CFL rookies freed up too fast

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/09/2015 (3968 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — Henoc Muamba has earned his right to free agency. But haven’t the Winnipeg Blue Bombers also earned the opportunity to match any offer he receives?

Not in today’s CFL, but it’s certainly something GMs across the league are talking about right now.

The last CBA negotiation focused around the owners getting the salary cap number they wanted. But lost were a number of roster issues GMs wanted fixed. Chief among them was length of contracts for Canadian rookies and the ability of teams to have more control for a longer period of time over players they draft and develop.

This isn’t a Winnipeg issue. It’s a league-wide scenario. Teams that spend money and resources on drafting and developing a Canadian-born player want the opportunity to benefit from their investment.

The Bombers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Muamba in salary, as well as the cost connected with keeping him on the roster as a not ready for prime-time rookie and sophomore. In his third season he became a full-time starter and achieved all-star status. Then poof — he was gone to the NFL.

Now his NFL opportunities have at least temporarily dried up, the Bombers are just another team in a line of many trying to sign him.

Those are the rules, and it’s no fault of Muamba’s. Football careers are short and he’s right to try and leverage the situation for the best deal he can. Muamba is in a position to cash in. Good for him.

But the CFL needs to look at its free-agency system as well as its entry-level contract length. Both need to be tweaked.

Muamba, for example, should be a restricted free agent. He should be free to shop his abilities and generate the best offer possible. But the Bombers should have the right to match.

The NFL locks up its drafted rookies for four years, with teams having a fifth-year option on first-rounders. In the CFL, players taken in the draft can sign a one-year-and-option contract. It’s not long enough.

“It’s ridiculous. In no other pro sports league can a rookie become a free agent so quickly. Canadian rookies aren’t ready to play when they get drafted and most aren’t developed by the time they become free agents,” said one CFL executive, who preferred to remain anonymous.

“Longer deals also allow the kids to become more entrenched in the community they play in. It makes it less about geography when they get to free agency. If he plays four to five years somewhere, it gives him time to set up roots…”

Canadian talent is at an all-time high as the grassroots game is thriving in this country. More year-round facilities are giving kids the opportunity to train longer and to get better earlier. There was a time when the best players in Canada had a limited career path — play at a Canadian university and then the CFL.

Not now, as more and more Canadians find their way onto NCAA rosters first before making their way to the NFL.

Canadian talent is key to success in the CFL. Teams need a better opportunity to retain these players. Longer first contracts and a two-tiered free agency system would go a long way to helping teams keep their Canadian cores together.

It’s great Canadian football is producing the Henoc Muambas and Ben Heenans at a higher rate than we’ve seen before. Seeing them in the NFL is a source of pride for football fans in this country.

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The CFL, however, has to look after its own teams, and right now it’s too easy for players developed into pro players to up and leave.

Great for the player, bad for the league.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @garylawless