The reality with Brady’s deal is that you really need to know what the cap hit is in order to talk about whether the deal is good or not. In the new CFL, with the marketing money, I don’t think we’re really going to know that early on after a signing so you have to play a bit of a wait and see.
That being said, there are two things that (imo) should be getting talked about more with regards to this deal.
1. This contract makes very little sense at the reported cost (even if you build in 100k of marketing money) if we still insist on playing more than the required amount of Canadians. We’re essentially paying him regardless of passport at that point, which makes this deal awful
2. Lots of people haven’t had their mindset catch up to the reality of the new CFL and the cap figures. The cap hasn’t just gone up, but teams are shifting more to youthful American OL which means less money is being tied up in unmentioned Canadian OL and more is being invested in big name splash Canadians.
Everyone talks about Brady and his big deal, but nobody blinked twice 10 years ago when guys like Tyson Pencer and Chris Kowalczuk were making six figures as middling (that’s generous) Canadian OL.
Canadian football is developing, which means more guys can play at premium positions, which means the “you gotta have 4-5 Canadian OL” mentality has kind of gone by the wayside. The money getting distributed has changed a bit as a result.
(one last thing, anyone who thinks Gauthier or Hallett make near league minimum are WAY off)