The CFL's CBA negotiations yesterday "quickly deteriorated into acrimony," with the league and the CFLPA each "accusing the other of throwing low blocks in the process," according to Paul Friesen of the WINNIPEG SUN. The CBA expires on May 29, and the league now "faces the very real possibility of just the second work stoppage in its history." The CFL yesterday decided to "walk away from the table and go public with open letters to players and fans" about its position. Blue Bombers OT and player rep Glenn January said, "We're all blindsided by this. It was dirty negotiating tactics... they showed up with no intention of negotiating." But CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon said that the union "has been responsible for leaking all kinds of information to the media." The players said that they "want salaries threaded to league revenue, like every other pro sports entity in North America." But Friesen writes the league "won’t even entertain the concept, let alone the numbers within it." Cohon said that it "simply doesn’t work when some teams are doing so much better than others." The players "point to community owned teams" like the BlueBombers, Eskimos and Roughriders as examples of "how well the league is doing." Public documents show that the three "would have averaged" at least C$25M in total revenue last year. With a C$4.4M salary cap, the union "wonders where the players’ share of a lucrative new TV deal is" (WINNIPEG SUN, 5/22). In Montreal, Herb Zurkowsky writes a lockout is "about to happen in the CFL," and you can "count on it." The line "has been drawn in the sand and, unless someone blinks in the next 10 days, unless significant progress is made in the next round of talks -- no new negotiations are scheduled -- training camps won’t open, as scheduled, June 1" (Montreal GAZETTE, 5/22).
THE PICTURE OF HEALTH? In Toronto, Frank Zicarelli writes the private negotiating process "has now gone public in as bad and as awkward a forum as anyone can possibly imagine." What the CFL "does not recognize -- and probably never will, given its arrogance -- is the simple fact that what makes three-down football is its unique rules and the enormous sacrifices players have made and are prepared to make." Yesterday's "rhetoric and public posturing [was] more in line with any other labour negotiation involving billionaire owners and millionaire players, a landscape that hardly describes the CFL." But the damage "is now done and the players, who have been naive for years, must now see how little the CFL cares about the people who basically make the game so unique." The league's image is "at risk now" (TORONTO SUN, 5/22). In Calgary, George Johnson asks, "Isn’t the CFL famous for being the happy league? The fun league? The league of the people? ... Why, 101 years later, it still matters. Well, stick around long enough, apparently, and all illusions wind up riddled with buckshot." The "crazy thing is, the CFL has never been healthier" (CALGARY HERALD, 5/22).
