Jon Cornish was exactly what the CFL wanted: a Canadian athlete at a prime position who is talented and dynamic on and off the field.
The 31-year-old Calgary Stampeders running back has had head, neck, and concussion issues, limiting his play to 9 games in each of the last 2 seasons.
Cornish was one of 3 Canadian players to win the CFL's Most Outstanding Player (2013) and won the Most Outstanding Canadian three times (2012, 2013 and 2014).
Cornish rushed for 6,844 yards and 44 touchdowns over his career. He played all 9 years with Calgary and won 2 Grey Cup titles in 2008 and 2014.
Surprisingly, the Calgary Stampeders took their time discovering how great Cornish was as a running back. Throughout his career, Cornish proved that even in a short amount of time, he could have great accomplishments.
In 2011, Cornish didn't start until Week 13, yet led the team in rushing with 863 yards. In 2014, Cornish led the CFL in rushing with 1082 yards in only 9 games. The CFL is a lot of things, but a rushing league is not one of them.
In his retirement press conference, Cornish said he was not leaving football but leaving the field. Like Anthony Calvillo with Montréal, Cornish can write his own ticket now that his career is over on the field.
Cornish was a joy to watch run the ball, regardless of which team you support.
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Jeff Tedford led the BC Lions to a playoff spot, though with a 7-11 record, in 2015. However, the long-time U.S. college coach has decided to bail after a year in the CFL "to pursue other opportunities in college football."
Wally Buono will return to the sidelines for the Lions in 2016.
Tedford did have a background in the CFL but provoked concern with a new offense. While not like the coaching disasters of recent Montréal Alouettes seasons, Tedford never seemed comfortable in BC.
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New Calgary Head Coach Dave Dickenson has a lot to do in replacing John Hufnagel at the helm. Obviously, the team needs a new offense coordinator since Dickenson was in that role. Now Dickenson will have to replace Defensive Coordinator Rich Stubler, who will now be in the same role for the Toronto Argonauts.
This will be the third stint for Stubler in double blue. He was the Argos' defensive coordinator from 2003-2007 and head coach in 2008. Stubler also ran the defense in 1990 in Toronto.
Stubler replaces Casey Creehan on the Argos coaching staff.
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Chris Jones currently coaches Edmonton. He might jump to Saskatchewan as the general manager and head coach. All we know is that the Saskatchewan Roughriders have permission to talk.
The timing stinks so soon after the Esks Grey Cup title. We also know that Jones will be coaching a team that wears green and resides in the West Division. Soon we'll know which one.
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The CFL did very well for TSN with an audience of 4,079,000 for the game and 2,500,000 for the pregame. That does not include RDS numbers, especially since Ottawa is bilingual and you can see Quebec from Parliament Hill.
As for the U.S. numbers on ESPN2, the 2015 Grey Cup drew 139,000 with an alarming small 39,000 in the 18-49 age group. Awareness was pretty low since there were so few TV games down the stretch. The CFL demo numbers skew older in Canada, but somehow 100,000 people above the age of 49, more than twice the number for 18-49, watched the game on ESPN2.
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photo credit: Stacee Barton/CBC
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