Green Bay Packers Tryout for Ticats Receiver Luke Tasker

Profootballtalk.com has a report about Ticats receiver Luke Tasker havinga workout for the Green Bay Packers. That's not all that surprising considering the two seasons Tasker has had, although his size isn't particularly well suited towards the NFL game.

Tasker may well not make a game day NFL roster, but he could easily get an invite to a training camp, which would mean he would miss the beginning of the CFL season.  One would have to think the Tiger-Cats are in the driver's seat to resign the free agent among the CFL teams considering Tasker is from Buffalo.

Montreal Alouettes Sign Chad Johnson to a Two Year Deal

I'm still not sure whether signing these old NFL star receivers is a good idea for the league or not. I suppose that the Alouettes can get rid of him whenever they want (and I assume Johnson isn't broke enough that he couldn't quit whenever he felt like it), so the team should be allowed to do anything that makes the team better. I'm just not sure that the team is better today. At the least, he'll have a high percentage of getting injured at some point due to his age and break from playing competitive football.

Linden Gaydosh, Ticats' 2013 First Round Pick, Where Is He?

In 2013, the Ticats drafted the Calgary Dinosaurs' defensive tackle Linden Gaydosh first overall in the CFL draft. Gaydosh has never been on the Ticats roster as he was signed undrafted by the Carolina Panthers. Which was obviously unfortunate for the Tiger-Cats, although Gaydosh didn't play a down for the Panthers, ending up on the injured reserve list for the entire season after back surgery.

Here's an article on how Gaydosh is getting ready for the 2014 season with the Panthers after recovering from back surgery. What does this mean for the Cats? The Cats retain his CFL rights and there's no guarantee in the ultra competitive NFL that Gaydosh will stick around when the regular season rolls around. Then again the Panthers must see something in Gaydosh having him on injured reserve so he won't be just camp fodder. Plus even if the Panthers were to dump him another NFL team might give him a look. Gaydosh is just 23 so he could easily spend another couple of years bouncing around NFL practice rosters like current Cat Samuel Giguerre.

Anyways, could we see Gaydosh playing a down for the Cats in 2014? Possible, but unlikely. He would certainly be a ratio-breaker for the Cats and would be an awesome backup for Bulcke initially in the middle of the Ticats defensive line.

Ralph Wilson, Buffalo Bills Owner Dead

So the Bills weasel out of their Toronto Rogers Centre home game this year and Ralph Wilson dies. Coincidence? Probably not, Wilson was in his nineties.

For the CFL fan, Wilson approaching death is/was important because of what happens to the team next. His heirs didn't want to take over so the team will be sold. Obviously there's some Toronto interests and even Jon Bon Jovi according to some Toronto newspaper writers that want to move an NFL team to Toronto. The Bills were likely the best possibility so it will be interesting to see if the team moves or not.

I have the feeling that a lot of Americans have feelings of goodwill toward the Bill being in Buffalo, so the NFL would have to brave their opprobrium to move it to Toronto. I'm guessing they don't want to do that and will try and shepherd an ownership group committed to keeping the Bills in Buffalo. I'm also guessing that the two US State Senators from New York will also be looking to facilitate such an ownership. Interesting period coming up in any case.

Old Post on Differences Between CFL and NFL Kicking

Just thought I would highlight a post from 2012 on kicking accuracy in the CFL versus the NFL, in honour of Rene Paredes setting the record for consecutive kicks at 34:
http://tigercatatonia.blogspot.de/2012/02/cfl-versus-nfl-kicking-stats-and-paul.html

Chris Williams Situation

I don't know all the details, but clearly Chris Williams would prefer to not play his option year with the Cats in 2013 and try his luck in the CFL. Obviously he's under contract, so the options are sitting out or playing for the Cats. An issue is that he is under a beginning deal, so his pay is minimal. One problem with paying imports such little money initially is that they aren't really losing out on a lot by sitting out.

As far as I understand if the the Cats and Williams redid his deal, it would have to extend to next year, which is probably unpalatable to Williams. The Cats would certainly miss Williams, although as I have kept repeating in this off-season, they were in last place even with him. My guess is that Williams comes back and plays this season grudgingly, although I could see him saying screw it, why play and have the chance of being injured and complicate his NFL bid in 2014. He would be a free agent so even if he didn't make the NFL he could sign a lucrative free agent contract with another CFL club.

Going for Two in the CFL. How Likely?

