When the Canadian Football League moved into the USA

Article by Duncan Gray

A 20^th anniversary get together was held last year for players of the winning team of the 1995 Grey Cup. What was a little unusual about it was that it was held in Baltimore, USA. It's not often spoken about now but that Baltimore Stallions championship win represented both the high point and the end of an attempt the CFL made to move into the American market in the 1990s.

 

That story became relevant again this year thanks to the relocation moves happening in the NFL. 

Since it was announced that the Rams are moving back to Los Angeles, fans in St Louis have been lobbying for the CFL to consider establishing a new franchise in their town. There's even a website, www.stlramscfl.com, promoting the idea.

The story of CFL expansion in the USA is one of failure, and not even glorious failure. Back in the 1990s the NFL was a very successful enterprise, but nowhere near as powerful as it is today. To the north meantime the Canadian League was in desperate straits. Crowds were poor, TV income was almost nil and every team except Edmonton was in danger of going bust. The idea was hatched that maybe they could make some money by having teams play south of the border.

So it was that the Sacramento Gold Miners, previously known as the Sacramento Surge in the defunct World League of American Football, played in the 1993 season as a West Division team. Four American teams played 1994, Sacramento, Shreveport Pirates, Baltimore CFL Colts and the short lived Las Vegas Posse. For 1995 there were five teams playing in a South Division. Sacramento had become the San Antonio Texans, Baltimore had become the Stallions, the Pirates were still in Shreveport and they were joined by Birmingham Barracudas and Memphis Mad Dogs.

Of all of these only Baltimore was a financial success. The others struggled to compete for fans not only with the NFL but against traditional NCAA and High School teams too. This was particularly true for the Birmingham Barracudas. Even the NFL can't compete with the NCAA's Auburn and Alabama in that state.

Baltimore was the successful team on the field too. After a 2&3 start in 1995 they won thirteen straight games and then comfortably saw off all opposition in the play-offs.

However, the Stallions success surely contributed to their demise. Demonstrating that a CFL team could attract 30,000 crowds in Baltimore just showed how attractive the city would be as an NFL venue. Before the Stallions even got to play their Grey Cup match, the Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell had announced that he was relocating his team to Baltimore for the 1996 season. Whether or not the NFL was intent on forcing the CFL out the US the move had that effect. There was no way the Stallions would be able to stay in Baltimore and compete for fans with the new Ravens.

Substantial losses had been made and the CFL abandoned its plans to run with two American teams, Baltimore and San Antonio, the next year.

This left the Canadian League in even more trouble than it started with. There were business sharks looking to buy the whole league dirt cheap and run it from a US base. Some would have got rid of the separate Canadian 12 men and 3 downs rules, some even wanted to move all the teams to the USA where no doubt it would have died like Donald Trump's USFL in the decade before (see, I said could be was topical) and Vince McMahon's XFL in the decade after.

The CFL retreated back to it's own territory. The Baltimore Stallions were saved by relocating them to Montreal where they became the Alouettes. Fortunately the league then received some financial support from a sympathetic NFL in exchange for co-operation agreements and that helped see it through its crisis.

That's all ancient history though. Today the CFL is stronger and more financially sound than it's ever been. There's no appetite to take risks or change anything without careful planning. They added one expansion franchise in Ottawa two years ago and that's been a great success, but they're not rushing to do it again.

With five teams in the West Division and only four in the East obviously the idea of adding a tenth team is attractive, if only to make scheduling fixtures a whole lot simpler. The main interest  is in having a franchise in Atlantic Canada where there's isn't one. Halifax, Nova Scotia, would be the ideal location but there isn't a suitable stadium there. Maybe if Halifax had been awarded the 2014 Commonwealth games instead of Glasgow... No, I don't really mean that. More likely for a new franchise will be one of the cities in Ontario which already have a University stadium, Windsor or Guelph maybe.

So is the league going to consider a St Louis franchise?

Commercially, the CFL is making inroads into the American market. Last summer,  before the NFL kicked off, ESPN showed twenty CFL games live and carried the rest of the season on its online service. A lot of American fans apparently liked having football to watch through the summer, some even preferred the attacking style of the Canadian Game. Viewing figures were good.

Playing a CFL game in St Louis, like an NFL International Series game in London, might be fun assuming the stadium could be configured for the bigger Canadian pitch. Travelling to Missouri  wouldn't be any harder than some of the journeys the teams already make inside Canada. But memories of the 1990s and the embarrassment that goes with them will surely scare off the CFL from any moves in that direction.

