The Nathan Rourke era is done in the CFL. What a wild ride that was. The 41-40 BC Lions win over Calgary at McMahon Stadium on August 13, 2022 was a game for the ages.
Rourke's NFL contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars will get him money but a lot less professional satisfaction. Imagine what he would have done in a full CFL season.
Nathan Rourke, thank you for your CFL service. You were fun to watch.
— Nathan Rourke (@nathan_rourke) January 15, 2023
This isn't the 2022 CFL preview. This is the 2023 CFL preview so let's see where we are now.
Bo Levi Mitchell switched out red and white for black and gold. The CFL schedule is still imbalanced so Hamilton isn't going to Calgary in 2023 (how the f does that happen?). The Calgary Stampeders will be in Hamilton on September 30 at 7 pm Eastern.
McLeod Bethel-Thompson left the Toronto Argonauts and the CFL to play for the New Orleans Breakers of the USFL. Family had a bit to do with that situation. Bethel-Thompson did win a Grey Cup in the comeback win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Vernon Adams Jr., Dane Evans, and Dominique Davis are the primary signal callers for the BC Lions.
Jeremiah Masoli is not new to Ottawa: a healthy mostly full season will make a difference for the RedBlacks. Masoli will miss at least the first 2 games.
Trevor Harris moved from Montréal to Saskatchewan via free agency. Cody Fajardo moved from Saskatchewan to Montréal via free agency. Fajardo will be reunited with his offensive coordinator Jason Maas, now the new head coach for the Alouettes.
Give Alouettes GM Danny Maciocia credit. Maciocia promised he would hire a coach after taking over on an interim basis. Maas did have success as the was Edmonton head coach from 2016-2019. He did seemed burnt out in that role before moving to the Roughriders to be their offensive coordinator. Maas was fired after the 2022 Saskatchewan collapse.
The Ottawa RedBlacks took the interim tag from Bob Dyce and made him the new head coach with Khari Jones as the offensive coordinator.
Canadian running back Andrew Harris, winner of the last 3 Grey Cups and 4 overall, is finishing up his CFL career with the Toronto Argonauts. The Vancouver Island Raiders signed Harris to a 5-year contract as their head of football operations, with plans for him to take over as head coach in 2024.
Edmonton released kicker Sergio Castillo and he quickly signed with Winnipeg. Not seemingly a big deal but Blue Bombers fans are happy to have Castillo back in the fold. The Elks haven't done well enough to need a really good kicker. Winnipeg did need better kicking.
The BC Lions got a nice surprise in signing veteran running back Kienan LaFrance yesterday. The Saskatchewan Roughriders, where LaFrance spent the past three seasons, cut him earlier in the week.
Ottawa signed wide receiver Bralon Addison after Hamilton released the long-time Tiger-Cat. Addison won't be playing right away, given the injuries Addison is still recovering from in 2022. When healthy, Addison is a catching force.
Check out the 3 Down Nation podcast (in video form) for more on CFL free agency changes.
Wide receiver Bryan Burnham retired after 8 seasons with the BC Lions. Toronto released wide receiver Brandon Banks. He did get a Grey Cup championship with the Argonauts. Banks played in 4 Grey Cup games with Hamilton, all losses.
Jon Ryan retired as a punter for the CFL and NFL. Ryan finished his CFL career last season with the Edmonton Elks. He played 19 years in professional football overall.
“I mean, you’ve got to hang them up eventually,” Ryan said to 630 CHED Edmonton (via 3DownNation). “I tried to drag this out forever but Father Time finally got me after 19 years.”
The Calgary Stampeders announced slight tweaks to its management structure. Head coach Dave Dickenson is not also the general manager. John Hufnagel steps down as general manager and continues to serve as team president.
Pierre Karl Péladeau is the new owner of the Montréal Alouettes. Péladeau is the president and CEO of Quebecor Inc, a significant media owner in Quebec. Quebecor owns TVA and TVA Sports, the latter being the rival to RDS, which has the French-language rights to the CFL. He also served as opposition leader in the Quebec National Assembly as the Parti Québécois leader from 2015-2016.
Péladeau has been seen as the likely owner of the Quebec Nordiques should they come back to play in the NHL. Quebecor manages the Vidéotron Centre, the new arena that would be la maison de Nordiques.
If you wondered what happened to Jim Popp, he is now the USFL director of player administration.
One notable off-season tragedy: Edmonton Elks running back Christian Saulsberry was shot and killed in the Mississippi suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee in December. Saulsberry, 25, only played in 2022 in the CFL.
Former Winnipeg Blue Bombers player and coach Bud Grant passed away in March at the age of 95. Grant was best known in the States as the coach of the NFL Minnesota Vikings. He actually started his pro career with the NBA Minneapolis Lakers, playing 2 seasons and winning a championship in 1950. The NFL Philadelphia Eagles drafted Grant and played for them in 1951. He played defensive end in 1951 and wide receiver in 1952.
Grant jumped to the CFL and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for more money. He played for the Blue Bombers from 1953-1956 as an offensive end, leading the Western Conference in pass receptions for the 1953, 1954, and 1956 seasons and receiving yards for the 1953 and 1956 seasons. Grant also had 5 interceptions in a playoff game in 1953.
Grant then was the head coach of the Blue Bombers from 1957-1966. In those 10 seasons, Grant led Winnipeg to 6 Grey Cup appearances, winning the championship 4 times: 1958, 1959, 1961, and 1962.
I have personally seen the Bud Grant statue at IG Field. If you go to a Blue Bombers game, go early and take a look at the statue.
