Focused on improving the CFL

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This article was published 12/04/2022 (1244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Randy Ambrosie was at the Toronto airport Monday night with his bags packed for Winnipeg.

The Manitoba capital was the next stop on the CFL commisioner’s league-wide tour as Ambrosie was set to appear at IG Field on Tuesday to take questions from Winnipeg Blue Bombers diehards and local scribes. But with one of the worst blizzards in decades on the horizon, Ambrosie and Bombers president and CEO Wade Miller made the call to reschedule the event to a later date.

Ambrosie dodged the snowstorm and got to stay in Toronto and enjoy a beautiful, 15 C day Tuesday, but he couldn’t dodge the Free Press as the face of the league still agreed to speak with this reporter on Zoom for nearly an hour on a wide range of topics regarding the three-down game. The following is an edited transcript of the conversation:

Free Press: There’s been a lot of noise that the CFL was contemplating four-downs. Let’s be real here, Randy. You had to have known that was going to lead to a ton of backlash from fans, right?

Randy Ambrosie: Well, in some respects, you have to look at it a little bit philosophically. It’s good to see the volume of passion that our fanbase has for the game. The story got a little bit overblown. There wasn’t a formal proposal on the table to look at four downs. There was a decision we made that we would do a product review, starting with a consumer research study that was filled with tremendous insights and we said ‘Let’s sit down with our football group,’ which includes presidents, GMs, and head coaches. The goal we defined was fairly simple: We want to have the fastest, most fun, entertaining brand of football in the world… And four downs was just a very small part of the conversation. It very quickly ended up focusing on improving our three-down game and that’s where we landed.

FP: So, four downs is off the table then?

RA: I don’t think there’s ever going to be a day where people aren’t going to speculate about that. I can’t control that. Right now, what I think I got is a ton of energy and a really committed group of leaders in our league that want to build on our three-down game and that’s what 100 per cent of our focus is on.

FP: As for a potential rule change that is nowhere near as polizaring as four downs, let’s talk hash marks. As a way to generate some more offence, John Hufnagel proposed the league move the left and right hash marks closer together.

RA: I personally really like it. It’s gone to the rules committee and the rules committee will ultimately make recommendations to the management council and then the management council will make a final set of recommendations to the board of governors for final approval.

So, as the football guys explain, when you’re on the left hash with the way the hash marks are currently laid out, there’s not a lot of room on the left side of the field so that’s not particularly fertile ground for advancing the ball. And then the wide side of the field, from the left hash mark to the right sideline, the problem is if you flank out a wide receiver on the right sideline, he’s more of a decoy because very few coaches want a quarterback to make a throw from the left hash all the way to the right sideline… The idea is then that the defences can kind of cheat, but if you move the hash marks in, the defences have to play the entire field… I think it’s a tremendous idea, and it has to go through all the steps and the proper process, but personally, I’m very supportive of it because I think it’s one adjustment that can be quite positive.

FP: The current collective bargaining agreement expires May 14 — right before training camp. The CFL and CFLPA have been meeting frequently, but how have those talks been going?

RA: I can tell you on the long list of things that have been encouraging is the way our relationship with the players has improved over these past couple of years in particular. I tip my hat to the CFLPA leadership and the players in general… I know the discussions because I’m looped in every single day with the conversations going on around the bargaining process and I’m very encouraged by the tone. The tone is very positive and the goals, I believe, are shared and very positive. Personally, I’m optimistic we’re going to come to an outcome that’s positive for both the league and the players because we are one thing.

FP: One of the topics during the CBA discussions is the ratio. Could we see naturalized Canadian status for veteran American players leading to less Canadian-born players on rosters?

RA: I’m not going to comment on the specific areas of our discussions with the players cause that’s not fair to them and it wouldn’t be fair to the process. The way this interest-based bargaining is intended to work is you put ideas on the table and each side talks about what they’re trying to achieve and you talk about your thoughts and perspectives and you work together to build solutions. I’m optimistic this process will play out and lead us to long-term success.

FP: You guys have been adamant on wanting to improve the game and whether people like to hear it or not, more American players on the field would likely do that. But would it be worth it? Changing the ratio would ruffle a lot of feathers.

RA: I can tell you this: Talking with my colleagues around the league, there isn’t a single team or single person that doesn’t see the Canadian player play a huge part in our future. There’s absolutely no wavering from that principle. But when you step back from it, perhaps some of the commentary is unfair. Right now, 1/20 U Sports players end up playing in the CFL. When you look at the NCAA and the NFL, it’s one in almost 300 NCAA players who get to play in the NFL. One in 20 is a much better ratio so, I think we can all be very proud that we’ve done a very good job creating opportunities for Canadian players and we’re going to continue to look to have those opportunities.

FP: Within the next five years, will the CFL expand to 10 teams?

RA: I believe it will be, yes. I feel very good about the process. The opportunity to have a team in Atlantic Canada would truly make us a coast to coast league… So how do we do it? We’re being incredibly methodical. We’re borrowing the carpenter’s axiom ‘Measure twice and cut once.’ We’re trying to be disciplined about every step of the process so we’ve been working on an expansion strategy with a working group from the board that’s helping to guide our activities.

FP: How does the future of the CFL get away from these one-year contracts? The Bombers have managed to retain most of their players regardless, but for the most part, fans would be silly to spend big bucks on a jersey with all the roster turnover.

RA: That was one of the issues identified in this national fan survey. Fans identified that roster continuity is one of their big concerns. But I think it a positive way, we’ve seen this offseason a lot of players re-signing with their existing teams, Winnipeg certainly has done a very good job at getting players to return. But I think we would readily acknowledge that having more continuity on our rosters is important. Why? Because that’s what fans tell us that they want. We’ll have a very constructive conversation with the players about how we achieve that objective of long-term roster stability.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31