Slate has an article about when teams in the NFL should go for a two point convert. From the article, "NFL teams have a 47.9 percent success rate on two-point conversions." What's the CFL success rate when going for two? Higher or lower than the NFL? I'm inclined to say higher, although I don't have a lot of evidence. Maybe the passing completion percentage is higher in the CFL. Certainly the end zones are way larger so that has to help.

What if it turns out that the percentage is higher than 50%? Should teams always go for two? What if your team has a good offense and the other team has a bad defence? Should that affect the choice? I doubt CFL coaches would always go for two, but something to think about.

The US Market and the CFL

I've been meaning to do a post about the CFL and exploiting the US market for a while. This article in the National Post about the NFL network going from carrying 14 games last year to two a week this year (38 games from a nine week season including bye weeks?) seems as good an excuse as any. Hopefully almost all of the games will be carried live, although this quote "The Canada Day game between the Toronto Argonauts and Calgary Stampeders will be tape delayed and air on July 2.", gives one pause. What are they airing when the game is actually being played? Taped delayed sports doesn't have a lot of value, for the reasons described in this Chuck Klosterman article in Grantland.

Now on to my main point. On my blog, the number of page views originating fomr the US is 40% of those from Canada (curiously Brazil is number four, I'm not sure if they're searching for CFL light bulbs or getting drawn in by Cleo "the Party" Lemon references). From a bit of analysis, it seems that Americans are often searching for info on former NCAA stars now toiling or being cut (Timmy Chang!) north of the border. Thus there appears to be a ready market of Americans interested at least a little in CFL football. Making it easy for them to watch a game would seem prudent, hence gettin more games on the NFL network is a good step.

One problem is that the players Americans are interested in are very diverse, from big famous schools to tiny universities no one has ever heard of outside their region. How does the CFL get the word out to these potential fans? Not easy, but I think in the long term the CFL needs to eventually move towards a internet streaming model, so that anyone who has an internet connection can watch any CFL game. That means adding in US commercials to games streamed to a US audience. Right now it is easier just to have an entity like the NFL network show the games and handle the ads, but if the CFL wants to maximize the value of the games in the US, it needs to move towards streaming them.

Fords Want NFL in Toronto

There's an article in the Toronto Star about Toronto mayor Rob Ford and his councillor brother hoping for an NFL team for Toronto. The article mentions Ted Rogers wanting an NFL franchise and unfortunately dying before it happened. The article also mentions Paul Godfrey who has also long desired an NFL franchise for Toronto. Which got me thinking, what are the odds that Godfrey dies before Toronto is awarded an NFL franchise? Sadly his wikipedia entry doesn't give his age, although apparently he was elected an alderman in 1964 so is obviously pretty crotchety.

CFL on NFL Network

The NFL network is going to broadcast 14 CFL games this season (starting with the season opener tonight), partially solving the problems the league has been having with getting games shown in the US. No games are shown in August, with most games being on Friday. The Ticats are shown five times, as are Montreal, and Calgary. Toronto gets the short end of the stick with only two games. Apparently even the NFL knows they're going to suck this year. Relations between the CFL and the NFL can't be that bad if this is happening.

Blackouts

So the Ticat braintrust in their infinite wisdom, has decided to blackout two games in the summer. As I have season tickets, it doesn't affect me personally, but I do have an opinion. I think this is a terrible idea. I understand the desire to boost ticket sales, however I think it is a false economy. They may get an extra few fans for those games, compared to the surrounding ones, but I'm guessing the increase will be modest. The free advertising and marketing you lose out on are incalcuable. Consider a Hamilton kid today. He can watch NFL games with no blackouts. Say he only goes to a couple of Ticats games or none at all. I want him to be able to watch every Ticat game on TV possible, just like the Bills games. Hopefully he becomes a fan, watches more games, and down the line as he becomes a teenager and adult, he or she will start attending Ticat games more regularly, rather than becoming a fan of some NFL team from some crappy dying Midwestern city he or she will likely never visit. Plus having all the games on TV allows the casual fans to watch and discuss the game over the next few days. Consider the 500,000 people in Hamilton. With the blackout, you might get a couple of thousand extra fans (maybe). You're probably losing a few tens of thousands from watching the game, which in my opinion is worth a lot more over the years. I know that some of the Western teams like Edmonton and BC blackout a lot of their games too. I don't think that is a good idea either. You need to give kids the opportunity to become a CFL fan, whether their parents take them to a game or not.

How to increase attendance? A better team would be nice. Continually improving the stadium experience would be another. Deciding whether that extra 50 cents for a beer or a hotdog is really in the longterm interest of your club. Easy for me to say, but cutting out the best free marketing your club has, not a good idea.