By Greg Urbanoski

Riderville

2020 CFL Season Just a Hail Mary Pass Away!

May 7, 2020 | 9:40 AM

It’s interesting in a desert of sporting diversions, last week’s CFL Draft telecast on TSN saw ratings up 116 per cent as people searched for anything that was not a reality show or another in seven weeks of Covid 19 news.

Then the CFL doubled down by confirming they had approached the federal government for $150 million in help if their season goes, to quote Neil Young – out the blue and into the black.

Depending on your point of view, giving money to a sports league would just be inane when there are all the substandard Chinese masks to be overpaid for and no doubt Conservative lame duck Andrew Scheer will complain that giving the CFL money would only encourage the players to stay home and not go to work.

The CFL ask is interesting because there are a number of factors at play here. The CFL collective bargaining agreement has a clause which says if the season is cancelled, the players become free agents because hey, they are not getting paid and expecting them to wait another season to see if there is a season is asking a bit much.

The interesting hitch is if that clause is still valid if say the federal government or provincial governments say there is no way games can be held with fans because of the risk of infection. If you thank that is a far fetched possibility, consider Covid-19 took off in Italy following a major soccer game in northern Italy and who wants to accept responsibility for unleashing a second wave of Covid-19?

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So if there is a way to play CFL games, but without fans, how would that work for revenue to pay players, staff etc? The federal emergency wage relief has the feds covering 75 per cent of wages with the employers picking up the rest. The CFL could do that with money from the TSN deal and the CFL avoids two worst case scenarios – no season and no way to pay players.

The CFL and CFLPA had stopped talking to each other, probably long enough for the CFL to get a labour lawyers opinion on losing a season, but are now talking to each other again. With various provinces having different reopening schedules due to the differing ways Covid-19 has impacted those provinces, it is entirely possible that say Saskatchewan would be able to field a team that could practice and play and Montreal might not enjoy the same opportunity.

So the term “Bubble City” has come into public awareness. A bubble city is somewhere that Covid 19 has not penetrated to same extent as say, New York City. So in theory, if teams in one province are unable to play due to public health orders, they could go to the Bubble City and play.

Last time I did a column, I reported on the CFL looking at plans to start in Sepetember, play a full 18 schedule with teams playing every five days. When I first heard that I wondered about the logistics of flying around the country etc., but if you have a Bubble City in the east and west, and those teams are playing in the same city, it could be done.

The logistics of all of this is mind-boggling. How to keep teams with their staffs and players in isolation from the public and tested enough to ensure they were not unwitting carriers of the virus? It could be done but if one thing goes wrong, then this carefully constructed scenario is blown out of the water.

The federal help would make it easier not to have fans exposed especially if another wave of Covid-19 rolls in the fall. There is so much unknown about how this virus is spread and what it does that specualating on what could happen could be seen as indulging in magical thinking.

A month ago I wrote that the 2020 CFL is not likely because of all the unknowns with the virus and how the CFL could generate revenue with no fans in the building. The Riders are looking at refunds, although a decision on the Grey Cup game is still up in the air because cancelling that opens up a whole can of worms, including what happens to the players and what if teams go under with no play?

The federal help would help sell games without fans, and there is something else the feds need to take into consideration. It’s been seven weeks, give or take a day or so, since the lockdown went down across the country.

The term cabin fever describes what happens when people share the same place for a long time with no way out. The longer this drags on with an indefinite time line, the more people will feel depressed, lost or anxious.

Providing some kind of outlet would be nice, especially when you consider there are no new movies out there, or if they are, they are being held back until it is safe to show them in theatres. The interesting question is the potential price for alleviating that mental distress is your potential death or the death of people you love if you pick up the virus and transmit it without knowing.

If they allow fans in, there will be social distancing, mask and probably no one over 70 will be admitted for their health. I’m not sure how Grey Cup would work, but first let’s see if the CFL can pull off a season.

