Michael Bishop is waived from the Argos? Are you freakin kidding me? So much for being the air-apparent, so much for advertisers, and their cardboard cut out life size Michael Bishop promotional gifts. So much for the Argo FatHead test market and so much for coaching up young talent. The ugly truth is in the CFL you have to come with big game. Skills are great, but every guy on a CFL field has skills. You have to have that raw sparkling talent in order to stick around. Think Kitwana Jones. (Now look here kid don’t go out there and make me look bad for mentioning you in my most holy blog.)
Look at the facts the CFL is the ultimate not for long league, which I feel hurts the league in more ways than one. In the NFL you can bounce around if you have the talent and the right credentials, but in the CFL you have only 8 chances to win Homer.
With the lack of dollars in the CFL it’s hard to hire the bright young extra coaches needed in order to coach up players that need coaching. When you can’t bring in bright young position coaches to learn the game, and do the position coaching, then where do your next head coaches come from? See the void? This is another one of those things that continues to separate us from the NFL, which bludgeons us in the perception game.
You wind up having a lot of players from the CFL which either move into the AFL1or 2 or not playing at all because their game hasn’t improved from the college ranks no matter which conference they come from.
I don’t like the release of Michael Bishop because I don’t think a Kent Austin type coach has had Bishop lined up right in his crosshairs one on one like Austin had a Kerry Joseph in Ottawa and then again in Saskatchewan. Guys like Bishop need strong coaches to get them to become better pros improving on what has got them to this level. The CFL isn’t some college division where you are playing against some first year starting 18 year old that only because of his size, and weight was all state in a weak football environment.
I think back to all my years in football and where I got my best coaching. At the end of the day part has come from desire, drive, a few coaches who loved to coach, and a large number of great veterans with tons of football knowledge, and experience who were willing to teach, and answer questions. Who were the great coaches for me? Kit Lathrop, he knew how to communicate and break down what I was doing and make it better. He was also an ex defensive end in the USFL.
The veterans: offensive, defensive, and defensive coordinator Dave Richie in Ottawa in 1992. Taught me the 3-4.
Don Lindsay in BC in 1999, he was so college he would just rep you to death, but if you liked practice then it was the place to be.
Bobby Jurassin who was coached by James “Quick” Parker. This was a bitter-sweet experience because I got this coaching late in the career during training camp when I should have been on the seniors tour. I can’t think of how many older vets want to get extra coaching during camp when they could be resting or lounging between practices. The hard work paid off by allowing me to have more fun, and giving me a defensive MVP. I hate using the word “If” but had I taken this class sooner and Bobby showed up sooner, it would have been good for either another 25 sacks or 4 years in the NFL.
When you look at the CFL game and look at the best players you should know that most of these guys are running on athletic ability, smarts, and left over coaching from college, or some NFL camps. The longer you stick around in the CFL if you get lucky you find coaches who played the game that can teach you the finer points. These guys are worth there weight in gold. You combine these guys with seasoned vets that have the franchises, and coach’s approval and now you are getting coaching that is second to none.
Its like in Ottawa I had Les Browne, and Anthony Drawhorn, and Charles Gordon all in the same defensive backfield. Look at the information being passed down from Hall of Famer, to great player, to the next generation great player.
In the CFL we can’t discount the veterans that continue to play at a high level, as well as teaching the next generation of stars how to play this great game these guys become icons of our league.
