OUT OF THE TUNNEL: COVID TIMES IN FOOTBALL

BY: RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF

The pandemic has served up so much pain, frustration and heartache. It doesn’t matter if it’s been at home, work, play, the arts or sports, it has just been an incredibly difficult year for everyone.

All of those feelings were felt when Arash Madani appeared on The Rod Pedersen show this past Friday when he laid out Commissioner Randy Ambrosie’s new revamped business plan for the CFL. In short, according to Arash’s sources, it is almost the same as the old one.

Madani told us that there was nothing in the plan regarding any of the things the league needs to do to get back on its feet next season, repair their relationship with the CFLPA, or any of the other issues that this great league needs to address before getting on the field.

Instead it was reportedly still the “International Plan”. As you know, we here at Out of the Tunnel have never been big fans of this “plan” to begin with and now when we mostly just need great leadership to get out of this hole, this plan needs to be eliminated.

Hundreds of jobs are being lost and may never return. The league is fast becoming a footnote in the Canadian sports landscape and people will soon move on to something else that gives them summer enjoyment.

Sticking to this nonsense is like being close to foreclosure on your house in Canada yet you still are shopping for a winter home in Phoenix. It makes zero sense.

We have always felt the international plan never made any sense for a league that needs to cultivate better players, coaches and staff members IN Canada to be great. This country loves football and it will be these people who will help drag the CFL back to the field.

Also, for every player from Finland that takes up a roster spot on a CFL club there are dozens more Canadians and hundreds more Americans that can play that position at a much higher level,

We don’t see eye-to-eye with Arash on a lot of things but we as a CFL collective shared his pain when hearing of the CFL’s plans on getting back on the field.

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This week the Saskatchewan Roughriders were the latest CFL team to make major layoffs to their administrative and football operations.

Because of where this column originates (Saskatchewan) it now really hits home. So many amazing people who are passionate about the team and the league are now without work and most will never return to the team or the CFL.

This might be the toughest thing the league will have to overcome; finding people who are passionate about the CFL to return to work for any team, in any city across the country.

When someone joins a team they don’t do it for the money. The CFL has limited funds even when times are tough so if you want to do marketing in Edmonton, communications in Winnipeg or digital media in Ottawa you get into the league for the absolute love of the league, the team and the job.

If and when the league returns there will be people who want to work for the team they always dreamed of working for but as time goes on those numbers will continue to dwindle.

The people are what makes this league great and great people are now in short demand.

This also puts an incredible strain on those remaining with the clubs and the league to keep the ship afloat. Let’s hope they are not too burned out by the time the league returns to play, to continue grinding out the greatness.

The hardest part: there are more layoffs across the league to come.

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We did a cross-country visit on the state of all football a few weeks ago and we totally forgot about the great community football program Saskatoon Minor Football has for high school-aged players.

The Northern Saskatchewan Football Academy kicked off at the end of September under the Friday night lights with games. This looks like a solid relationship with the high school programs in Saskatoon and the minor football program. 

Both school boards in Saskatoon outright said there will be no fall sports of any type, not even practices. So when you see the tweets about the league, you see players wearing their high school helmets hitting the field.

This program has been in place for a few years in Saskatoon and those players are very lucky to have a place to play this fall.

In Regina, the high schools are allowed to practice as teams but there will not be any games played. This handcuffed RMF from setting up a program this season, so for high school aged players in Regina, this will be a long fall.

This is also the same on the mainland of B.C. The Vancouver Mainland Football league has been a staple in B.C. for years and they will have their midget division in full swing for players under 18 years old.

There is football being played in Canada, we just have to look hard for it.

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Canadian to Watch in the NCAA
Geoff Cantin-Arku (Soph.)
Linebacker – Syracuse
6’4” 228
Lévis, Quebec, Canada
High school – Cégep Garneau Elks

We can fill the next six weeks of Canadians to watch in the NCAA with the Syracuse Orangemen football team. Geoff Cantin-Arku is one of six players currently on the Orangemen roster.

Cantin-Arku played mostly special teams as a true freshman in 2019 but now with a switch to defensive coordinator Tony White’s 3-3-5 defence, Cantin-Arku has found a home at linebacker. In his first ever start in a loss to North Carolina he had eight tackles and in three games this season Cantin-Arku has a whopping 18 total tackles, two of them tackles for a loss. 

Coming out of Cégep, Cantin-Arku was one of the top college prospects in Canada and one of the top outside linebackers in his class.

(RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF)