Websites run by sports leagues are used as tools for propaganda, so it’s no surprise that ex-CFLer Daved Benefield has a so-called column on www.cfl.caabout how brilliant the league’s new commissioner is.
Benefield raves about Mark Cohon because the league recently broadcast, for the first time, the Canadian college draft on its site. About 1,000 people logged on for the draft, I’m told, and this was somehow supposed to be a major development.
Well, pardon my cynicism, but I saw about 1,000 people at a Tim Hortons this morning. And they were more psyched about their coffee and donuts than anyone could possibly be for the CFL’s Canadian college draft, which has always been and will always be duller than dishwater.
If Cohon really wants to figure out ways to improve the CFL, he needs to:
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Stop being a puppet for the owners and plan strategy to keep players happy and content. Right now, CFL players generally are fuming because of the ultimatums many are facing. They either must accept salary cuts or get cut. The clubs’ efforts to abide by the new salary cap has created major — albeit quiet — unrest among the players, and their complaints to Cohon have so far fallen on deaf ears. This can’t continue or it’ll get awfully messy.
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Ensure that Ottawa returns to the league ASAP. Sources say the group led by former Rough Rider Bill Palmer would have been capable of running a new CFL franchise in Ottawa next year. Cohon announced last week, however, that Palmer and his associates no longer are candidates for an Ottawa franchise. The sources also say, however, that Cohon wishes to accommodate some friends of his in the United States by awarding them the franchise some time before 2010. If true, it’s both a conflict and a questionable delay.
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Come up with a plan to improve the teams’ offences. There was a dearth of points in the CFL in 2006, making it one of the least entertaining seasons in CFL history. Placing the onus of on-field improvement solely on Cohon’s shoulders would be unfair but the CFL is his baby now and he ought to at least have conducted some sort of study or investigation. He hasn’t.
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Make certain the CFL’s telecasts aren’t as lousy in the coming season as they were last year. The broadcasts lacked honesty in ’06. Viewers can only take so much baloney from TSN and CBC shills who think it’s their duty to paint rosy-yet-misleading pictures about the CFL. Obviously, www.cfl.caserves that purpose.
