major announcement - big changes to cfl playoff and season start

[Tecno]

But the league will not appreciably change with or without the 55yd line, and if that's something they held in their pocket to give back and dull the ire of the diehards, kudos to them for the plan.

And if they are going to give back the 55, that would be a great media blast as well.  I'm sure it wont assuage the fury of the ultra die hards, but as a meaningful concession to the fans who love the uniqueness, I think it would be a great PR move.

Has the word gone out to float the idea of "giving us back the 55YL"?  First I've heard of it.  Frankly, I don't think Johnston is savvy enough to pull an "Art of the Deal": starting with an insane position so when you finally meet in the middle the other side feels like they've "won".  If it turns out that's exactly what he did, then kudos to him for the 4D chess.

And Aards, we've moved past talking about each individual change.  Stop mentioning the same-side-benches and all-fields-the-same (etc.) because absolutely no one cares about those changes.  They aren't a point of contention, and anyone who brings them up now is straw-manning.

In fact, I'm not sure anyone's arguing any of the individual changes anymore.  We've moved on to the meta-changes: the reasons behind the changes, the effect of the gestalt, the way things are being handled, the transparency of the process.

But if Johnston magically backtracks on the 55YL, in perpetuity, then I, for one would be happy; and be fine with testing out all the other changes.  It's my top #1 Canadianism (other than 3 downs).  (GP move being a close 2nd, but easier to undo later.)

That said, not gonna happen.  Johnston will ride all these changes until he's fired.