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.

6 hours ago, Mark H. said:

I'd be hesitant about a coordinator where the HC is still making most of the calls. 

100%. Its a puppet role.

I dont think by any means that buck pierce will be a HC any time soon. He's barely had 14 games as an OC.

4 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

100%. Its a puppet role.

I dont think by any means that buck pierce will be a HC any time soon. He's barely had 14 games as an OC.

He’s certainly not ready. I’m surprised he’s mentioned but Richie Hall isn’t who has all the experience in the world and has done a great job with this group. 

12 minutes ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

He’s certainly not ready. I’m surprised he’s mentioned but Richie Hall isn’t who has all the experience in the world and has done a great job with this group. 

100%. At this point I think jordan younger and marty costello are more likely to jump up next. I'd bet that in the new 2 years JY is a DC and maybe ast hc some where. Costello is a guy who teams should look at, but will certainly take longer to get a fair shot. 

31 minutes ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

He’s certainly not ready. I’m surprised he’s mentioned but Richie Hall isn’t who has all the experience in the world and has done a great job with this group. 

Ritchie Hall has been a head coach before without success. That's why.

I think DeVone Claybrooks deserves to be considered.

I am not sure his tenure in BC was all his fault. He was a very good DC.

39 minutes ago, Geebrr said:

I think DeVone Claybrooks deserves to be considered.

I am not sure his tenure in BC was all his fault. He was a very good DC.

Yeah but that sideways hat look would surely scare me as a gm away

Yeah, like some head coach wearing shorts on the sidelines.

 

11 hours ago, wbbfan said:

100%. Its a puppet role.

I dont think by any means that buck pierce will be a HC any time soon. He's barely had 14 games as an OC.

Ryan Dinwiddie never was a Coordinator with the Stamps so you never know. The only way I see Buck Pierce becoming a head coach in Ottawa is if they promote LaPo to GM & he hires Buck. Pierce would be wise to stay away from Edmonton as that entire organization has major, major dysfunctional problems. 

Cool!

TORONTO – Arkells have enlisted a little help from multiplatinum, folk-rock authorities, The Lumineers, to wow their hometown crowd as part of the Twisted Tea Grey Cup Halftime Show.

The Denver-based duo will join the headliners at the 108th playing of the CFL’s championship game at Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field on Sunday, December 12 at 6 p.m. ET.

https://www.cfl.ca/2021/12/02/arkells-welcome-lumineers-special-guests-108th-grey-cup/

 

Love Lumineers and Arkells...that'll be a great show. 

Between the 2 bands they have more than enough catchy hits to fill a 30 minute halftime show. I'm not displeased

4 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Ryan Dinwiddie never was a Coordinator with the Stamps so you never know. The only way I see Buck Pierce becoming a head coach in Ottawa is if they promote LaPo to GM & he hires Buck. Pierce would be wise to stay away from Edmonton as that entire organization has major, major dysfunctional problems. 

He wasnt, but his role was more than a typical QB coach in calgary. Yes dicker takes the oc title and money. But dinwiddie was at least half of that role. And through a time when calgary had one of the best passing attacks consistently.  Dinwiddie was also a quick turn around from starting cfl coaching to HCing. Buck has been kicking around as a position coach for a long time. buck isnt a young phenom like sean mcvay.

I think buck is a few years away from getting his respect as a CO and possible HC candidate. He has shown some great flashes with evolving his play call and coming up with un expected offenses, but he's still got a very long way to go. I do think he can make that trek to being an elite OC though. 

I wonder if either of the fledgling spring leagues might steal some position coaches away. 

21 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Love Lumineers and Arkells...that'll be a great show. 

but are you looking forward to the second half interview during the game??

2 minutes ago, bearpants said:

but are you looking forward to the second half interview during the game??

Only if it is Bob Irving. I feel that Brian Williams will get that slot now though. 

Just now, bearpants said:

but are you looking forward to the second half interview during the game??

If it's the guy from the Arkells who they had in the booth the other day, I don't mind it.  He is a fan of the game and understands it.  He knew when to stop talking and is knowledgeable enough that if the guys in the booth do ask him to do a play call, he could probably pull it off.

Haha can you imagine... they bring in the dude from the Arkells to do guest playcalls.. while Bob twiddles his thumbs in the corner.

5 minutes ago, MOBomberFan said:

Haha can you imagine... they bring in the dude from the Arkells to do guest playcalls.. while Bob twiddles his thumbs in the corner.

