OUT OF THE TUNNEL: 10 CHANGES WE’D LIKE TO SEE

BY: RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF

As we near the dawn of yet another year and as the calendar gets ready to turn the page, everyone’s wishes are to have a better 2022 than 2021. Our fearless leader loves a good 10 Things list and since ’tis the season for lists, we will give you the ten things we would like to see from the CFL over the next few years.

1. Patience.

There has been a lot of loud chatter around changing the rules in the CFL to help generate more offence and possibly a more entertaining game. A knee-jerk reaction to the record low-scoring output from a weird 2021 season.

We were critical of the lack of ingenuity on the offensive side of the football in 2021 but patience is important right now. It is too easy to sit in a boardroom and decide to change the rules but the harder thing to do is let a full season from free agency to the Grey Cup roll out for the first time since 2019.

Give teams a full offseason to prepare their game plan and a full training camp to find the rhythm and timing it takes to execute a season long offensive game plan. Maybe take it a step further and let teams have a spring mini-camp again.

Just take a deep breath and if things are still stale after a full season…or two, then maybe start tinkering with the rules.

2. Don’t Shrink Football Operations

See above.

This is another thing many in the league want to do and that’s to decrease the football operations salary cap. If you want to kill the product on the field, just keep killing a front office’s ability to improve off the field.

The reduction of the operations salary cap will further restrict the ability of teams to have a veteran coach and two or three other unit coaches to develop into the future coaches of the CFL.

3. Can We Please Eliminate CFL International

The now three-year experiment has cost the league so much money with negligible results. Sure, there are a few international players that dot CFL lineups but other than that, this experiment should end now. 

Out of the Tunnel didn’t like this program to begin with and the past three years entrenched our thinking even more.

Take this money and put it into developing Canadian players and the game in this country.

4. Be A Better Fan

When one is at the stadium you can boo, yell, cheer but in the end, respect your fellow fan, the players and the game itself. The same goes for the conduct on social media. One final thing, the #pleaselovemyleague fans on social media need to be a little craftier in their approach.

The CFL game is great but it isn’t any better than the NFL, NCAA, USports or any other football, it’s just different. Love the CFL, just don’t be that person we all loathe on social media.

5. Easy CBA Negotiations

It feels like this is an every-other-year topic but the CFL and the CFLPA are back in the boardroom negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. Let’s just hope both sides come in with open minds to make this as easy as a negotiation can be. Which in reality, isn’t that easy.

The one big topic is trying to find a way to stop the annual glut of free agents available every offseason. Having more free agents than signed players isn’t a great way to grow a league.

6. The TSN Product

It might have been a case of absence making the heart grow fonder but the beginning of the 2021 season on TSN felt great. There were a couple new voice combinations, fresh graphics and a new studio set up. At the end of the season it felt like the same old TSN broadcast that has been laid out since they became the exclusive CFL broadcaster in 2008.

Please keep the three broadcast teams consistent, stop with the comedy act in the studio, bring in a new and younger face to that studio show and most of all, clean up the in-stadium show. There are too many mistakes and not enough risks being taken in a simple seven to eight camera football production.

7. End Division Playoffs

The writing has been on the wall since the crossover playoff rule came into effect almost 20 years ago. Just eliminate the east/west divisional split and go with one fulsome, nine-team league with the top six making the playoffs. The schedule is already set up for this so just take the final step.

8. Think Quebec

The dream of putting the tenth CFL team into Atlantic Canada needs to end. The support just isn’t there and if a team ever ended up there it would be a struggle to keep afloat from the jump.

If the CFL truly wants to expand the game Quebec is the land of opportunity. This province loves football maybe more than any other in Canada. A team with Quebec City would be an incredible opportunity to build on an already strong French football audience. This is both on the field and on television/streaming.

9. Loosen Up The Social Media Rules

This is where the CFL has to buck-up and take back a little of the power from their exclusive broadcaster in TSN. TSN will not allow even a team’s Instagram feed to pump it full of the best game highlights as they happen.

This is because, in TSN’s mind, this will take away from their viewing audience. This is backwards thinking. If someone saw a great catch or defensive play on their social media feed, they would almost instantly want to tune into that game.

Also allow fans to openly share highlights. Seeing a feed full of highlights will only help grow the game with a desperately needed younger audience.

10. A Full Season In 2022

We know things look bleak right now, but this might be the easiest thing for the CFL to execute. To have a full CFL year beginning with free agency in February, the draft in May, training camp in June, opening day later that month, the Labour Day classics, playoffs and then culminating with the Grey Cup in Regina will feel normal and normal is all we want.

This is the final Out of the Tunnel. Five years ago, we were given the opportunity to talk football and have a little fun here on rodpedersen.com. We have been right a lot…and wrong a lot more but in the end, we hope you had a little break from life to chat a little football. Good luck and godspeed for 2022. 

(RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF/Photo: Hamilton Tiger-Cats)