Elks: Edmonton Eskimo Thread: 2018 Edition

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joestevens29

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Apr 30, 2009
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Posed this question to a friend who’s a CFL exec. His answer....

We can't start any earlier without eliminating almost all of the kids finishing Canadian University's and American Colleges. By moving it up two weeks (this year), these young men are basically graduating and coming straight to training camp within a matter of days.
There are a few changes as mentioned that can be done. Do one every couple years and re-evaluate.

3 byes aren't needed, a bye isn't needed in pre-season, can they shorten training camp?

I also don't buy the whole kids only have a matter of days. The combine is the end of March while these kids are in school. If they only get one day off before camp starts then so be it.
 

MoneyGuy

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Oct 19, 2009
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Rod Pederson covering the Riders just said that the ire in Rider land is the worst he’s seen in 20 years. The pitchforks are out. It will be worse tomorrow after the team is body slammed by Masoli and Hamilton.
 

bone

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There are a few changes as mentioned that can be done. Do one every couple years and re-evaluate.

3 byes aren't needed, a bye isn't needed in pre-season, can they shorten training camp?

I also don't buy the whole kids only have a matter of days. The combine is the end of March while these kids are in school. If they only get one day off before camp starts then so be it.

Training camps are also probably the most grueling weeks of work for the players, moving it early enough to risk major snowfalls probably isn't in the best interest of the league as it's probably a greater risk to players suffering soft tissue injuries.

Throw in the university part and such, this year was probably the most realistic early start date. However, with 10 teams, they could have got training camp done a week sooner by eliminating the training camp bye.

I can't see them eliminating byes during the year as the rationale was player safety, but they could possibly go back to just 2 and justify it by saying it's safer for the players to play the finals a couple weeks earlier from a conditions perspective.

That would buy them two weeks making the Grey Cup sometime between the 9th and 16th annually. I think that is really their best case scenario. Any earlier than that gets too tricky.
 

Kyle McMahon

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May 10, 2006
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Can't be the 2nd Sunday in November. This year that would mean it would land on Remembrance Day. It'll have to be the 3rd week of October or 3rd week of November. Have to avoid Halloween too.

There's always the option of playing the game on Saturday for the 1 in every 7 years that this would occur. But as JS says, the game is typically at 4:30 mountain time anyway. Remembrance Day ceremonies are long over by then, and of course the game would incorporate their own ceremony as well I'm sure.

I don't see them ever moving up the game to Halloween with an 18 game schedule. Unless they completely eliminated bye weeks. I doubt they would do that, however the players don't get paid for bye weeks, so I'm sure scaling it back to one around the middle of the season would be fine. This 3 bye week schedule hasn't exactly been well-received. IMO the player safety aspect of it was a red herring. I think in truth they went to 3 byes this year to eliminate the wonky schedules (nobody having to play on a Wednesday then a Monday, etc) and to test drive starting pre-season at the end of May.

Something else I think they could benefit from is holding playoff games on Saturday instead of Sunday. You'd get much more of a party atmosphere on a Saturday afternoon. Attendance is usually dipping by playoff time. A division semi final on the last Saturday in October just sounds much more fun to attend than on a Sunday in second week of November.
 

Beerfish

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Apr 14, 2007
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Rod Pederson covering the Riders just said that the ire in Rider land is the worst he’s seen in 20 years. The pitchforks are out. It will be worse tomorrow after the team is body slammed by Masoli and Hamilton.

Ruck the Fiders
 
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joestevens29

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Apr 30, 2009
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There's always the option of playing the game on Saturday for the 1 in every 7 years that this would occur. But as JS says, the game is typically at 4:30 mountain time anyway. Remembrance Day ceremonies are long over by then, and of course the game would incorporate their own ceremony as well I'm sure.

I don't see them ever moving up the game to Halloween with an 18 game schedule. Unless they completely eliminated bye weeks. I doubt they would do that, however the players don't get paid for bye weeks, so I'm sure scaling it back to one around the middle of the season would be fine. This 3 bye week schedule hasn't exactly been well-received. IMO the player safety aspect of it was a red herring. I think in truth they went to 3 byes this year to eliminate the wonky schedules (nobody having to play on a Wednesday then a Monday, etc) and to test drive starting pre-season at the end of May.

Something else I think they could benefit from is holding playoff games on Saturday instead of Sunday. You'd get much more of a party atmosphere on a Saturday afternoon. Attendance is usually dipping by playoff time. A division semi final on the last Saturday in October just sounds much more fun to attend than on a Sunday in second week of November.
I like the Saturday idea. Would allow a bit more fan travel between teams as well. Lot easier to make a trip and travel on Sunday during the day rather than at night.
 

joestevens29

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Apr 30, 2009
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That would buy them two weeks making the Grey Cup sometime between the 9th and 16th annually. I think that is really their best case scenario. Any earlier than that gets too tricky.
Which I think is fair. We don't need to try finish this thing in October. Lets just look at bumping it back a bit. Like I said earlier, no need to make the drastic change and go from the 25th to the 9th in one season. Push it back one week, see how it works and adjust.
 

