TSN Football Insider Dave Naylor joins Jermain Franklin to discuss where things go from here after the tentative CBA agreement between the CFL and CFLPA was voted down Monday. Here is the latest on a bizarre situation in the Canadian Football League.
Franklin: Last Wednesday, we thought we had a deal. Now it appears that we don’t. What happened?
Naylor: We say we’ve seen it all in the CFL. Well, apparently not, because we are into uncharted waters on this one. A couple of things happened. I think, one, you have to recognize that the CFLPA union leadership has one of the toughest jobs in all of sports. They have to negotiate a CBA while representing the interests of Canadian players and American players. Which don’t always line up. And a couple of things in the deal here seemed to be more favourable for American players. They got, say, extended health benefits post-career. Well, that’s a bigger issue for American players than Canadian players because of socialized medicine and healthcare in Canada.
You know, the ratio, which guarantees seven Canadian starters per team, was essentially rolled back to five and a half. So again, that was more of a win for American players than the Canadian players. That’s why the perception is that it was the Canadian players that rejected this deal. We don’t know that. It’s a secret vote. But people are assuming because they look at the deal and it seemed to have more in it for American players than Canadian players. Particularly the ratio issue is very sensitive and the other one, we keep hearing the players were expecting a ratification bonus. Some leagues will kind of hold that carrot out there. Hey, if you guys sign this new CBA, everyone gets a cheque. From our reporting, we cannot
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