OUT OF THE TUNNEL: WELCOMING THE XFL?

BY: RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF

It’s rare when the CFL can dominate headlines in the midst of the NHL season but this week they found a way.

The CFL dropped an atomic bomb of a press release that announced talks between the League and the XFL. Now that we’ve all had a chance to step back from the ledge, let’s all take a deep breath and a deeper look.

The press release. If the CFL wanted to create as much media, fan and non-fan buzz as possible, they did a great job, but at what cost?

The reactions went from the pearl clutching “the Canadian game is dead”-side of things all the way to welcoming the XFL to the Great White North. This was the biggest problem of the release; a lack of details.

All the release said was: “two leagues enter into formal talks exploring potential for collaboration and innovation to grow the game of football”. Great, what does that mean? What it lacked in details it more than made up for with speculation as it allowed so-called CFL “insiders” to run rampant saying that this was the beginning of the death of the League. Everyone should step back and relax and take a deep breath. Breathe in, now slowly breathe out. There. Feel better? The pearl clutchers and the American bandwagon boosters — those wanting to change all the fields in Canada to fully embrace the American game — please, stop.

What this release did was potentially alienate the most ardent of CFL fans. The ones who stuck with this League through thick and thin, bought the jerseys, made trips to the stadiums, gambled on games, travelled coast-to-coast to see the Grey Cup get hoisted and almost anything else to support the League.

And apologies to our Big Boss but we must politely disagree with him. Saying true CFL fans would have supported the Grey Cup Fan Base and those who didn’t can’t complain about the XFL talks is a complete equivocal fallacy. It’s like saying one is not a true Saskatchewan Roughrider fan or B.C. Lion fan unless they buy Plaza of Honour or Orange Helmet Award tickets.

The CFL has abused the hardcore fan base for too many years chasing after the dream of the casual fan that this may finally be the breaking point.

But at Out of the Tunnel we see the great possibilities that could come out of a possible agreement between the leagues. 3DownNation did a nice summary of the positives and negatives but there are some we disagree with.

Firstly, we think this will be more of an agreement between leagues and never a full merger. The XFL wants to avoid the NFL so that cuts more than half of the potential CFL season whereas the CFL wants to avoid the spring because of the heavy part of the NHL playoffs (and not to mention the awful weather). The XFL season is also half as long as the Canadian so they would have to make great strides in picking up six more games.

Secondly, the XFL will be in need of players when they hit the field in 2022 so one of the first things that will happen is allowing a handful of players to move between leagues. CFL teams can have 20-30 players that have no-move clauses but for those who only play five or six games and want to get more tape and another paycheque they could go back and forth.

Even go so far as to have a CFL team matched with an XFL team with a max of 10 players being able to go from one league to another. Like having the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Houston Roughnecks exclusively paired in a two-way player agreements.

The same can be said of two or three coaches per CFL or XFL team. Hire young coaches and they can gain more experience with both games, especially from the American side.

Thirdly, we love the idea of a better American TV deal in the United States but we also like having more of an American influence on the TSN broadcasts. The XFL production was incredible, from the graphics package, show flow, storytelling and innovations. If this is a part of an agreement, count us 100% in.

The most impactful element to come from a deal would be combining league offices.

The CFL and XFL game can be unique and play during different times of the spring and summer. The only time that this conglomerate isn’t on the field is in December and January. This would keep momentum going between countries and leagues.

Having one league(s) office would be beneficial. This would be cost-effective as the promotion, communications, marketing and sales are all out of one base so instead of two full offices — just one.

This would also help in eliminating the gap between the have’s and have not’s of CFL teams. Many CFL franchises hate with all of their hearts sharing so much of their marketing and promotion secrets and research. Having a single strong front office to bring all nine teams together to make a more viable league would be the biggest step in any potential agreement.

All of this being said, CFL please take a deep breath and just focus on getting on the field in 2021. This is the most important and frankly the only thing anyone in a CFL front office should be thinking about. From there we can all wring our hands about losing the Canadian-ness of the CFL.

Any talks right now are just that, talks. Take any information you read with a heavy grain of salt until there is an actual agreement between leagues. And as for a complete merger, this would need the thumbs-up from all nine franchises. With the community led teams and Bob Young in Hamilton and the ineptitude of the current CFL front office this could be an all out war to ever get any sort of agreement.

It was fun to have the CFL front and centre this week but now can we all relax for a bit and just get on to the field in 2021.

(RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF)