CFL 2021

[MJWalker45]

https://3downnation.com/2021/02/12/2021-cfl-season-may-not-be-plausible-league-could-look-to-2022-report/

This came out today on my Google News feed. With previous reports that teams may risk going under without a season, is it possible the league pushes through an abbreviated season just to get some type of income? 

[GDAWG]

They are going to have to play in 2021.  It will be super hard for the CFL to come back in 2022 if they don't play in 2021.

[Red Comet]

You know, if the CFL winds up collapsing, I might actually see another "alternative" football league working now that a lot of talent got freed up. Maybe. Still a very long shot but it certainly makes it more likely. 

[MJWalker45]

1 hour ago, Red Comet said:

You know, if the CFL winds up collapsing, I might actually see another "alternative" football league working now that a lot of talent got freed up. Maybe. Still a very long shot but it certainly makes it more likely. 

Maybe if they run it out of Canada instead of the US. Or split it between both countries. It might have to be four down football.

[GDAWG]

The CFL is the one alternative league that a lot of us take seriously, even if some of us are not fans of the CFL.  

[MJWalker45]

1 hour ago, GDAWG said:

The CFL is the one alternative league that a lot of us take seriously, even if some of us are not fans of the CFL.  

Unfortunately the owners haven't been taking it as seriously as they should have been.

[DCarp1231]

11 hours ago, GDAWG said:

The CFL is the one alternative league that a lot of us take seriously, even if some of us are not fans of the CFL.  

I once asked the official CFL Twitter who I should root for. The teams and their fans didn’t disappoint. It showed me how much everyone cared about the league.

 

P.S. I chose the BC Lions with Winnipeg coming in at a close second

[Red Comet]

Always liked the Winnipeg Blue Bombers because I liked Mega Man games growing up. Tried watching the actual product and the game was too weird for me to get into aside from that one year Ricky Williams decided that he would take a paycut to play football and smoke pot. 

 

Only real question now is if the CFL does fall apart, is there interest to create a new if lower-profile league? Maybe said new league winds up being an actual minor league of the NFL down the line if more colleges drop football due to costs. I have dibs on calling such a proposed league the IFL. 

[GDAWG]

29 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

Always liked the Winnipeg Blue Bombers because I liked Mega Man games growing up. Tried watching the actual product and the game was too weird for me to get into aside from that one year Ricky Williams decided that he would take a paycut to play football and smoke pot. 

 

Only real question now is if the CFL does fall apart, is there interest to create a new if lower-profile league? Maybe said new league winds up being an actual minor league of the NFL down the line if more colleges drop football due to costs. I have dibs on calling such a proposed league the IFL. 

 

The thing I have read that if the CFL falls apart, it's going to lead to Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver being on the NFL's radar.  Well at least Toronto, not sure about Montreal or Vancouver.

[Sec19Row53]

18 hours ago, Red Comet said:

You know, if the CFL winds up collapsing, I might actually see another "alternative" football league working now that a lot of talent got freed up. Maybe. Still a very long shot but it certainly makes it more likely. 

Do you know why alt-football fails? It isn't the talent. It isn't the time of year. It's that the general public cares for the NFL or its local teams, whether college or high school.

[GDAWG]

10 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Do you know why alt-football fails? It isn't the talent. It isn't the time of year. It's that the general public cares for the NFL or its local teams, whether college or high school.

 

The CFL is alt football though.  

[DCarp1231]

5 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Do you know why alt-football fails? It isn't the talent. It isn't the time of year. It's that the general public cares for the NFL or its local teams, whether college or high school.

I thought the XFL was doing well. For the short amount of time we got the product. I went to the Defenders opening game. It was a fantastic experience. All the fans really truly cared about it. My friends went to two more games. Still the same experience on their accounts. Definitely felt like it was one giant family. Let’s not forget the return to football in St. Louis and how it sold out. It was an exciting new product that had promise and hopefully continues that with its reboot next year. Sure, the general public may care more for the NFL and their local teams, but it’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility for the general public to have the same level of respect for an alt-league.

[Sec19Row53]

25 minutes ago, DNAsports said:

 Sure, the general public may care more for the NFL and their local teams, but it’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility for the general public to have the same level of respect for an alt-league.

Yes, it is out of the realm of possibility.  Listen, I don't hate alt-football. I have worked for teams in the CIFL, AIF, and semi-pro. I was a season ticket holder to an af2 team that was two hours from home for five years.

 

All of that new league excitement? Where was the fan outrage when it was shut down? Enjoy alt-football. Support it where you can. Just know where it lies in comparison to non alt-football.

[DCarp1231]

9 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

All of that new league excitement? Where was the fan outrage when it was shut down? Enjoy alt-football. Support it where you can. Just know where it lies in comparison to non alt-football.

Probably because it’s a very young league? I’m sure a lot of fans were upset, but the league wouldn’t have been able to survive if they kept going through a pandemic. There wouldn’t be any outrage in that. They made the right decision to shut down and recuperate for a comeback next year. Why get mad at that?

[Red Comet]

2 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

All of that new league excitement? Where was the fan outrage when it was shut down? Enjoy alt-football. Support it where you can. Just know where it lies in comparison to non alt-football.

 

I'm aware of where it ultimately lies. I'm not saying I think any league would ever top the NFL. Hell, pretty sure becoming a minor league to the NFL is the best any said potential alt-football league can hope for. The NFL would have to invest in such a league for it to have even the slightest shot of success. Hell, it may have to create it top-down. You'd have to have people who are willing to either take losses as an owner of an NFL team to control future talent or be stupid bold enough to try doing so on their own. It's very unlikely to happen now, but if the economics of the college game change like I think they will once the impact of compensating players becomes apparent, then the NFL might have no choice but to do so when suddenly a lot of very capable athletes can't get onto a college team due to very limited supply. As far as who would survive in such a situation, obviously the bigger schools do and I'd say the SEC, Big 10 and ironically enough, the Big 12 would be the least affected IMO. It would be more a 5-10 years down the line. And even then it would require a lot of upheaval and frankly a lot of luck to work. And that would be with NFL backing. 

[GDAWG]

I see the CFL playing this year, but not the full schedule that they have announced.  The start will be pushed back and probably a shortened schedule.  In fact I predict that the CFL will start right when the NFL is about to finish their last weekend of Pre-season games (if they have any).

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

4 hours ago, DNAsports said:

Sure, the general public may care more for the NFL and their local teams, but it’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility for the general public to have the same level of respect for an alt-league.

 

That's true. The CFL's Baltimore Stallions were beloved, even though they ultimately figured they had to leave town when the giant behemoth of the NFL came back.

 

A decade earlier, the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits had actually surpassed the Bucs in public respect.  And the Arena League's Storm were thought of in that town as major league.

 

Still, we cannot doubt the lamentable truth that the NFL has reached such a level of wealth and dominance that it has become unassailable. So the days of another league luring NFL stars in their prime, as the AFL, WFL, and USFL had done, are over.

 

Neverthelessss, we must grasp the idea that, for another league to be successful, that league would not have to topple the NFL, or even rival it. The possibility definitely exists for another football league to thrive as a niche phenomenon, as opposed to the mass phenomenon of the NFL. There is plenty of room for this, both in hearts of fans, and in the sports marketplace.

[DCarp1231]

54 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

That's true. The CFL's Baltimore Stallions were beloved, even though they ultimately figured they had to leave town when the giant behemoth of the NFL came back.

 

A decade earlier, the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits had actually surpassed the Bucs in public respect.  And the Arena League's Storm were thought of in that town as major league.

 

Still, we cannot doubt the lamentable truth that the NFL has reached such a level of wealth and dominance that it has become unassailable. So the days of another league luring NFL stars in their prime, as the AFL, WFL, and USFL had done, are over.

 

Neverthelessss, we must grasp the idea that, for another league to be successful, that league would not have to topple the NFL, or even rival it. The possibility definitely exists for another football league to thrive as a niche phenomenon, as opposed to the mass phenomenon of the NFL. There is plenty of room for this, both in hearts of fans, and in the sports marketplace.

The XFL (2020) was built on the model of them knowing they wouldn’t be anywhere on par with the NFL. It gave a lot of people opportunities to refine themselves to have another shot in the NFL. We saw PJ Walker get signed as Carolina’s backup QB, Safety Kenny Robinson played professionally for the BattleHawks before getting drafted in the 5th round by Carolina, and arguably the most successful player was Taylor Heinicke. Who went from a backup QB with the BattleHawks to leading Washington into a playoff game against Tom Brady, played phenomenally, and got himself a nice 2 year/$8.75M contract.

 

Simply put, they treated themselves as a significant player development league. Like you said, in this day and age, it would be ill advised to compete directly with the NFL. The XFL didn’t and they pretty much did everything they could right.

[Magnus]

Can we please talk about something CFL-related in the CFL thread?
 

I'll start. 

https://www.cfl.ca/2021/02/14/lalji-zimmerman-weigh-opening-week-cfl-free-agency/

[LaGrandeOrange]

I’m semi-optimistic for the Als if they ever get to play again, they seem to have fixed the relationship with Calvillo and have made the kinds of moves that seem to imply an actual plan. I’m not a hardcore fan so I am not very up on the league as a whole, though.