Argos

[TecnoGenius]

Ok. You and a few radical followers. That idea would destroy competition in the CFL.

DT is radical?  Well, maybe? 

And I fully agree it might destroy the CFL.  You clearly don't understand my position.  That's why I've been the most vocal against BC being permitted to do this.  It's dumb, and will put pressure on other teams to follow suit, in home GC years or not.  It could escalate into FA wars between the teams with good balance sheets or deep pocket owners.

Yes yes yes, we don't know for sure, no one runs the numbers until January, yada yada ball hit the jumbotron splat kablooie.  But I'm a betting man, and my bet is BC has set the precedent, and I bet all the other GMs know it.

My fear is BC abuses it this year and possibly gains something (like a cup) from it, and then when it's found out in Jan the league closes the loophole... so BC gets to "cheat" but no one else will be allowed to follow suit.  How is that fair?

[Blue In BC]

DT is radical?  Well, maybe? 

And I fully agree it might destroy the CFL.  You clearly don't understand my position.  That's why I've been the most vocal against BC being permitted to do this.  It's dumb, and will put pressure on other teams to follow suit, in home GC years or not.  It could escalate into FA wars between the teams with good balance sheets or deep pocket owners.

Yes yes yes, we don't know for sure, no one runs the numbers until January, yada yada ball hit the jumbotron splat kablooie.  But I'm a betting man, and my bet is BC has set the precedent, and I bet all the other GMs know it.

My fear is BC abuses it this year and possibly gains something (like a cup) from it, and then when it's found out in Jan the league closes the loophole... so BC gets to "cheat" but no one else will be allowed to follow suit.  How is that fair?

Just to point out that the Lions are currently in 3rd and sinking fast. At best even if they beat the Riders they may not escape the WSF. Then they have to travel to Winnipeg for the WDF.

There are no guarantees for any team at the moment, but teams have over spent before and failed.

Lots of speculation about them and the idea they are well over the SMS. I guess we'll find out in the spring and see whether it paid off.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Just to point out that the Lions are currently in 3rd and sinking fast. At best even if they beat the Riders they may not escape the WSF. Then they have to travel to Winnipeg for the WDF.

There are no guarantees for any team at the moment, but teams have over spent before and failed.

Lots of speculation about them and the idea they are well over the SMS. I guess we'll find out in the spring and see whether it paid off.

The Lions could spend another $2 million over the cap and there's no guarantee that would buy them a cup as it's not the proper way to build a great football team.  A dumb owner might do that once, but in the end it's a waste of their money and makes them look foolish to most people including their fellow owners.

[theaardvark]

Buying a cup is an advantage, not an absolute.

You still need coaching, cohesion and most of all, luck.  Lucky bounces, luck to avoid injury, luck for players performing over their expected.  Or at least the luck to avoid the opposites of those, and the luck to avoid opponents that are experiencing those.

The Yankees load up every year, and win their share.  But its not a guarantee.

BC has done the CFL version of buying a team, as much as Montreal did last year, with late season signings of top players.  In MTL's case, they were not returning players, unlike BC's case this year.  But signing Betts and Rourke certainly changed the team, although Sankey and Lemon did more for Montreal, at least from what we've seen in BC so far.

[TecnoGenius]

Just to point out that the Lions are currently in 3rd and sinking fast. At best even if they beat the Riders they may not escape the WSF. Then they have to travel to Winnipeg for the WDF.

Just because you cheat and fail, it doesn't absolve you of being guilty of cheating.  All if forgiven if BC loses the WSF?

If you rob a bank, but walk out the door with a bag of fake cash (i.e. nothing), you're still fully guilty of robbery.

Aards is right: football is a huge numbers game.  You buy the best FAs you can afford because talented players will produce to their average over time, and that average is higher than the less-talented players.  Any given Sunday can hit you, but if your average talent is higher than the other team, you have a better chance of winning after 60:00.

Maybe BC's mistake was blowing the wad on guys who had been wasting away on benches in the NFL for a year+.  Might have been better spent on game-ready fully-up-to-speed guys.

[TecnoGenius]

BC has done the CFL version of buying a team, as much as Montreal did last year, with late season signings of top players.  In MTL's case, they were not returning players, unlike BC's case this year.

The difference is MTL was not badly over cap already.  MTL's cup winning roster was filled with ELCs who are now superstars.  And they had a "budget" QB.

What MTL did was smart GMing.  I see no hint of smart GMing going on in BC.

[Pete]

Just because you cheat and fail, it doesn't absolve you of being guilty of cheating.  All if forgiven if BC loses the WSF?

