Most CFL Board of Governors members and fans of the CFL would come to the consensus that Mark Cohon is working hard and earning his salary as CFL Commissioner.
But that feeling is subject to change.
The events of late regarding fines and the window of change opportunities missed in the 2007-2008 off-season are the issues. The lack of significant change to the rosters—more specifically the injury list—and instant replay have some fans re-evaluating their previous sentiments.
Did the league pay its due diligence to the review process and make improvements over what some have called a disastrous 2007 season? They certainly looked at it, as has been stated by Cohon himself.
But fans and BOG members had stated nothing less than an NHL-like command center would suffice.
CFL Head of Officials Tom Higgins stated earlier this week, on TSN's Off The Record, that such a control center is still only a direction they'd like to go in the three-year plan for replay review.
He also said that the fan at home watching in High Definition has a technological advantage over the official under the hood. Where are the HD replays and hardware Mark? I bet you have one at home.
So I guess the message is, until further notice, we have good old human error and no penalty-specific on-field calls sometimes being overturned by worse calls from the CFL officiating supervisor in the booth?
And the injury list. Ohhhh the injury list.
Last season the Edmonton Eskimos got hit the hardest by the lack of a six-game injury list, and now it looks like it's the defending Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders' turn.
It happened to Saskatchewan in 2007 as well. With tons of injuries and extra replacements to pay, Eddie Davis and Yo Murphy were rendered ineligible to play by league policy despite match fitness.
But it wasn't just the organizations that suffered. It meant that certain players would have to sit out healthy because they could not play them for nine weeks if they didn't want the players salaries counting against the league's Salary Management System.
The SMS was designed to make the league more equal financially and teams closer in competitiveness, not to keep the best available players off the field.
In order to find the balance it was suggested that the league look at introducing an intermediate list of six games for injuries.
That, with the current three- and nine-game lists, would exempt the salaries of those on six- or nine-game lists, allowing teams to replace those injured players with something other than a periphery player who might only cost a team a few hundred a week.
These guys are certainly not the kind of players we want the CFL to showcase on a regular basis, if ever, if we wish to be known as a top end product for football fans in Canada and around the world.
Cohon must work with the BOG and GMs to find a way to make the SMS and rosters work in harmony with one another.
This week Saskatchewan's GM Eric Tillman was fined for his not-so-public, but not private either, comments regarding the offseason change. That refers to an allowance for one player per half-season to come off the nine-game list and be added to the active 46-man roster without penalty.









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