Back in Blue and Gold

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This article was published 19/05/2022 (1326 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a miserable afternoon to be outside for nearly three hours.

The sun was hiding, the rain was coming down, and the temperature felt nothing like late May.

It certainly beat sitting at home waiting for the CFL and CFLPA to shake hands.

Three-down football is officially back as the league and players reached a tentative agreement on a new seven-year CBA late Wednesday, allowing teams across the CFL, including the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, to open training camp Thursday.

The players went on strike on Sunday after the old CBA expired. They held informal workouts without coaches to stay somewhat sharp and help the newcomers along, but Thursday was back to business as usual with Mike O’Shea and his staff leading the way.

The agreement still needs to ratified by the league’s board of governors and CFLPA members.

“Any time you have an opportunity to come out here and play football, it’s a special feeling,” Bombers linebacker Adam Bighill told reporters after Day 1 of camp at the University of Manitoba turf field.

“Obviously, after missing the first couple days of camp, it just makes it that much better when you do get out here… cause you know how important this is to everybody.”

As the vice-president of the CFLPA, Bighill was in the thick of it.

“Yeah, I mean, Adam’s just a worker. Everybody’s kind of used to him being that way. We know he’s been grinding at it,” quarterback Zach Collaros said.

“Jake Thomas and Mike Benson (the team’s PA reps) as well have been doing their part to keep us in the loop. There’s a reason why we elected those guys and the guys above them as well. We still have to ratify the thing, but we appreciate all the hard work.”

The Bombers are one of the teams that are playing catch up as the Edmonton Elks and Calgary Stampeders have been practising normally all week owing to Alberta’s labour laws. The Elks and Stamps would’ve been allowed to, and were planning to, join the work stoppage Thursday if the strike was still underway.

“Missing four days isn’t ideal, but we have a veteran group of guys here, guys that have played ball together for a long time,” said Collaros. “These four or five days that we haven’t been on the field, we’ve been meeting together and walking through things. It was nice to be able to get out there and not really miss a beat and just be able to call a play and go.”

The first preseason game on the schedule was originally set for Monday in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders but it has been moved to May 31. The Blue and Gold will now start their preseason at home on May 27 with the visiting Edmonton Elks. Having a pair of preseason games is a big win for the rookies looking to impress, but O’Shea said they would’ve managed if the Riders tilt got axed.

“Making sure they got that second exhibition preseason game added is important. (But) even if there weren’t preseason games, like last year there wasn’t, we were still able to evaluate and find some good players.” said O’Shea.

“… If they practise well and play well and are engaged in the meetings, we’ll find them.”

Bighill is calling the new deal a big win for the players for various reasons. The league campaigned for a select number of padded practices to return, but the CFLPA would only sign off on that if it came with long-term injury protection. Salary cap growth, an increase in revenue sharing and the ability for the PA to audit the numbers, and guaranteed contracts are also worked into the deal. And instead of the CBA expiring on the eve of training camp, this one will now expire 30 days beforehand to give the two sides more time before the season to figure it out.

“It’s been pretty exhausting because of the amount of responsibility, the amount of work, the amount of time and the amount of focus. It’s not easy,” Bighill said.

“I wanted to bear that burden for the guys and try make this league a better place and be a part of that. It’s all worth it. To get to this point, it’s all worth it.”

As for the ratio, it will remain at seven Canadian starters this season, but it will look different the following year. Starting in 2023, teams will have eight starting Canadians, but one of them can be a Nationalized American who has been on the team for at least three years or one who has five or more years in the CFL. There will also be three other Nationalized Americans, but they can only play up to 49 per cent of all snaps on offence or defence in order to count.

“You’ll have an opportunity for some veteran Americans to come in and get some play time, as opposed to just being strictly backups or going in when guys get hurt. It’s a bit of a harder criteria,” Bighill said.

“Not every team will be able to fill those roles and have three guys that can roll all game long. I don’t necessarily think that’s going to happen at this point, the way it’s set up. The most important part was trying to protect the number seven as much as we could and we feel we got the best deal on the table by trying to be creative and use this type of solution.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31