As Lowell Ullrich of the The Province reports, veterans Dante Marsh and Ryan Phillips are contemplating moving on from the BC Lions after this season. This comes after they weren’t offered contract extensions following the 2010 season. In total 10 of their teammates were given extensions.
Wally Buono had made it clear after the Lions struggles last season that contract extensions were not going to be easy to get and hoped to use it as a source of motivation for his players.
“I’m going to be professional this year but a part of you feels like you should play the year out and go somewhere else,” said the 32-year-old Marsh, “At the end of the day I was kind of told it was motivation.”
As for Buono, he says he doesn’t do extensions with players looking for large pay increases.
“Last year we tried to give a lot of players some security to create a better environment. It didn’t work out. There’s nothing to be afraid of if you go out and do your job,” Buono said.“Do you expect us to open the vault for everybody? We’re paying some players at positions higher than the norm and we’re not getting that out of them.”
The reality is, this is the salary cap era in the CFL. Tough decisions have to be made by team management every year. Teams have to pick and choose who gets extensions, who gets signed as a free agent and signing draft picks, all while working with a ceiling over their head.
Odds are if Phillips performs well again this season, the Lions will make room for him and a new extension. Even if that means not bringing another veteran back next year. Tough choices.
http://www.canadianfootballtalk.com/
-Dante Marsh is one of the back bones of the defense, between he and Phillips, I'd prefer Marsh.
-what a great site, and overdue.