpeedFlex27

Actually Shell Shock was WW1. By WW2 it had changed to postconcussional syndrome or battle fatigue. Then it became operational exhaustion. Now it's PTSD.

 

Edited April 24, 20214 yr by TBURGESS

My father turned to booze also...He was R.C.A.F. in the Battle of Britain from 39' on....I know what he saw and endured was most likely the cause of his alcoholism ...ruined the family and his life....Did we cry and give up ...NO....we sucked it up and survived.....Our neighbours at the time said he was termed .shell shocked' ...the term is now PTSD...BUT nobody ,especially govt. wanted to recognize it....This pandemic is a war of sorts....but nothing compared to the 60 million lives lost in that catastrophe...the second world war.....Life goes on

5 hours ago, Stickem said:

My father turned to booze also...He was R.C.A.F. in the Battle of Britain from 39' on....I know what he saw and endured was most likely the cause of his alcoholism ...ruined the family and his life....Did we cry and give up ...NO....we sucked it up and survived.....Our neighbours at the time said he was termed .shell shocked' ...the term is now PTSD...BUT nobody ,especially govt. wanted to recognize it....This pandemic is a war of sorts....but nothing compared to the 60 million lives lost in that catastrophe...the second world war.....Life goes on

And today people ***** about having to wear masks as if their lives are ruined... 

Governments have the right to order you to go to France Live in a trench up to your knees in fetid water, surrounded by dead comrades and horses and crawling with millions of rats while constantly being pounded by artillery . Then climb out of that muck hole and run straight at a machine gun. But apparently in the mind of some they can't make you wear a mask or get a little prick in the arm. My great uncle that died like that, and my other great uncle that lived like that at 14 years old would have something to say to them. As would my uncle who burned to death in a bomber 25 years later.  Yet we have all these people who think wearing a mask to to big of a sacrifice to make.  It makes me sick.

On 2021-04-24 at 8:08 AM, Stickem said:

My father turned to booze also...He was R.C.A.F. in the Battle of Britain from 39' on....I know what he saw and endured was most likely the cause of his alcoholism ...ruined the family and his life..

my childhood friend same thing with his father...

 father was a pilot in ww2... became an utter wreck alcoholic. my friend never recovered. nice person, smart, handsome,  and ruined.

 

Edited April 25, 20214 yr by Mark F

3 hours ago, Mark F said:

my childhood friend same thing with his father...

 father was a pilot in ww2... became an utter wreck alcoholic. my friend never recovered. nice person, smart, handsome,  and ruined.

 

My father & a couple of his brothers came back from the war alcoholics. Yeah if it wasn't for my Mother our family would have split apart. She held it together. Even though my Dad would disappear for days & we didn't know if he was alive or dead.

When I was little, I remember the arguments they had & how she would threaten to leave him & how freaked out I used to get when I heard that. I worried about that a lot as that was said all the time.

As I got into my teenage years it didn't bother me anymore. I used to disrespect my father any chance I could. I'd always throw his alcoholism in his face when he tried to discipline me. For example, when I was in grade 11, I had a few drinks & came home from a party at about 4 am. My dad said that was unacceptable & not to do it again. I just looked at him & said, "You mean like you do all the time?" He had nothing to say & just left the room. I just smirked & laughed to myself thinking how clever I was. I did that to him a lot as a teen acting out my frustrations. I was angry & I have carried that anger with me my entire life although I deal with it better than I did when I was younger.

Some of you here have experienced first hand that anger & for that I'm sorry. I am trying to do better. Thank God, I never became a violent partner in my marriage of 36 years. I've never laid a finger on my wife or had the thought ever crossed my mind. For which I'm eternally grateful having grown up in that looney tunes house of mine. Things could have gone bad in my life but they never did. 

Edited April 25, 20214 yr by SpeedFlex27

Back on topic, Our Man Tait has another really great "First And 10" at BB.com...

https://www.bluebombers.com/2021/04/25/first-10-jeffcoat-neufeld-optimistic-hopeful/

This but in particular is worth checking out the whole piece... 

A couple of leftovers from Bombers President and CEO Wade Miller from my interview with him earlier in the week.

First, I asked him about the suggestion the CFL should just go dark for another year and simply regroup for 2022. There was a pause before he answered, and when he did there was a sense that, if he could, he would have reached out and slapped me upside the head for even bringing that up.

“That,” he said, “is NOT an option. We’re playing football and we need to play football. We need to play football for our players, our coaches and our fans.”

20 hours ago, Mark F said:

my childhood friend same thing with his father...

 father was a pilot in ww2... became an utter wreck alcoholic. my friend never recovered. nice person, smart, handsome,  and ruined.

 

There are more tragedies that most likely never came to light after that war....Your friends father sounds like a repeat of mine.....Post war my dad worked for the federal govt.    ran a dept. in the Unemployment Insurance office in Wpg. for years until the booze finally caught up....Our family really took a hit and ended up in emergency housing  (Flora Place) when I was a kid....It was tough for my brothers and sisters to come out of that but we managed....It was easy to feel sorry for ourselves but we didn't...It's tough for me to even talk about those days and I can imagine what some families are going through now with this pandemic...Losing everything is tough but we keep on going...Hard life lessons are being learned now....BUT it well end....as that war did, and like I said before life goes on...................Back to football

To validate what some have shared here: the father of a good friend served on the bomber crew that flew the most missions over Germany in WW2. Every one of the air crew turned to alcohol to anesthetize the memories and associated feelings and this produced a horrible childhood for my friend and his siblings all of whom succumbed to addiction as well. They were the walking wounded and far from few.

Friend of mines Uncle was in the air force during WW2. Ironically he got sick with the German measels which prevented him from flying. His entire squadron got shot down while he was sick.

He drank every day...alcoholic. He never spoke much about war.

29 minutes ago, bryan35 said:

Friend of mines Uncle was in the air force during WW2. Ironically he got sick with the German measels which prevented him from flying. His entire squadron got shot down while he was sick.

He drank every day...alcoholic. He never spoke much about war.

My Dad & uncles were the same. No one talked about the war. No one asked either. Kinda taboo without saying it.