OUT OF THE TUNNEL: BACK AT IT

It was difficult being a fan in the week leading up to the opening of training camps across the CFL.

First, one could tell that teams and the league are incredibly short-staffed. In the before times (is the new BC and AC before COVID and after COVID?) when the CFL opened up one could revel in what the year’s graphics package will look like, a giant flurry of hype videos, interviews, big plays and almost everything one could wring out of a non-contact practice. Instead of a fire hose it was more like a garden hose of content across social media.

It’s a current negative that can turn into a giant positive. Here is a chance for every team across the league and even the league office to hire new and dynamic content creators that can engage fans, especially new, young and diverse fans.

Here at Out of the Tunnel, we are old and pretty set in our ways. Like anything, the future is in the current and potential new young fans and we need them to fall in love with the game for the good of the future of the CFL. 

There needs to be changes for this to happen and now is the time. Many current fans, including us, may not change but if it doesn’t alienate current fans but brings in new ones, it’s worth it. 

The league needs to open up social media sharing of highlights (like the NBA), promote their stars or current stars and their own individual platforms and engage in any “influencers” that are interested in the league.

Right now the teams and the league are just trying to get games on the field and in a mad flurry of bringing back whatever staff they can afford to. 

It feels so good to have the CFL back and now there is a great opportunity to start with a blank page and bring in new and young fans.

The week leading up to the beginning of training camp fans were fed a barrage of news beginning with something that the majority welcomed, the end of talks between the CFL and the XFL.

Now the potential of the two leagues is not technically dead but it sure is on life support. Just minutes after the announcement of the dissolution of talks between the leagues it was announced that the XFL won’t hit the field until at least 2023.

So now the XFL is exactly what many thought they were, sugar daddies. They were bringing absolutely nothing to the table but cash. 

All this did was drum up a little news, ruffle a lot of feathers and alienate some CFL fans. Those who jumped on this bandwagon have now gone back into the bushes or ringing the death knell for the future of football in Canada. In the end and we agree with Arash Madani on this, to endeavour into talks with the XFL and have fans of both league on both sides of the border engage in this was a colossal waste of time. 

Next can we throw CFL international onto the fire heap please and use whatever money that is being put there back into football in Canada?

Then just hours before camps were to open up six players, four on the Saskatchewan Roughriders and two on the Montreal Alouettes, destroyed their Achilles tendons in on-field group workouts.

This story grabbed more headlines than the actual beginning of camp because of how outlandish the possibilities of this happening. This news hit every corner of the the football world very hard.

It has been well-covered on who the players were, and how rare it is but the worst part is it may just be a harbinger of things to come.

The CFL should bring in researchers to see how an almost two-year layoff from a dynamic, high contact sport affects an athlete’s body. Every other major pro league (other than maybe the NLL) didn’t have to endure such a layoff and played in a pandemic bubble.

Teams are having to quickly re-evaluate how the physical play will be reintroduced into their training camp plans as the CFL is just three weeks away from kicking off the season. Remember, it’s not the big hits that cause immediate injury (those are the long-term effects and that’s a whole different discussion) but it’s the little nudges when the body is moving extremely fast in an unnatural state that cause the destructive injuries. 

This is going to be a tightly-packed 20 weeks to when the Grey Cup is handed out in Hamilton on December 12. The key to success will be more than just on the field, it will be a delicate balance between rest and stepping on the gas when one needs to. After 19 months off, a player’s football callous has been worn away and it will take some time to build it back up again. 

Next week, once all of the players that will report to camp have finally finished their quarantine and entered their respective football bubbles for camp, we will begin the actual analysis of the upcoming 2021 CFL season. 

It will be an interesting season and if this week was any indication it will be weird, exciting and hopefully just enough dumb that makes the CFL so entertaining.

(RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF)