2020-2021 offseason transaction thread

[ArgoZ]

That would seem to leave the league wide open to a lawsuit or human rights tribunal action on the basis of discrimination against Canadians.

Not when it’s an agreed upon condition written and signed by all parties into the CBA. It still blows my mind they couldn’t rectify what was a clear oversight. Then again, it exposes the relationship between the CFLPA and the league. Not a good one.

[jerrym]

Were the Argos able to sign former third round and four year veteran DE Eli Harold under the same contract restriction that limited the Argos from signing Canadian TJ Jones for $200,000 a year or does that restriction on salary still hold?

https://cfjctoday.com/2020/03/05/cfl...es-contract-2/

That would seem to leave the league wide open to a lawsuit or human rights tribunal action on the basis of discrimination against Canadians.

Not when it’s an agreed upon condition written and signed by all parties into the CBA. It still blows my mind they couldn’t rectify what was a clear oversight. Then again, it exposes the relationship between the CFLPA and the league. Not a good one.

I am not a lawyer, but I find it hard to believe that a Charter Rights case against this restriction on a Canadian earning an income compared to that of a non-citizen would not override the clause because Charter rights are individual rights and are supreme. However, such a case would likely take considerable time and money and likely leave the player with no future in the game, a la Curt Flood who won his free agency case in the 1970s that fuelled the meteoric rise in baseball player salaries but basically ended his career as teams didn't want him. The CFL is very good at discriminating against Canadians in the way it designates quarterbacks.

[paulwoods13]

I'm also not a lawyer, but I did work in labour relations. I'm pretty sure collective agreements between employers and certified bargaining agents override a lot of things, including lawsuits against the other party. I would think any human rights complaint would have to be filed against both parties at the very least. Regardless, I don't believe this is happening. The employees agreed to this provision of the collective agreement, very likely end of story.

[OV Argo]

Jamie Bone was awarded 10 grand by the Ontario Human Rights Commission back around 79 or so when he dared challenge the GOBs and their obvious bias and disdain for Canadian QBs; what's that worth in today's dollar$ ?

Maybe the 1st two rounds of the CFL draft class could put together a class action lawsuit against the CFL BOGs/GOBs to challenge this obvious limiting bias against Canadian talent in the pro league in their own country ? Nah - better just shut-up and be a good little boy and accept CFL wisdom - it's "radically canadian" after all . ;o)

[jerrym]

I'm also not a lawyer, but I did work in labour relations. I'm pretty sure collective agreements between employers and certified bargaining agents override a lot of things, including lawsuits against the other party. I would think any human rights complaint would have to be filed against both parties at the very least. Regardless, I don't believe this is happening. The employees agreed to this provision of the collective agreement, very likely end of story.

As I noted in my post above, the history of Curt Flood shows that you can win these cases but the price for the player pushing this is typically enormous. Flood was advised by the union to not do it because of the risk to his career. It would take a player fed up with others not helping them and one knowing it would take a long time and likely only benefit others in the future. So an player embittered by how he was treated in his own country and/or standing up for the principle may be able to do it if they also had a gutsy lawyer. Here are some excerpts from a story on what Flood did. In the case of free agency, a narrow loss in the courts raised the pressure on the government to change the law, which produced free agency. Unlikely to happen in this case. Yes because of the cost to the player(s) involved in terms of retaliation.
There is one other group that has an influence on what happens in the long run. If Canadian fans start demanding Canadians be treated equally this could also help bring about change. Unlikely to happen? Probably, we're Canadians.

At the end of the 1969 season, the Cardinals traded him, along with Tim McCarver, Byron Browne, and Joe Hoerner, to the Phillies for Dick Allen, Jerry Johnson, and Cookie Rojas. ...

