Jul
The Gridiron Guru: What happens in Week 1 stays in Week 1
Courtesy CFL Digest:
Mistakes…mistakes…mistakes. That sums up Week 1 in the CFL. Blocked kicks, fumbles, missed tackles, and “bruised ego’s” according to what Geroy Simon posted on his Twitter account Friday night.
When was the last time you saw 2 teams create 15 turnovers on a rainless night? Or better yet….when was the last time you saw the league’s premiere QB orchestrate 8 straight 2 and outs against one of the league’s worst teams. How about all the blocked punts????
If watching week 1 wasn’t proof enough to have more time for training camp then I don’t know what is.
But in the CFL teams start camp in May and the Regular Season starts about 1 month later……That’s about 30 days folks….Many newbies are playing this brand of football for the first time and spend at least that much time just trying to learn the differences that the Canadian game brings.
Usually by week 3 or 4 teams start to be hitting stride. So why not let teams have an extra couple weeks of camp and maybe even play one more pre-season game?
I’m a big supporter of seeing change that extend camps so that by week 1 games aren’t just a crap shoot.
It’s sad that in a league where every game is so critical teams spend the first 3 weeks trying to figure out their own team when they should be focusing on their opponents.
If the guru had his say he would add 2 weeks to camp and an extra pre-season game. Everybody wins. Coaches get more time to evaluate talent, rookies get more time to learn the game, everyone gets more time to learn the playbook and watch film, and it gives everyone 3 more weeks of conditioning before season openers.
Here’s to hoping the CFL gives teams more training camp time in the near future!
The Gridiron Guru
Good thoughts! Here’s an addition. Add a week to rookie camps, one off season 4 day camp and a week to the training camp. Then leave a weekend open for teams to play a third pre-season game but all in neutral sites. Have Moncton, Halifax, London (On), Saskatoon, Victoria, and Kelowna all rotate through and get games truly from coast to coast!
Love those ideas Rids! The neutral site pre-season games would be a great idea!