Despite Mark Cohon’s many achievements during his tenure as Commissioner, there are still several long-term problems that need to be addressed in the CFL.
One is expanding the league in Canada beyond its traditional nine teams. Another is the issue of Canadian quarterbacking in the CFL.
Canadian quarterbacks have been a rare commodity in the CFL since the days of the great Russ Jackson with the Ottawa Roughriders in the 1960s.
It is difficult to explain why Canadians do not play quarterback in the CFL, but it is easy to narrow down where the problem is: with the CFL or the Canadian college football system, or both.
First the colleges. It is said that when Canadian college quarterbacks are ready to enter the CFL, they are way behind their American counterparts.
Some of this can be blamed on the wealth and investment that large American universities give to their football programs as opposed to what is spent in Canada. But that still does not really answer the question of quality. American quarterbacks are being trained better.
This would imply two solutions. Either send Canadians who want to be quarterbacks to American schools, or train them better in Canada.
If the latter is a problem, it reflects poorly on both the CFL and the Canadian universities. Almost 50 years have passed since Jackson’s time, and yet the CFL and the Canadian universities have never sat done and worked out what is good enough for Canadians at the university level to play quarterback competently in the CFL. If that is the case it is a striking case of laziness, waste, and carelessness.
How many Canadian quarterbacks have graduated from university thinking that they were good enough to play in their own country’s football league, only to be told they are way behind? What kind of training are they getting? It is just a waste of time and money to have university stars like McMaster’s Kyle Quinlan and Queens’ Danny Brannagan if they’re going to sit on the practice roster for their whole short CFL careers.
On the other hand, is the problem with the CFL’s import/non-import rule, or some other CFL rules? If that is the case, then reform is long overdue and Commissioner Cohon should address the issue at once.
The lack of Canadian quarterbacks in the CFL hurts two of the other issues that Commissioner Cohon has to deal with: CFL expansion in Canada, and reviving the CFL’s popularity in Southern Ontario.
Take Halifax for example, a city which the CFL is keenly interested in expanding to.
The CFL wants public support for both a franchise and a new stadium. What better way to get that support than by giving local football heroes a chance to play in the CFL, particularly at the quarterback position?
A graduate from one of the Atlantic universities playing quarterback for a Halifax or Moncton CFL team would get Maritimers involved with the CFL, increase support for franchises, and pave the way for new stadiums.
Does it work? Sometimes. The Pittsburgh Penguins got funding to build and now play in a new arena; one of the reasons was that they drafted the best player in the NHL, Sidney Crosby.
And one way of reviving CFL popularity in Southern Ontario is to give as many local boys as possible a chance to play in the CFL, especially at quarterback. The logical CFL expansion cities in the immediate future are Quebec, Kitchener, and London. All three cities have some of the best college football programs in Canada at Laval, Laurier, and Western.
The CFL needs public support in these three cities for franchises and new stadiums. Giving graduates from these universities a chance to play quarterback in the CFL will stimulate interest in the league and tie these communities to it.
Whatever the ultimate problem and solution is, right now the CFL is in a totally illogical marketing mess.
The CFL is telling Canadians to buy its tickets, watch it on television, buy its merchandise, start football programs and have their children participate them. Why should Canadians do this when at the end, the CFL will tell them that they are not good enough to play in its league?
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