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Ballistic Bob wrote:

korey&dante4ever wrote:I've only heard the words "tainted championship" come from this site... not even Riderfans are saying its tainted.. i dont get where its coming from...

Because Duval got a rekick with no time on the clock and 10 yards closer. Rider fans will come around after the "stunned" wears off. BB

A tainted win is if soemhow the Alouettes cheated their way to victory and the Riders were cheated out of a win...

The riders F'd up. If you can count to 13 then there is no grey area like a pass interference. Clear cut, there were 13 guys on the field that is a penalty.

LFITQ wrote:It is going to be interesting to see how many Als are going to be retiring after this game...

I think the East, and most notably the Als, is going to be quite different next season.

On the other end, I'd be curious to know who was on the field for the Riders for that first FG and who doesn't make the team next season. However, what do you do about it? You can't call a timeout. You go offside you still move them forward 5 yds. Can only hope the ST coach told you to go out there when you shouldn't have been told to go out there.

What do you do about it? It's easy with so much on the line. You think outside the box.. I know what I would have done. Armstead could have saved the game.. I call HIM THE GOAT.

I'm just glad that when the Rider fans come to our outdoor stadium next year, that we have real ammunition to throw at them, especially whenever the Lions have a field goal attempt. This gaffe will spice up relations between them and our fans, next year. I love/hate Rider fans, respect them like hell, they make things interesting, and their team was great this year, but I didn't want to spend next year hearing them hound us about winning the Grey Cup twice since our last win, when not long ago, all we had to say to them was "1989". I don't think I would've been too upset even if they did win, but I still didn't want them to and I cheered for Montreal because they've lost too many championships. Plus, they plain out out-classed the Lions, and you can't be mad at them for doing that, because our guys just didn't deserve to win at all. As long as they're not playing us in the Grey Cup, it's cool if they win and beat a real Lions rival, at that.

It's only fitting that the two teams with the losingest record in Grey Cup history both lost their first-ever Grey Cup meeting on the same play: Montreal on the missed last-play field goal and Saskatchewan on the penalty that nullified the missed last-play field goal. Neither team deserved to win.

Big Time wrote:There is absolutely nothing tainted about the Als win. No one is questioning that the penalty was the right call. I've not seen any Rider fan question it. Als won fair and square.

As for 2007, the asterisk is for the salary cap violation that the Riders committed in order to field the team that won the championship. They should not have been able to field that lineup considering their financial mismanagement, but they did and that is what tainted their championship. It has nothing to do with Dinwiddie starting in replace of Glenn. FWIW, I have heard several Riders fans bring up the fact that 2007 was tainted because of this, and many are still sensitive about it today. None of them would give back the championship of course, but it is worth pointing out that the Riders are the only team to violate the salary cap since it came into effect and are widely anticipated to be in violation of it again this year.

Well, yes, we were over the cap, but that's allowed by league rules inasmuch as there are penalties for doing so. We were slightly over the cap, but not by much. We broke the rule, we paid the penalty, issue over. We weren't the only team to be over the cap that year, IIRC.

Montreal was also in salary cap violation in 2007, but the Riders were the only team to win a cup while doing so. The Riders were the only team in violation in 2008 and are widely anticipated to be in violation again in 2009. The irony was that in 2007 Tillman would go on and on every chance he got about how much adversity that team faced due to injuries, and how they never ever used injuries as an excuse (despite the fact that Tillman never failed to mention it in every interview he gave). Then of course when the salary cap violation was discovered, he used injuries as an excuse. The whole thing was nauseating

Well, at least we have a cap now as opposed to the 70's and 80's when Edmonton and Toronto were buying championship after championship...

Vern Halen wrote:Well, at least we have a cap now as opposed to the 70's and 80's when Edmonton and Toronto were buying championship after championship...

They was a Cap of $2.5M system in place then, it was skirted around just like today's SMS is being, with the invented 9 game IL abuse. Now most teams are in violation of this, some to a larger degree than others, but don't tell me it is any different than the 80's abuse to the system.

Rammer wrote:

Vern Halen wrote:Well, at least we have a cap now as opposed to the 70's and 80's when Edmonton and Toronto were buying championship after championship...

They was a Cap of $2.5M system in place then, it was skirted around just like today's SMS is being, with the invented 9 game IL abuse. Now most teams are in violation of this, some to a larger degree than others, but don't tell me it is any different than the 80's abuse to the system.

Also, there's no undisputed team of the decade since at most each team won two championships.