MoontoScott

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Jun 2, 2012
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It's interesting how schedules have evolved in both leagues.

In the NFL they played 12 games per season up until 1960 and then they went to 14 games in 1961 and finally to 16 games in 1978. Once upon a time, the NFL didn't have a bye week but when it was introduced in 1990 it was welcomed by the players because there is a big difference between playing 12 and 16 games (all of this change in only 17 years) in terms of wear and tear. Another reason they originally wanted a shorter season was because it was too hot (in most places) to play in summer so you started in September and wrapped it up by the end of the year.

The huge gain in popularity, starting in the late 1970's meant that advertisers wanted more product to be available so there was pressure to expand the schedule and add games to other days of the week. It certainly worked from a revenue standpoint but it had its downside as well. I believe that it ultimately shortened the career spans for many players. How much punishment can the body take? This article explains it quite nicely.

Report: Average length of NFL careers decreasing

The CFl has also seen an increase in the number of regular season games but inevitably the addition of bye weeks which I think has been a result of pressure from the players. The bottom line is that even if you start playing in May you end up in the last week of November so either you drop the bye weeks or shorten the regular season. The players don't like the former and TSN doesn't like the latter thus I can't see it changing too much.
 

joestevens29

Registered User
Apr 30, 2009
52,488
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It's interesting how schedules have evolved in both leagues.

In the NFL they played 12 games per season up until 1960 and then they went to 14 games in 1961 and finally to 16 games in 1978. Once upon a time, the NFL didn't have a bye week but when it was introduced in 1990 it was welcomed by the players because there is a big difference between playing 12 and 16 games (all of this change in only 17 years) in terms of wear and tear. Another reason they originally wanted a shorter season was because it was too hot (in most places) to play in summer so you started in September and wrapped it up by the end of the year.

The huge gain in popularity, starting in the late 1970's meant that advertisers wanted more product to be available so there was pressure to expand the schedule and add games to other days of the week. It certainly worked from a revenue standpoint but it had its downside as well. I believe that it ultimately shortened the career spans for many players. How much punishment can the body take?

The CFl has also seen an increase in the number of regular season games but inevitably the addition of bye weeks which I think has been a result of pressure from the players. The bottom line is that even if you start playing in May you end up in the last week of November so either you drop the bye weeks or shorten the regular season. The players don't like the former and TSN doesn't like the latter thus I can't see it changing too much.
And if support continues to drop it could be too late to fix it.
 

Cloned

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Aug 25, 2003
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I'm not liking this trend of the Esks signing players and then releasing them a week (and sometimes not even a week) afterwards.

It reeks of a shotgun approach to scouting and identifying talent and lazy or poor due diligence to find out if a player is fit/healthy/etc.

They just did it again with that Cash guy they signed earlier this week.
 

MoneyGuy

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Oct 19, 2009
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I'm not liking this trend of the Esks signing players and then releasing them a week (and sometimes not even a week) afterwards.

It reeks of a shotgun approach to scouting and identifying talent and lazy or poor due diligence to find out if a player is fit/healthy/etc.

They just did it again with that Cash guy they signed earlier this week.
They brought Cash in to sing the national anthems but discovered he’s not Johnny’s kid.
 

Cloned

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Aug 25, 2003
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Man, Hamilton better not lose to this Riders team that doesn't even have a capable QB.

edit - LOL, fumbled at the 1!!!
 

Cloned

Begging for Bega
Aug 25, 2003
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Riders offense has zero points tonight. Not even a convert lol.

Unfortunately the Hamilton offense hasn’t been much better.
 

MoontoScott

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Jun 2, 2012
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Chris Jones lives to fight another week with the most Chris Jones win ever.

Typical Jones football. A tough defence and just enough offense to win. What a beautiful catch to set up the victory. Notice how tight that D was in the last minute, I wish we had it.
 

Gord

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Oct 9, 2005
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Edmonton
too much made of the 300+ yards passing streak. to me that just means your running game sucks, or you're playing from behind far too often.

take away the scrambling yards from Masoli and the ticats had only 36 yards rushing.

we see it with the esks, too.
 

MoneyGuy

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Theft. That game last night was theft.

Hamilton was complicit as they left the keys in the car inviting the thief to steal it.
 
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rboomercat90

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Mar 24, 2013
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too much made of the 300+ yards passing streak. to me that just means your running game sucks, or you're playing from behind far too often.

take away the scrambling yards from Masoli and the ticats had only 36 yards rushing.

we see it with the esks, too.
Yeah, passing yardage is a misleading stat. The one that matters is points scored.
 
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