Re: Comparison of player costs NFL to CFL
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 6:40 pm
Fair enough but I wonder how coaches and coaching staffs would feel about being fired for doing a bad job and not getting paid. It is a little bit of goose and gander thing. As I said, there are pro's and cons but being on the hook for a player would induce a greater level of caution on coaches and GM's. There would be a lot of smaller deals at the onset for rookies for sure. But there would also be some stability with rosters as well. It adds some greater accountability on the management. Sure players can not perform as expected but there is a problem as well with coaches being too lucrative with deals operating on the mindset that they can just walk away if they "get it wrong". How many times have we had the conversations about how we have too much money tied up in one player to the detriment of the rest of the team. Maybe I'm not on the same page as most but frankly, I don't really care if we have a great QB for example, if his salary is such that it means we have to cheap out on the rest of the team to the tune of not being competitive. A guaranteed contract might have made Buono a little more cautious in the above Gary Butler case. And Buono was one of the worst for this take a shine or not take shine approach. Beyond that however, it is probably a more respectful approach to take with players as people. We have been dancing around the issue that players are exploited in this league. This is part of that exploitation. Some players can't make the cut for whatever reason but coaches are also paid big bucks to sift out the gems from the coal and not having account for bad choices give them a walk when it comes to longevity. Some coaching is pretty bad and yet is allowed to endure. Too many bad contracts following a coach would expose some of the bad ones a lot sooner.Hambone wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 2:51 pm I'm not sold on the guaranteed contract concept. It just doesn't seem a fit for a sport structured like football, particularly with the current training camp and preseason structure being what it is. Teams now are faced with making calls on rookies after only a handful of padded practices, a bunch of helmets and sweats only sessions and a limited number of exhibition game reps. They make their best judgment knowing full well they won't know for sure if they made the right call until half a dozen games into the season. Guarantee the contracts and teams have no options to correct mistakes until the contract expires. The NHL guarantees contracts but they also can sign players to 2 way contracts and assign players to the minors for more grooming or in some cases to bury bad contracts. The CFL has no such luxury. When teams make their final cuts before the season starts they'd have to do so knowing that they are stuck with all the players they didn't cut. For those who did get cut and don't get a PR offer injuries are the only thing that would open up opportunities until next offseason.
Fans think player turnover might be reduced by guaranteeing contracts. I don't if that would be the case. If I was a CFL GM working with guaranteed contracts I'd be wanting to have as many players signed to 1 year deals as I possibly could. I'd only risk a multi-year contract on established players who have not yet reached the end of their prime. IMO the current rules for rookie contracts would have to be tossed out and replaced. Rookies are currently expected to sign mandatory multi-year contracts. If that were in place under guaranteed contracts if anything it would greatly reduce the chances of the rookie making the club.
A good example I can think of is the much villified Gary Butler. Buono took a bit of a shine to him (the linked article sheds some light) and he made final cuts. Beamish also talks about how such things are not uncommon across all CFL and NFL teams. Regardless had guaranteed contracts been in place then the Lions and their fans would have been stuck with Butler until his contract expired. As it was they corrected the error and cut him after 8 games.
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