I wonder if our friends to the East of us will ever get over the fact we beat them fair and square in the 2007 Grey Cup. I'm guessing the answer is no. Now one reporter goes out and says that the Riders are just cheaters. Read on....
Green is the colour ; Prairie paupers no more,
Riders CFL's big spenders
The Winnipeg Sun
Wed 01 Apr 2009
BY PAUL FRIESEN
So much for the image of the poor, small-market, Prairie folk to our immediate west.
Seems Rider Nation has been busy flashing its wad of cash, at least in CFL circles.
For the second year in a row, the Saskatchewan Roughriders went over the salary cap in 2008. Only this time, it's the only team that cheated.
The CFL released the results of its final audit yesterday, and Gang Green spent some $87,000 more than the $4.2-million the rules allow.
In the two years the CFL has put the financial radar gun on its members, just two, Montreal and Saskatchewan, have been caught reckless driving.
The Alouettes didn't surprise us in '07, blowing the budget by more than $100,000 and paying an equal fine, plus a draft pick.
The Riders told us they went over in '07 because of injuries. But that same excuse won't work this time.
That's because many of Saskatchewan's injuries last year sent players to the nine-game injury list, which is exempt from the cap.
"In terms of injured players on the nine-game reserve list, they were the highest," CFL commissioner Mark Cohon told us yesterday. "But those aren't counted. This really wasn't about injuries."
This was about plain, old-fashioned disregard of the rules, and the commish has already had a word with the Riders brass about it.
"It's really hard to judge intent," Cohon said. "What we're doing is trying to get the teams to understand the system is the best for the entire league. I have confidence in Jim Hopson and the board of governors. They support the cap. They believe in it."
Most of all, they believe in surpassing it.
$87,000 OVER CAP
OK, so 87 grand isn't that big a deal. Let's face it, the Riders can probably pay the fine, an equal amount, from the beer sales at the Labour Day game.
What really surprises us, though, isn't that the Green and White are a tad overzealous. It's that nobody else is.
Before the real cap came along, it was generally accepted the league's big spenders, teams like the Eskimos, Alouettes and Argonauts, treated the old "suggested" spending limit the way a rich athlete at the wheel of a sports car treats speed limits.
And while we applauded the league for implementing the new rules, we had our doubts it could really be enforced. Truth be told, we're still not completely convinced league auditors have found everything that was going on under the table.
"I'm very confident," Cohon said. "It's not a one-time look at the club's books. We're in there after six games, 12 games and 18 games. We spend a lot of time working with the clubs. We've been able to really dig deep into clubs and get co-operation from all of them."
We take it B.C. owner David Braley is no longer hiding his books from the auditors, as he reportedly did a couple of years ago.
"Any new system takes some time," Cohon said. "It's been two years in effect. It's had a profound impact."
I'LL SAY.
I mean, the monied Eskimos, with their 37,000 paying customers per game, are actually toeing the line? The privately held and deep-pocketed Argos haven't overspent by even a dime? Hamilton threw close to half a million, per, at quarterback Casey Printers, and didn't blow the cap?
IT'S A MINOR MIRACLE.
This is the same group that, just four years ago, went over the old cap of $2.5 million by an average of more than $1 million per team.
Setting the modern limit at $4.2 million was actually a little rich, we initially thought. A challenge for the community-owned teams. It's tough to make a profit, spending that much.
Turns out one of those Prairie teams doesn't mind a bit.
The obnoxious, rich guy in the neighbourhood now wears a farmer's cap and drives a pickup.
Go figure.
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Say what you will. I challenge any team in this league to go through the injuries the 2008 Riders did and still be under the salary cap when all is said and done. I guess Eric Tillman wasn't supposed to bring guys in after players were done for the season. Either that or they should have played for free. When one guy goes down whether he be on the nine game list or not another guy has to come in and that guy is going to cost money. The suggestion here that the Riders openly circumvented the rules is a great big steaming pile of you know what. In fact I'm guessing if Eric Tillman were able to defend himself on this situation which he can't seeing no public comments are being made by him because of his legal problems he would be taking a strip out of this reporter. Hell, he took a strip out of me for just suggesting it and then got fined by the league when his comments went to air. The one thing that is for sure is that no longer does the CFL see Saskatchewan as the weak sister who isn't pretty enough to go to the ball. We are now one of the top dogs and its going to stay that way for a long time.
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