Lions - 2
Stampeders - 2
Eskimos - 2
Alouettes - 2
Argonauts - 1
Roughriders - 1

If you consider the runner-up position, then the Alouettes run away with it. But I don't think finishing in second place five times looks very good.

Robbie wrote:

Rammer wrote:

Vern Halen wrote:Well, at least we have a cap now as opposed to the 70's and 80's when Edmonton and Toronto were buying championship after championship...

They was a Cap of $2.5M system in place then, it was skirted around just like today's SMS is being, with the invented 9 game IL abuse. Now most teams are in violation of this, some to a larger degree than others, but don't tell me it is any different than the 80's abuse to the system.

Also, there's no undisputed team of the decade since at most each team won two championships.

Lions - 2
Stampeders - 2
Eskimos - 2
Alouettes - 2
Argonauts - 1
Roughriders - 1

If you consider the runner-up position, then the Alouettes run away with it. But I don't think finishing in second place five times looks very good.

Not when you consider the West seems to have held the strongest teams over the course of that decade.

Rammer wrote:

Vern Halen wrote:Well, at least we have a cap now as opposed to the 70's and 80's when Edmonton and Toronto were buying championship after championship...

They was a Cap of $2.5M system in place then, it was skirted around just like today's SMS is being, with the invented 9 game IL abuse. Now most teams are in violation of this, some to a larger degree than others, but don't tell me it is any different than the 80's abuse to the system.

Disagree - The first mention of a salary cap is from 1987.

From the CFLPA's history page http://www.cflpa.com/themes/cflpa2/pdf/history.pdf

In 1987, C.F.L. teams agreed to set a “competitive expenditure cap”. The cap was
first set at $2.8 Million and increased to $3 Million in 1988. By 1992, an explicit
exemption allowed teams to exceed the cap when signing one designated “marquee
player”. From 1993, a general limit of $2.5 Million applied to all payments to players
and to salaries and bonuses for coaches. By agreement with the C.F.L.P.A., the cap
in 1996 was to apply only to players, and the figure was set at $2.1 Million.

I'm talking the 70's and 80's so I guess pre-1987. THOSE were the teams buying championships when small market teams like Saskatchewan were struggling...

Vern Halen wrote:

Rammer wrote:

Vern Halen wrote:Well, at least we have a cap now as opposed to the 70's and 80's when Edmonton and Toronto were buying championship after championship...

They was a Cap of $2.5M system in place then, it was skirted around just like today's SMS is being, with the invented 9 game IL abuse. Now most teams are in violation of this, some to a larger degree than others, but don't tell me it is any different than the 80's abuse to the system.

Disagree - The first mention of a salary cap is from 1987.

From the CFLPA's history page http://www.cflpa.com/themes/cflpa2/pdf/history.pdf

In 1987, C.F.L. teams agreed to set a “competitive expenditure cap”. The cap was
first set at $2.8 Million and increased to $3 Million in 1988. By 1992, an explicit
exemption allowed teams to exceed the cap when signing one designated “marquee
player”. From 1993, a general limit of $2.5 Million applied to all payments to players
and to salaries and bonuses for coaches. By agreement with the C.F.L.P.A., the cap
in 1996 was to apply only to players, and the figure was set at $2.1 Million.

I'm talking the 70's and 80's so I guess pre-1987. THOSE were the teams buying championships when small market teams like Saskatchewan were struggling...

Okay, different era that you are depicting, but that doesn't dismiss the same infractions going on now in just another version. In the era that you are discussing there certainly was an issue, however we can't change that. Now, we just face the larger than large rosters, giving teams depth that is needed to overcome injuries during the season. We have had two teams caught with a tax on the SMS, and it is the same two teams with the deepest pockets from fanbased revenues.

IMHO, the only way to avoid the abuse of the IR is to increase the SMS and make all salaries count. Some negotiated amount increase of the SMS to off set a reasonable amount of normal IR costs.

It's either that, or any player going on the 9 game IR needs a CFL league medical clearance to verify the injury.

Robbie wrote:The city of Montreal will be holding a parade to celebrate the Alouette's championship on Wednesday.
That's a lot more than what the city of Vancouver did for its 1994, 2000, and 2006 Lions championships.

And where was the huge crowd in Vancouver when the Lions captured the Grey Cup in 2000 and 2006.




And notice the salute to their ancestors as they also flew the Baltimore Stallions flag. I bet the city of Denver didn't do the same thing in their two Stanley Cup championships by flying the Nordiques flag.

Yeah, the SMS system we have right now is more of a luxury tax the way it's set up.