So speaking about the draft, the Riders were in the interesting position of not having a lot of picks, but then again not really having a lot of holes to fill in their roster. My pre-draft picks involved a bit of wishful thinking as linebacker Jordan Williams, who I thought would be a great draft pick for the Riders, ended up in BC when BC made a draft day pick and swapped number one pick spots with Calgary.

So with the Riders losing Philip Blake and Dariusz Bladek in free agency on the offensive line, the Riders need to stock the shelves with some content and they went with Mattland Riley from the University of Saskatchewan. Riley provides depth and the opportunity to learn without having to step right away onto the field.

The Riders didn’t have picks in the second and third rounds, but in the fourth round picked Kian Scheffer-Baker a receiver out of Guelph. The Riders had two Canadian receivers picked last year, but the size of Scheffer-Baker made him too tempting to pass up. What this pick might do is spell the end of the Mitch Picton experiement where the Canadian receiver from the U of R Rams who has been on the practice roster for the last couple of years has run out of chances to make the leap to starter.

The Riders other fourth round pick was linebacker AJ Allen from Guelph. The usual practice among football teams is to use these kind of draft picks for special teams which allows players to see some game action while learning the playbook and not having the pressure of going in a starting position right away.

In the fifth round the Rioders picked Vincent Dethier of McGill. There wee some capable cover guys still on the draft board with Dethier was picked and people wonder if this means Elie Bouka will be taking one of the corner positions and Dethier will be a back up and again, play special teams.

In the sixth round the Riders picked Jonathon Femi-Cole a running back out of Western. The Riders are quietly amassing a number of Canadian running backs and Femi-Cole is being looked at as a special teams player until he learns the offense.

The Riders in the seventh the Riders selected Jesse Lawson, an OL from Carleton University who is 6’6 but could use a trainer to help put on weight. Another depth move for the Riders but with this guys’ size, one can imagine the Riders now trying to match the Eskimos offensive line in size.

The Riders final pick was a bit of a surprise but also a pretty interesting gamble with the selection of defensive lineman Neville Gallimore of Oklahoma. Gallimore got drafted in the third round of the NFL draft by Dallas and it might be awhile, if not ever, for Gallimore to come back to Canada. Gallmimore is a pretty good talent and taking him in the eighth round is a pretty good gamble if all the other players the Riders were interested in were already taken. If Gallimore comes north, this will be the steal of the draft.

So while the CFL figures out how it can operate in the time of Covid 19, the Riders have been signing some pretty interesting and impressive players, likely the result of great scouting by Paul Jones, the Riders US scout.

The Riders signed a massive offensive lineman – Cyrus Kouandjio, 26 years old, 6’7” a second round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills in the 2015 draft. Kouandjio played three seasons with the Bills, then Detroit and then Denver for two years before coming to the Riders. Kouandjio is from Cameroon and his lack of finese in the position stands in contrast to his size and power. If the Riders are looking to run even more in 2020, this guy would be an amazing addition to opening up the running game.

The Riders also signed a couple of defensive backs in Tony Lippett, a fifth round draft pick of the Miami Dolphins in 2015 who has also played for the New York Giants and Cincinatti Bengals. Intriguingly while going to Michigan State, he also moonlighted as a receiver in addition to being a defensive back. Lippett is 6’3” and 200 pounds and with that size will make for interesting match ups with opposing receivers.

The other defensive back signed is AJ Hendy who was an undrafted free agent signing by the Miami Dolphins in 2016 who made an appearance on the field in week 17. Hendy spend 2017 and 2018 on the practice roster of the Los Angeles Chargers before being signed to the Houston Texans in 2019. In 2020 Hendy played in the XFL for the New York Guardians before the league folded.

The Riders also signed linebacker Deshaun Davis who was a sixth round draft pick of the Cincinatti Bengals in the 2019 draft. He played in four preseason games with the Bengals and spent the season on the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles practice rosters.

Finally, if you go to the Riders website, you will see them selling face masks with the Rider logo on them you can wash and reuse. They are not medical grade, but it’s a nice way to advertise your Rider Pride.