Not only did Flood refuse to go, but he went to his personal lawyer and then to Marvin Miller, founder and executive director of the Players Association, and told them he wanted to sue Major League Baseball. The decision sent shock waves not only through baseball but ultimately through all professional sports. Those waves reverberate even to this day. And though he was aware that it would cost him dearly, he never wavered.
In 1969, players were still bound to a team for life by the so-called reserve clause. Simply put, a player was a team's property. Unless the team chose to trade him or release him, his first big-league team would be his only big-league team for his entire career. A player's only recourse was retirement.

When Flood came to Miller, his mind was already made up. "I told him," recalls Miller, "that given the courts' history of bias towards the owners and their monopoly, he didn't have a chance in hell of winning. More important than that, I told him even if he won, he'd never get anything out of it—he'd never get a job in baseball again."
Flood asked Miller if it would benefit other players. "I told him yes, and those to come.
He said, 'That's good enough for me.'" When Miller realized that Flood understood the odds against him and was still determined to go ahead with the case, he told him, "You're a union-leader's dream." ....

Most black baseball stars—Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Ernie Banks—were all but invisible during the Civil Rights movement, so Flood's activism was years ahead of its time. When it came time for him to take a stand on being traded to Philadelphia, he was ready. "I do not regard myself as a piece of property to be bought or sold," he famously told Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn in a letter in which he requested the right to be a free agent. Kuhn, echoing the court decisions of previous years, replied that he was sympathetic to Flood's feelings but "simply did not see how that applied to Major League Baseball."
Flood's teammates and colleagues were skeptical of his suit and did not support him; on the day he testified only two former players, Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg, stood by him. No active players were there—not even Flood's outspoken teammate Bob Gibson dared to support him, all fearful of retaliation from the owners. ...

What Miller thought was an impossible goal turned out, heart-breakingly, to be within reach. When the decision was announced in 1972, Flood lost 5-3, but only after Judge Lewis Powell, who was sympathetic to Flood, withdrew from the case because of what he called conflict of interest - he owned stock in Anheuser-Busch, whose principal owner, Augie Busch, owned the St. Louis Cardinals. If Powell had remained, Flood could have won a 5-4 decision, but his withdrawal, combined with Chief Justice Warren Berger's 11th-hour switch from Flood's side to baseball's, killed Flood's case.

In effect, the court ruled that yes, Flood should have the right be a free agent, but that baseball's antitrust exemption could only be removed by an act of Congress and that free agency for players should be attained through collective bargaining.
That is precisely what happened.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertai...rocess/241783/

[paulwoods13]

I don't see how American legal cases have any applicability here. Canadian labour and human rights legislation is all that matters.

[argolio]

Campbell’s greatest contribution to the Argonauts was getting burned by Devier Posey on the long TD pass from Ricky Ray in the 2017 Grey Cup.
I’d like to thank him for this and wish him well

LOL! Though I think the excellence of the throw and the catch had more to do with that than Campbell's coverage or lack thereof.

Maybe the 1st two rounds of the CFL draft class could put together a class action lawsuit against the CFL BOGs/GOBs to challenge this obvious limiting bias against Canadian talent in the pro league in their own country ? Nah - better just shut-up and be a good little boy and accept CFL wisdom - it's "radically canadian" after all . ;o)

Right on! In the same vein, that QB the Washington Football Team just cut in only his second year should sue the NFL to challenge the obvious limiting bias against American talent.

[AngeloV]

Right on! In the same vein, that QB the Washington Football Team just cut in only his second year should sue the NFL to challenge the obvious limiting bias against American talent.

You may have a point. I can't believe the bachelor lasted longer than him in the NFL despite getting less opportunity to play. An obvious lack of real competition in the Giants organization (although their players aren't any bigger than the other teams players).

[argolio]

You may have a point. I can't believe the bachelor lasted longer than him in the NFL despite getting less opportunity to play. An obvious lack of real competition in the Giants organization (although their players aren't any bigger than the other teams players).

And another thing -- if the team is called the San Francisco 49ers, why doesn't every player wear #49? I smell another lawsuit!

