When you cover football for a living in Canada, it’s almost inevitable that every few years you’ll be asked to write about the absence of Canadian quarterbacks in the CFL.
And with Danny Brannagan and Mike Faulds both setting all-time passing CIS records last weekend, the time was right to do it again.
What’s interesting about this debate is that for the longest time it was a battle between Canadians on the outside of the CFL saying Canadian quarterbacks are good enough to play, and American coaches within the CFL refusing to give them a chance.
But that debate fundamentally changed once CFL teams hired three coaches who aren’t just Canadians, they are former CIS head coaches Jim Daley, Greg Marshall and Marcel Bellefeuille.
So would the flood gates open up, would we finally see a Canadian quarterbacks in the CFL? Nope. Not one of these three men employed a Canadian quarterback.
How come?
Well, it turns out the debate never really was about Canadian voices versus American voices. It was the voices of those who’s employment doesn’t depend on Canadian quarterbacks being successful at the professional level versus the voices of those whose does.
And it turns out that when people have their employment on the line -- whether they are Canadian or American head coaches -- they aren't willing to go with Canadian quarterbacks. We can only assume that it's because they believe they're not good enough. Because when Daley, Bellefeuille and Marshall got their opportunities, they all made the exact same call that all those American coaches did before them.
Which leads us to the unhappy conclusion that the absence of Canadian quarterbacks isn’t about prejudice or bias, it’s that players who come from the CIS level simply are not pro-ready.
As Marshall told me the other day in the story I wrote, if there had been one who could play at the professional level when he was coaching Hamilton, he’d have signed him.
But there wasn’t.
And as Bellefeuille told me this week, there isn’t today either.
Which isn’t to suggest that if a team signed a CIS quarterback and worked on his development for a few years he couldn’t make it. But there’s no incentive for a CFL team do to that. They’d rather find the most pro-ready guy there is and develop him because even that could take a few years.
Developing a quarterback in a league with no off-season workouts and with 4.5 hour practice days means taking away precious time from your starters and backups. And no coach wants to do that, especially for a player who may never be good enough to make it.
The truth about Canadian quarterbacks is that there is a bias. But it’s not against them, it’s for them.
A few years back when a CFL team signed a Canadian quarterback, I asked the GM why they signed him. The GM told me “because he’s Canadian we wanted to give him a shot.” So I asked the GM if this guy had been from Pennsylvania would they have signed him? “Not a chance,” he said.
In other words, being Canadian was the only reason this guy even got signed, although unfortunately, he didn't make it.
One last point on Canadian quarterbacks. Those with far more football knowledge than me tell me that CIS football is about the same quality as mid-level Division III NCAA. (Before the football nationalist crowd goes crazy and starts sending me hate mail, take the time to see how many Division III players there are in the NFL and you’ll see it’s more than the CIS has.)
So if CFL teams start signing quarterbacks from NCAA Division III schools, then I’ll believe there’s a bias against Canadian quarterbacks. But they don’t. They don’t sign Division III guys (albeit Hamilton has one on its practice roster right now) and they hardly ever sign Division II guys.
Almost every CFL quarterback who’s achieved any level of success has come from either NCAA Division IA or IAA schools, including every starter in the league right now.
Calvillo – Division IA
Glenn – Division IAA
Joseph – Division IAA
Bishop – Division IA
Ray – Division IAA
Burris – Division IA
Durant – Division IA
Printers – Division IA
Does that mean there will never be a CIS quarterback come along who makes it in the CFL? No, it doesn't. But that player would have to be an exceptional, exceptional player. Fans love to point to Russ Jackson. But I'm 42 and I only remember Russ Jackson as a coach and commentator. So I'm starting to think that something that happens once every half century might be the exception, not the rule.
When American quarterbacks from Division III start popping up all over the CFL, then I’ll believe there’s a conspiracy against Canadian quarterbacks. Until then, I’ll keep believing that coaches -- whether they are American or Canadian -- are just going with the best players they can find.