So, sorry St Louis fans. I hear the latest attempt to start a pro league in the US, Major League Football, is struggling. Maybe your ambitions would be better directed there.

For more on the CFL's 1990s expansion into the USA I recommend this article from Rolling Stone Magazine.

CFL Offseason update - All teams reviewed

Article by Duncan Gray

The CFL off-season is about half way through and the league is using the hashtag #IsItJuneYet? to help us through. So it's time for us to check in on what's happening in football north of the 49^th Parallel.

 

The 2016 fixture list came out last week, pre-season will start on 9^th June with each team having two games. The opening game is on 24^th June when the Toronto Argonauts will host their bitter local rivals, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Also in Week 1 there's a Grey Cup rematch as Ottawa Redblacks travel to the champion Edmonton Eskimos. That should see the season started with a bang. The regular season continues until November and then there are three rounds of play-offs before we're back in Toronto for the Grey Cup on November 27^th.

CFL 2016 Schedule

 

So what's been happening since the 2015 Grey Cup? Well, lots. There's been a big round of coaching moves and a record number of players are in the free agent market.

 

Here's a team by team run down on some of what's happened so far.

 

Edmonton Eskimos
The fans didn't get long to celebrate the Esks first championship in 10 years. By the time their hangovers had cleared, a few maybe not even sober yet, news was breaking that head Coach Chris Jones was leaving to take over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He'd had a financial offer he couldn't refuse. What's worse Jones took a lot of his assistants with him. The Esks moved quickly to appoint a replacement. The man they chose was Jason Maas, the one time Edmonton quarterback who impressed everyone last year while he was the Offensive Co-ordinator of the team Edmonton beat in the Grey Cup, the Ottawa Redblacks.

On the player front at least three free agents have followed Jones to Saskatchewan. They've held onto receiver Adarius Bowman and linebacker JC Sherrit who have both signed new two year contracts though. New players coming in include former NFL offensive players Jacoby Ford and Joe McKnight.

 

Saskatchewan Roughriders

After their dreadful 2015 season the big news in Riderville is obviously the Chris Jones appointment. He's been given at least four jobs; Head Coach, General Manager, Defensive Co-ordinator and vice-president of football operations. Despite having a small home market the Riders are the most successful team in money terms. They can afford to pay Jones big money for each of his new jobs so it's not such a surprise that he made the move.

Jones started work quickly by cutting large numbers of the playing squad. Among the notable departures have been a couple of veteran fan favourites, defensive end John Chick and receiver Weston Dressler. Jones said he was making cap space to rebuild the team.

Lots of trades and signings have been made as Jones rebuilds. They'll be almost unrecognisable from last year's. The most prominent free agent signing so far has been defensive end Justin Capicciotti coming from Ottawa, who should be an upgrade on Chick.

 

Ottawa Redblacks
The loss of Jason Maas has been a big hit to the Redblacks. By time honoured tradition, when a coach leaves a team to take a job elsewhere which is a promotion from his existing position then no compensation for his contract has been paid, or requested. The Redblacks decided to buck that rule and have demanded compensation from Edmonton. The League Commissioner Jeffrey Orridge has arranged for the matter to go to arbitration.
The big player move is the signing of quarterback Trevor Harris from Toronto. After his success last year Harris would have been looking for a starting role. Instead he'll be back up to the League MVP Henry Burris.  Burris will be 41 years old by the time the season starts, he's lasted a lot better than Peyton Manning but he can't go on for ever, can he?
Big losses will be DE Justin Capicciotti and RB Jeramiah Johnson. The record breaking group of receivers from last year should still be intact though.

               

 

Calgary Stampeders
There's a change at Head Coach in Calgary too, but this one was expected. Having achieved his 100^th win as head coach John Hufnagel has stepped aside to promote offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson to the Head Coach position. Hufnagel stays on as General Manager and President.

The team has lost big name offensive players. Running back Jon Cornish has retired to spend more time with other people’s money while last year's top receiver, Eric Rogers, has signed a two year deal with the San Francisco 49ers. Jeff Fuller has gone from the receiving corps too, reportedly having become a Seattle Seahawk, at least until the end of training camp.
The Stampeders have re-signed RB Jerome Messam, who played for them at the tail end of last season and have acquired receiver Bakari Grant from the Tiger-Cats through free agency.