[Will]

Getting back to offseason transactions, the Argonauts locked-up P/K Boris Bede today, which was crucial because the Argonauts haven't had stability at either position since Lirim Hajrullahu left after the 2017 season.

[AngeloV]

Getting back to offseason transactions, the Argonauts locked-up P/K Boris Bede today, which was crucial because the Argonauts haven't had stability at either position since Lirim Hajrullahu left after the 2017 season.

Excellent. I was hoping this would get done soon.

[Bleeds Double Blue]

The story that I read on 3DownNation referred to Bede as American even though he was born in France and played at Laval. Is this story incorrect or am I missing something? Help me out here.

By the way, happy new year to all you guys in the old hometown.

[Wobbler]

Bede doesn't qualify as a national or global, so he's "American" by default.

[OV Argo]

LOL! Though I think the excellence of the throw and the catch had more to do with that than Campbell's coverage or lack thereof.

Right on! In the same vein, that QB the Washington Football Team just cut in only his second year should sue the NFL to challenge the obvious limiting bias against American talent.

And Colin Kapernick should just shut his big complaining mouth too. The mother corp. and the share-holders always know best.

[jerrym]

I don't see how American legal cases have any applicability here. Canadian labour and human rights legislation is all that matters.

My comment wasn't about the law. It was illustrating how difficult it is to change a system and what price one is likely to pay even when successful, a la Curt Flood, for doing so.

[ArgoZ]

My comment wasn't about the law. It was illustrating how difficult it is to change a system and what price one is likely to pay even when successful, a la Curt Flood, for doing so.

In the original scenario, there’s no need to spend copious amounts of money and years. You only have to change the agreement, which is typically every 3 years. That’s exactly what Unions sell. They fight the system for you, without taking on the world yourself. The only reasoning I can give, other than the CFLPA and owners are at unbelievable odds, is that changing the agreement mid course can be very difficult, as everything is balanced.

[AngeloV]

Bede doesn't qualify as a national or global, so he's "American" by default.

The really stupid thing about that is the last CBA changed the rule so that anyone that plays in USport is classified a National, but since Bede was in the league prior to that, it doesn't apply to him. That is ridiculous.

[jerrym]

The Argos have signed two American WRs: Daniel Braverman and Craig Rucker.

Braverman, 27, was a 2016 seventh-round draft selection of the Chicago Bears and went on to play in three games that season for the NFL club. The 5’10, 185-pound receiver then spent time with the Kansas City Chiefs and Arizona Cardinals practice squads in 2018. More recently the Florida native played for the San Antonio Commanders of the Alliance of American Football in 2019, was on the Calgary Stampeders practice roster that same year and was signed by the St. Louis Battlehawks of the XFL in 2020. The Western Michigan alum played three seasons for the Broncos (2012, 2014-2015) and over the course of 37 games hauled in 212 passes for 2,499 yards and 19 touchdowns. Braverman had a standout 2015 season with the Broncos catching 108 passes, second most in the NCAA’s FBS, for 1,367 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Rucker, 5’7 and 175lbs, capped off a stellar career with Division II’s Mars Hill University in 2019 that saw the speedster break a number of school records. The Florida native caught 82 balls for 1,234 yards and 15 touchdowns during his 2019 Senior year and was named his conference’s Offensive Player of the Year. Rucker is the South Atlantic Conference’s all-time leader in receiving yards (4,320), receiving touchdowns (43) and has the most receiving touchdowns in a game (5). He is also the Lion’s record holder for career receptions (294), receptions in a season (97) and all-purpose touchdowns in a regular season (19).

https://www.argonauts.ca/2021/01/04/...can-receivers/

[OV Argo]

Argo draft pick Ryan Hunter signs futures contract with NFL Chargers; didn't stick with KC but gets another NFL shot = Argos out of luck for awhile more at least.

[paulwoods13]

Hunter's trajectory suggests he is probably not gonna stick on a roster longterm, but realistically we likely won't see him before September 2022 at the earliest.