Well, the way the senior broadcaster retirements are going this year, they need new talent in the booth. Maybe they are auditioning their guests?

18 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Ritchie Hall has been a head coach before without success. That's why.

Sure but coaches grow too, that was over a decade ago. 

37 minutes ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

Sure but coaches grow too, that was over a decade ago. 

I think there's a good chance Hall doesn't want to be a HC anymore.

5 hours ago, wbbfan said:

He wasnt, but his role was more than a typical QB coach in calgary. Yes dicker takes the oc title and money. But dinwiddie was at least half of that role. And through a time when calgary had one of the best passing attacks consistently.  Dinwiddie was also a quick turn around from starting cfl coaching to HCing. Buck has been kicking around as a position coach for a long time. buck isnt a young phenom like sean mcvay.

I think buck is a few years away from getting his respect as a CO and possible HC candidate. He has shown some great flashes with evolving his play call and coming up with un expected offenses, but he's still got a very long way to go. I do think he can make that trek to being an elite OC though. 

I wonder if either of the fledgling spring leagues might steal some position coaches away. 

To me, Buck has already shown he's a better coach & OC than LaPo. Look how the offense has been transformed with guys like Bailey & Lawler flourishing. We won with a committe of Canadian running backs this season. We weren't cute & fancy. We didn't rely on our receivers getting YAC yards to get first downs & we stretched opposition defenses throwing deep much more. The offense seemed in better sync with virtually the same players that LaPo had. 

3 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

To me, Buck has already shown he's a better coach & OC than LaPo. Look how the offense has been transformed with guys like Bailey & Lawler flourishing. We won with a committe of Canadian running backs this season. We weren't cute & fancy. We didn't rely on our receivers getting YAC yards to get first downs & we stretched opposition defenses throwing deep much more. The offense seemed in better sync with virtually the same players that LaPo had. 

The offense became more like that as soon as ZC arrived, in 2019.  MN was no longer able to consistently hit receivers in stride on the longer passes. 

6 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

The offense became more like that as soon as ZC arrived, in 2019.  MN was no longer able to consistently hit receivers in stride on the longer passes. 

Thats kinda a bit wrong..Lapo even with ZC still relied and had the check down and dump off's to the RB's as his bread and butter...I doubt our RB's have had 30 catches total all year...total different philosophy

12 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

To me, Buck has already shown he's a better coach & OC than LaPo. Look how the offense has been transformed with guys like Bailey & Lawler flourishing. We won with a committe of Canadian running backs this season. We weren't cute & fancy. We didn't rely on our receivers getting YAC yards to get first downs & we stretched opposition defenses throwing deep much more. The offense seemed in better sync with virtually the same players that LaPo had. 

I would take buck over lapo hands down. Buck has much greater potential to improve. But he still has a long way to go both as an oc and a coach in general. Plop is good at coaching players, better than buck is. Give buck another 2 or 3 years and hes probably our ast HC and top of the list for HC jobs around the league. I have very high hope for his ability to grow as a play caller and become an elite oc. 

Cant really compare 2019 to 2021. This season is the outlier of outliers. I deeply entrenched in the say no to plop movement. But he has a very strong reputation around the league and gets a lot of credit for what the bombers did. Buck also still heavily utilizes stuff he learned from plop. The jet sweep and motion, the route trees etc. The big difference is buck and collaros are aggressive. Plop and nichols werent, and didnt really have the ability to throw 50 yard ropes at will. 

3 minutes ago, Booch said:

Thats kinda a bit wrong..Lapo even with ZC still relied and had the check down and dump off's to the RB's as his bread and butter...I doubt our RB's have had 30 catches total all year...total different philosophy

The rb check down went from the hot route, to barely on the list. We block a lot more on passing downs with our backs now. Buck has made fantastic adjustments to the plop system. A lot of what we see in plops offense today, was here in 2002. Buck has progressed that system more in less than a full season than plop did in 19 years.  

12 minutes ago, Booch said:

Thats kinda a bit wrong..Lapo even with ZC still relied and had the check down and dump off's to the RB's as his bread and butter...I doubt our RB's have had 30 catches total all year...total different philosophy

I am not convinced that things would not have evolved more in 2021. Don't get me wrong, I think Buck has done a great job, but I think we all know the primary reason for the transformation on O. 

6 hours ago, MOBomberFan said:

Between the 2 bands they have more than enough catchy hits to fill a 30 minute halftime show. I'm not displeased

Still no Gregorian chants group.