 

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The Ti-Cats didn't get involved in the coach’s merry-go-round, mostly because their people have no-move agreements in their contracts in exchange for enhanced job security. Head Coach/GM Kent Austin had his contract extended by 4 years.

There's optimism that quarterback Zach Collaros will return from his September knee injury early in the season. Meantime Jeramiah Masoli, who proved himself the best back-up to Collaros, has had his contract extended. Hamilton's main priority was re-signing linebacker Ted Laurent and they managed it, despite Montreal putting in a rival offer. Receiver Terrell Sinkfield has signed a futures contract with the Minnesota Vikings. He'll be replaced by Chad Owens, the CFL's Most Outstanding Player of 2012 (see graphic). As the big star of the Argos Hamilton fans generally hated him, so it'll be an interesting transition. 

 

 

Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Another significant coaching move here, the Bombers filled their Offensive Coordinator vacancy by hiring the man most agree they shouldn't have fired as head coach four years ago, Paul LaPolice. You'll recognise LaPolice, he's the guy who did the detailed breakdown of plays on the TSN Halftime Show. Cue jokes from around the league saying he's only taken the job as he'll still be available to work for TSN during the play-offs....
Not so quick though, if there's one thing we learned from last season was that teams need two good quarterbacks. Winnipeg have Drew Willy and Matt Nichols in place. And they've made some good looking player moves so far. In have come Weston Drexler and Ryan Smith from Saskatchewan and top Canadian running back Andrew Harris from BC. They've also replaced kicker Lirim Hajrullahu, who had a disastrous end to last season and cost them a couple of games, with one of the best in Justin Medlock.

 

Toronto Argonauts

The big changes in Toronto have happened behind the scenes. At New Year the ownership of the franchise was transferred from David Braley, who also owns BC Lions, to Larry Tanenbaum. The team are re-locating too. It's goodbye to the lifeless Rogers Centre where they played second fiddle to the Blue Jays baseball team and were forced to play home games away. Their home will be the newly refurbished BMO Field on the shores of Lake Ontario which they'll share with Toronto FC of the MLS. Last week a roof was being added to the spectator area. BMO will host the Grey Cup this year.

The Argos have chosen to stick with their 36 year old future Hall of Fame quarterback Ricky Ray and in the process lost back up Trevor Harris who led them last season in Ray's absence. Rebuilding the O line to protect Ray has been a priority. Most notably, Brian Bulcke is coming in from Hamilton.

Moves to the NFL are taking their toll on the team. Kicker Swayze Waters has left to try his luck with the Carolina Panthers, and replacing him will be the aforementioned Lirim Hajrullahu which doesn't sound too promising though is probably inexpensive. Their defence has taken a hit as Cleyon Laing and Tristan Okpalaugo are going south too.

 

 

Montreal Alouettes

We knew before the end of last season that the interim head coach Jim Popp is going to continue in both the coach and GM roles this season.

I'm not going to pretend to understand what Popp's plan is with linebackers. They'll have their defensive leader Bear Woods back after injury cost him the whole of last season and they made a big effort to sign Ted Laurent from Hamilton. However having failed there they then cut Canadian Henoc Muamba who had a year left on his contract and caused such a frenzy when he became available in the second half of last season. The ex-Indianapolis Colt is reportedly going to try the NFL again, expect another bidding war if that doesn't work out. Montreal have signed receiver Kenny Stafford from Edmonton. The Alouettes tend to make one signing every year designed to make headlines. Last year it was Michael Sam. Don't know yet who it'll be this year.

 

BC Lions
The last Head Coach change is at BC. Jeff Tedford was unpopular with the players, in fact it may well have been mutual, and he resigned after the end of the season. The Lions have brought their former head Coach Wally Buono out from the backroom to run the team again.

They'll be without top Canadian running back Andrew Harris who's joined the Bombers, but they have managed to keep the services of a couple of players who were free agents, receiver Emmanuel Arceneaux and running back Chris Rainey. He'll be joined in the backfield by ex-Redblack Jeremiah  Johnson. There was speculation that veteran quarterback Travis Lulay would retire, particularly as he did a very good TV stint during the play-offs, but he's signed an extension and will be competing with Jonathon Jennings for the starting role.

 

Looking ahead

There's still a long way to go until we have final rosters of course. There's the college draft in early May and the team scouts are busy looking for unknown American players who'll try their luck in the team training camps in June.  As always, lots won't make it but one or two of them will turn out to be stars.