If you rob a bank, but walk out the door with a bag of fake cash (i.e. nothing), you're still fully guilty of robbery.

Aards is right: football is a huge numbers game.  You buy the best FAs you can afford because talented players will produce to their average over time, and that average is higher than the less-talented players.  Any given Sunday can hit you, but if your average talent is higher than the other team, you have a better chance of winning after 60:00.

Maybe BC's mistake was blowing the wad on guys who had been wasting away on benches in the NFL for a year+.  Might have been better spent on game-ready fully-up-to-speed guys.

Personally I think the signing of Rourke and to a lesser extent Betts messed up the chemistry.
Likely there is a pro Rourke and pro Adams camp in the locker room. Also for the guys that have bought it all year long and then have their spot just handed to someone from the nfl doesn't help either.
We saw the something similar when we played the elks, and they opened with Ford -, half their guys must have been thinking why are we changing qbs when we've just gotten on a roll. By the time they put MBT back in in they lost a lot of that momemtum. Having 2 #1 qbs doesnt work, Campbell needed to make it clear from the start when rourke got back that he would be the guy rather than trying to massage adams ego

[TecnoGenius]

Personally I think the signing of Rourke and to a lesser extent Betts messed up the chemistry.

You got it.  I bet BC would have won 2-3 more of these past few Rourke games had they started a healthy VAJ.  McInnis would be a slam dunk for ROY instead of falling off the radar.

VAJ almost certainly would have won MOP had he gotten back to speed after losing to us.

BUT... Rourke is the future.  Rourke might win a cup in 2-5 years.  I don't think VAJ ever wins a cup, even though he'll win you a ton of reg season games.  So BC had to pull the trigger on Rourke or he was going to FA.

Now, they could have hired Rourke but kept starting VAJ (once healthy) for this season... I wonder what stopped that?  Was Rourke told he would start every game as a condition of signing?

It's actually funny that all of this nonsense likely cost BC their home GC.  BC braintrust wishing Rourke had stuck in the NFL until the off-season right about now!

[TBURGESS]

I don't think QB is the problem in BC. It's the OL + losing Hollins and Cottoy. 

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Personally I think the signing of Rourke and to a lesser extent Betts messed up the chemistry.
Likely there is a pro Rourke and pro Adams camp in the locker room. Also for the guys that have bought it all year long and then have their spot just handed to someone from the nfl doesn't help either.
We saw the something similar when we played the elks, and they opened with Ford -, half their guys must have been thinking why are we changing qbs when we've just gotten on a roll. By the time they put MBT back in in they lost a lot of that momemtum. Having 2 #1 qbs doesnt work, Campbell needed to make it clear from the start when rourke got back that he would be the guy rather than trying to massage adams ego

I still think the pressure to make these moves has come from the new owner in an effort to get more bums in seats immediately.  The Lions coaching staff and management is experienced and competent enough to know inserting Rourke was going to upset the team dynamic, but what choice did they have if Doman butted his nose into their business and told them what to do?

[Jesse]

I still think the pressure to make these moves has come from the new owner in an effort to get more bums in seats immediately.  The Lions coaching staff and management is experienced and competent enough to know inserting Rourke was going to upset the team dynamic, but what choice did they have if Doman butted his nose into their business and told them what to do?

Very much doubt it.

[blue_gold_84]

Very much doubt it.

Agreed. Doman doesn't come across as the meddlesome type.

[Blueforlife]

I don't like teams going over the cap but money can't buy the love and team culture we have created.  That takes years to cultivate.  Like a good marriage and functional families, it's the relationships that drives success.  Can't plug and play stars and think it can buy a cup.  Short term yes can give a boost but the long term success of a club is based on consistency, team work and leadership.  I seen this early days with MOS and Hall.  Patience paid off. 

BC hurt their team culture with the moves they did.  They are a sinking ship but they might plug the hole.  An average team, that could turn the corner but I wouldn't bet on it (this year).

[TecnoGenius]

Agreed. Doman doesn't come across as the meddlesome type.

Uh, if they're massively over cap that itself is proof Doman is meddling.  No GM would dare blow $900k in fines+salary to get $300k worth of talent without their boss telling them to do so.

[blue_gold_84]

Uh, if they're massively over cap that itself is proof Doman is meddling.  No GM would dare blow $900k in fines+salary to get $300k worth of talent without their boss telling them to do so.

Advising and/or giving the green light to a GM to exceed the cap in a year where they're hosting the GC doesn't come across as meddlesome, IMO.