Riders Can’t Even Bend the Rules Right

Stupidity seems to be the right way to sum up the latest installment of too many men for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

First off, every team screws around with the roster and stretches the rules to bring in players. It has happened since the 1970’s when the Edmonton Eskimos made an art of it. Now the salary management system, or salary cap, was intended to cut down the opportunities to have a complete team working in various bars as bouncers and bartenders and avoid having them on the official payroll.

What makes the Riders stupid is they were obvious about it. I take in about one or two practices a week depending on my work schedule and at the start of the season I was a bit taken aback by the number of players. I didn’t think anything of it because the Riders were making so many changes that it was pretty well useless to try to count the players, never mind try to figure out who they were from their numbers.

News the Riders had access to a house to house players not on the roster is new and a bit bold, but then again, Chris Jones has a reputation for stretching the rules and since he came from Edmonton, the original home of the CFL taxi squad, maybe he was bringing their ideas down here.

What is interesting to me is no one seemed to stop and question if it was a good idea.

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The 2016 season has degenerated into an endless audition of players, no defense and the Riders in the drivers’ seat for the first pick of the 2017 draft. With all the weekly announcements of players cut, brought in, released and then brought in again, the Riders apparently didn’t think to ask what if someone looked and wondered and why a name cut two weeks ago was suddenly back in town again and they were an American?

That strikes me as arrogance, and not particularly bright arrogance, more like something you would expect to find from Donald Trump. Chris Jones understands he is not particularly liked in other CFL cities, so why give those people material to work with in these roster manipulations?

Another thing I find aggravating is that the constant auditions have not produced a running back, a functional defensive backfield, or anything other than science projects on the defensive line. If J0ones system is so great, why not work on establishing continuity with what you have and perhaps get off the audition treadmill and do some actual coaching?

It strikes me that no one is willing to question Jones, because using a house for non-roster players in a city like Regina is asking for it to be questioned elsewhere. Other questions could be asked like why is Kendal Lawrence on the roster, how come we have made two trades where players retired rather than come to Saskatchewan?

It seemed like Jones and the Riders were daring the rest of the CFL to do something, and this is a competitive league, so whether it is violating the import ratio during a game or this, someone is seriously out for the Riders and maybe the team should make it more difficult to paint a bullseye on its back.

And again I come back to stupidity which may be a harsh term, but now when fans are asked to provide picture ID and sign in at practices, we have officially moved to the twilight zone. The Riders cannot blame the fans; they should be blaming themselves for what happened.

I had to laugh at people like Arash Madani, the Sportsnet flack who used to work for Winnipeg and Ottawa and whose corporate bosses hate the CFL who said the league fell flat in dealing with the situation. While it is probably impossible to pinpoint an exact bylaw the Riders violated, what they did do was violate the spirit of the various agreements the CFL has put together to bring parity to the league.

The fine was OK, not losing draft picks was better, but the hit on the Rider image combined with the 1-5 record is just one headache too many for this Rider fan.  I would have thought when Chris Jones was interviewed, he would have had a detailed game plan as GM for how the team would be run and how the Riders would have gotten better. If anything resembling renting a house for taxi squad players had come up, if I was Reynolds I would have asked if it was allowed under league rules.

Just as the Riders did not use due diligence with players like Maurice Price and Matt Sewell, Reynolds did not use due diligence in ensuring the methods presumably brought forth by Jones were at least above board.  I have no problem with the Riders being smarter than other teams, whether in game plans or player evaluation, but this is a different kettle of fish and the question has to be asked whether Jones was forced to justify his vision or whether Reynolds bought it sight unseen or worse, didn’t know enough to ask basic questions.

One bright thing is this has apparently sparked a sell out for Saturday’s game, which makes this and the Labour Day Classic the only sell outs so far.  Bo Levi Mitchell shooting off his mouth should have also been met with a fine, but if he had inside knowledge, you have to wonder if Calgary was in on the plan to kick the Riders even more when they were down.

There are no angels in this situation, which could have been easily avoided with a few questions here and there. In a weird sense, it is almost like last year when Cory Chamblin did whatever he wanted and Brendan Taman did nothing to stand up to Chamblin, costing both of them their jobs. Reynolds deserves credit for bringing a credible candidate to rebuild the Riders; he loses credit for not standing up for the good of the club and understanding what football operations were getting up to.

This was an entirely avoidable situation if only sensible questions were asked. I have nothing with trying to get a competitive advantage; I just think the Riders should have been more discrete about it. But then again, all the auditions don’t seem to have worked so far this season, and that turns this latest incident into another cruel joke that seems to be the 2016 season.