I thought Tillman had pretty much scouted Laurent on his own - no one seemed to have heard of him before the Supplemental...?

 

 

The Laurent situation is a very unique one. Bruce Feldman (who was at ESPN at the time) came across a Duane Forde article ranking the top defensive linemen available in the CFL draft. He contacted me asking if those 10 guys were all better than Ted Laurent or at least why there was no mention of Ted. Bruce had written the fantastic book "Meat Market" and got to know that recruiting class very well at Ole Miss and Ted was part of that class. 

 

After a couple of emails it was confirmed that Ted would qualify for the draft but it was beyond the date to get onto the official draft list so he ended up in the supplemental draft in one of the largest supplementals in a long time. 

 

These kids that move with family members to the States during their teens are nearly impossible to keep track of especially when they move before high school. The high school kids are a little easier if they've made a name for themselves a bit. 

 

 

Hypothetically, what would happen if they found out a guy who had played in the NFL for a couple years (let's say he's 27 or 28) was actually eligible to be a NI. An established player.

 

Would he suddenly be declared eligible for the next draft?

 

 

To put a real name in here let's say that Orlando Franklin decided that he wanted to play in the CFL after his time with the Broncos was over. My understanding of it as that he could apply for NI status (and would get it in a heartbeat as he's more than eligible even before the rule changes) and would enter as a free agent. 

 

Likely he's already on a neg list somewhere and in his case he'd probably only want to play for Toronto.

 

Worst case scenario he would go through the waiver process so the 9th place team of the year before would have first negotiating rights. 

Question: If a player has lived in Canada and played in Canada full time as an import. Say he decides to become a Canadian citizen, would his status change to a Non-import or I guess now it's called a National player?

No because, again, its "at the time you sign your first contract"...

This is what I was forwarded prior to the players voting to ratify the CBA.

 

 

US citizen establishes residence in Canada for min 3 yrs before playing in CFL could be classified as Canadian

 

Take it for what it's worth and I'll wait to see the final version as it reads in the actual CBA. 

Never underestimate the CFL's capacity to make things even more complicated.