Joe Kapp also knew both football leagues rather well as the only quarterback to play in the Rose Bowl, Grey Cup and Super Bowl. Kapp passed away last month at the age of 85.
Kapp played 8 CFL seasons with Calgary (1959-60) and B.C. (1961-1966) as well as 4 NFL seasons with Minnesota (1967-69) and the Boston Patriots (1970). Grant was Kapp's coach in Minnesota.
Simon Fraser University in Greater Vancouver shut down its football program in April. The Red Leafs football team had been around since 1965. The Red Leafs had a rivalry with the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, the only other British Columbia university football team.
Rules tweaks are in effect for 2023. "The requirement for the ball to be touched prior to ruling a rouge on a kickoff has been removed. This change aligns the rouge rule on kickoffs with all other types of kick plays." In the process of learning about the rouge, I would look to the scoreboard to tell me if that was a rouge (single point). This seems like a good clarification.
Most bizarre nuance that is new for 2023: A CFL team can have a 0 or a 00 but not both. Also, eligible receivers will wear numbers 0 or 00-49 and 70-99 while ineligible receivers will wear numbers 50-69.
The Ottawa RedBlacks and Edmonton Elks are looking for better seasons in 2023, especially at home. The Edmonton Elks have had 17 straight home losses. The last home win at Commonwealth Stadium came before the pandemic in 2019.
The RedBlacks have lost 23 of the last 24 at TD Place. The RedBlacks last home win was on September 28, 2021 with a 34-24 win over Edmonton. The previous home win was June 20, 2019 with a 44-41 win over Saskatchewan.
Providing free access to more games than ever before. 💻
— CFL (@CFL) May 19, 2023
Introducing CFL+ and CFL Preseason Live!
LEARN MORE » https://t.co/zEJBgsGqqk#CFL pic.twitter.com/TF5hwx0VRn
The Canadian side has TSN and RDS with no changes of note in how games are carried. The American side: big changes.
CFL+ replaces ESPN+. Good news: games streamed live and free. Bad news: watch it live or never. Imagine if you missed that exciting 41-40 BC Lions win over Calgary at McMahon Stadium we mentioned earlier. A game for the ages and no way to watch it again.
The CBS Sports Network will carry 34 CFL games for the U.S. cable audience, a significant jump from the ESPN deals. Hopefully, the U.S. audience won't get stuck with games having to start on a different channel that sometimes happened on ESPN.
The new deal puts an emphasis on special games, such as the season opener tomorrow night in Calgary, the Canada Day game in Montréal, Labour Day weekend games in Regina, Hamilton, and Calgary, as well as the Thanksgiving game in Montréal.
34 is a large jump from the 20 ESPN2 and ESPNews games in 2022. The ESPN deal had 11 games out of 63 games in 2021 and 15 of 81 games in 2019.
We hope that CBS Sports Network has a better relationship with the CFL than the miserable efforts from the NFL Network (2010-2011) and NBC Sports Network (2012-2013), which were filled with inconsistencies. ESPN mostly had respect for the product.
The U.S. TV schedule leaves out a lot of games in the fall as has every other U.S. TV schedule.
The CFL has had 8-minute wrapup videos for games you may have missed. If the league still carries those videos, those videos will help fans keep up to date.
Likely to watch the Grey Cup live but that first round of playoff games, given your humble narrator's schedule, will be reduced to highlights.
The CFL app was never great. The app has been missing for some time. Would make that easier to pull up on the phone or tablet.
TSN keeps the same broadcast crews: Rod Smith and Dustin Nielson with Marshall Ferguson on play by play. Duane Forde and Glen Suitor with Matt Dunigan provide colour analysis. Farhan Lalji will call a few games, likely in Vancouver.
The CFL sideline reporters had a game of late-season musical chairs. This is the 2023 lineup:
Matthew Scianitti (Toronto, Hamilton); Claire Hanna (Ottawa); Kenzie Lalonde (Montréal); John Lu (Winnipeg); Brit Dort (Regina); Ryan Rishaug (Edmonton, Calgary); and Farhan Lalji (Vancouver). Blake Price fills in for Lalji when the latter is on play by play.
The CFL on TSN panel is led by host Kate Beirness with Matt Dunigan and Milt Stegall, sports betting lead analyst Davis Sanchez, and former CFL head coaches Jim Barker and Paul LaPolice. Dave Naylor and Lalji will report CFL news.
The Grey Cup and the 150th anniversary logo the Argos will feature this season as they celebrate all season long as the oldest pro sports team with the same name … pic.twitter.com/VomVwfkjoN
— mark zwolinski (@markzwol) May 26, 2023
The modern CFL has only existed since 1954. Team histories go well back further than the modern CFL. The Toronto Argonauts are celebrating its 150 years as a team. Almost as old as Canada itself (1867).
2023 CFL preseason schedule
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
The 2023 Grey Cup will take place in Hamilton as part of the deal after the 2020 season was cancelled. Hamilton hosted the 2021 Grey Cup, but hadn't previously hosted the Grey Cup since 1996.
The 2024 Grey Cup will be at BC Place in Vancouver while Winnipeg will host the 2025 Grey Cup.
Montréal has gone the longest without hosting the Grey Cup. The last Grey Cup in La Belle Province was in 2008 at Olympic Stadium. The structure hosted the Grey Cup 6 times in 1977, 1979, 1981, 1985, 2001, and 2008.
The only other Montréal structures to host the Grey Cup were the Autostade (1969) and the Alouettes current stadium, Percival Molson Memorial Stadium (1931).
photo credits: CFL (x3)
Twitter capture: @nathan_rourke; @CFL; @markzwol
video credit: 3 Down Nation
Comments