By Jaime Stein
CFL.ca
Five weeks have been played in the Canadian Football League’s 2007 season and several thoughts come to mind. Firstly, how great is it to be the commissioner of the CFL these days? All things considered, it might be the best commissioner job in North American professional sports.
Consider this: Gary Bettman is busy convincing an owner in Nashville to sell his team to a different buyer for approximately $60 million less than he was offered! A look at the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell is faced with a tough decision on Michael Vick’s alleged involvement in illegal activities. Bud Selig has been dragged into the Barry Bonds ordeal because of his indecision on whether to attend the historic game. And if those situations were not bad enough, David Stern is spending his days trying to rebuild the trust of fans after one of his referees was accused of betting on and possibly fixing NBA games.
When the search for a new commissioner began people figured the successor to Tom Wright would have to be borderline crazy to take job for a variety of reasons. Instead, Commissioner Mark Cohon has had a fairly smooth ride into Year 1 of his five year term and the CFL is as strong as ever.
Teams are experiencing great crowds, especially in the traditionally lagging markets of Toronto and Vancouver. Milt Stegall becoming the CFL’s all time touchdown king has brought an air of excitement to the new season. A core of young Canadians are emerging as the new stars of the CFL including Brent Johnson, Jesse Lumsden, Andy Fantuz, and Javy Glatt to name a few. A new television deal was recently inked and all signs are pointing to a successful Grey Cup in Toronto.
If any negative can be found thus far, it is the overabundance of back-to-back games.
There have only been two sets of back-to-back games through five weeks this season, but it has already become annoying. Both Calgary and Toronto and Saskatchewan and Edmonton have spilt their back-to-back series. Playing the same team twice in a row should be reserved for hockey and baseball. Playing home and home games in football should be strictly a novelty for the Labour Day Classic and Labour Day Rematch games only.
Unfortunately for fans in Toronto and Edmonton, they will have to endure five sets of back-to-back games this season. Fans in B.C. and Saskatchewan have it easy with only two such meetings. The Riders are probably in the best situation though. One of their two back-to-back meetings will be the Labour Day and the Banjo Bowl games against Winnipeg which is truly a natural rivalry for that weekend.
While back-to-back games can be a catalyst for a great rivalry (see Calgary-Edmonton and Toronto-Hamilton) forcing these games into the schedule throughout the season is unwise in a sport like football where there is such a high probability of the outcomes being split.
In fact, in 2006 there were 14 back-to-back contests in the CFL. In those games there were 10 series that were split (71 percent) while four series saw a team win both games (29 percent). However, of those four series that were not split, twice the losing team was the Hamilton Tiger-Cats who also had the worst record in the CFL. In another series (B.C.-Montreal) there was a bye week between the games.
Clearly, the statistics indicate that going back-to-back in the CFL is not ideal. I would much rather see teams face each other at differing times during the year, especially because football relies so much on specific game planning and back-to-back games eliminates the ability to surprise an opponent..
The last thought that has creped into the first five weeks of the season is running up the score – is it acceptable to run up the score and how long should a quarterback remain in the game.
Fans and some media criticized Michael Clemons for starting the second half with Michael Bishop at quarterback with a 27-0 lead against the Calgary Stampeders in Week 3.
It is ludicrous to expect a coach to sit a healthy starting quarterback after only one half of football. The earliest a quarterback should come out of a game in a blowout is at the end of the third quarter. In the case of Michael Bishop, he was in his second game after being anointed as the starting quarterback. It made sense to continue to give him reps with the starting offence for the remainder of the third quarter while allowing him to develop with the offence. His injury was simply a part of the game and with hindsight being 20/20; it is easy to say he should not have been under centre at that point in time.
In another circumstance that took place this past weekend, Tiger-Cats head coach Charlie Taaffe appeared to be upset with Bombers head coach Doug Berry for attempting a long field goal on the final play of the game.
This was not an attempt to run up the score. It was an attempt by the Bombers to increase their lead in the points plus-minus in case the two teams finished tied in the standings and shared an equal head-to-head record at the end of the season. With four meetings between Winnipeg and Hamilton in 2007, there is a possibility that this scenario could play out. Of course, Doug Berry and his staff were less than thrilled last season when Don Matthews and the Alouettes utilized the same tactic against his Bombers.
In professional football there should be no complaining about a team running up the score. It isn’t necessarily proper etiquette to have a starting quarterback throw bombs late in the fourth quarter. But, in 2005 Kavis Reed, then defensive coordinator of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, took exception with Kent Austin, then offensive coordinator for the Toronto Argonauts, because Austin gave the green light to third-string quarterback Charlie Peterson to throw for the end zone in a horribly lopsided game.
Once the starting quarterback has been removed, it is perfectly acceptable to throw the ball in the fourth quarter of a blowout. Defenders are paid to do their job for an entire 60 minutes, so if they cannot stop the second or third-string quarterback then maybe it is time for a new vocation.
In fact, I would like to see more coaches go to their second quarterback earlier in a blowout. Too often, coaches go with their starter until there is only one or two series remaining in the game. In recent seasons, back-up quarterbacks have not received enough live reps to prepare for the unfortunate situation of the starting quarterback going down with an injury. It is time that coaches take care of the future in the present.
Jaime Stein is the former play-by-play voice of the Toronto Argonauts.
