Expect the naturalized Canadian rule to be part of CFL’s CBA negotiations

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To get a sense of where the Canadian Football League’s current collective bargaining process may be headed, let’s go back to where the last negotiation left off.

In May of 2019, the CFL and Canadian Football League Players' Association reached an agreement on a new three-year deal that is set to expire on May 14. 

But that deal, which was agreed upon with a memorandum of understanding just a few days before the start of training camps, wasn’t put to bed without a bit of drama.

The day before camps were to open, word began circulating that the CFLPA and the league had a fundamental disagreement over what had been agreed upon.

The dispute was over a measure the two sides had crafted to create a special status for veteran American players, defined as any American player who was in at least his third season with the same team or fourth season in the CFL overall.

The league was under the impression that up to three veteran American players per team could be granted status as “naturalized Canadians” – players who would count among the 21 national players on every roster.

The CFLPA believed the veteran American status would have no impact on Canadian positions on the roster or the field. It believed that every team was simply required to have as three players who met the definition of veteran Americans.

The implications of this disparity were many.

For starters, the league’s interpretation would have meant three fewer Canadian players on every roster, as the three veteran Americans would likely be replacing the bottom Canadians on each team.

From a pure product enhancement perspective, keeping veteran Americans in the game and with their teams longer at the expense of the 19th, 20th and