Edmonton Eskimos extend Kavis Reed’s contract, but for how long remains a closely-guarded secret

The CFL's long been known for its sometimes-excessive secrecy, but the Edmonton Eskimos appear to be taking that to a new level. The team announced Saturday that they'd signed head coach Kavis Reed to a contract extension, which is all well and good. (Well, except for Reed carrying a large portion of the blame in their struggles last year, but the organization has decided to pin those on former GM Eric Tillman; a scapegoat for their dismal 39-18 loss to Saskatchewan in Week One has not yet been announced.) While the decision to extend Reed after a less-than-stellar start to the season (in a season where they're not expected to do well) is curious and debatable in its own right, though, what's even more bizarre and unprecedented is that the team refused to say just how long they've extended Reed's contract for.

Edmonton's apparent logic here? Well, from the release, "As per club policy, the terms of the contract are not disclosed." That's the standard CFL gobbledygook to prevent announcing how much a club's paying someone, which is fine: player salaries usually wind up getting reported somewhere, and coach/executive salaries don't matter too much to anyone outside the organization, as unlike players, they don't count against the cap. The Eskimos have apparently broadened "terms of the contract" to include how long it's for, though, and that's a significant departure from the norm.

This isn't even a long-running club policy. For example, when the team signed league defensive player of the year J.C. Sherritt to an extension this December, they included the boilerplate "As per club policy, the terms of the contract will not be disclosed" in their release, but made sure to throw in "The new deal will keep Sherritt in green and gold through the 2015 season." So, unless the meaning of "the terms of the contract" has changed in Edmonton since December, the team's apparently willing to tell you how long a linebacker will be in town, but not how long the head coach is there for. Those are some mighty fine priorities there, Lou...

What's particularly funny are general manager Ed Hervey's comments in the release, which attempt to address the obvious question of why the Eskimos would choose this particular moment to sign Reed to an extension following his team's Week One debacle. Here's what he had to say:

Well, sure, but how much stability does it give you if no one knows how long the head coach is expected to be there for? By refusing to include the length of Reed's extension in the information they released, the Eskimos not only are raising the bar for CFL secrecy, they're also rendering their own announcement somewhat impotent. "Kavis Reed signed an extension!" "Great, how long will he be with the Eskimos for?" "Well, longer than he was going to be before!"

Secrecy's understandable when it gives you an advantage, but telling everyone how long your coach's contract runs for doesn't hinder the team whatsoever: in fact, it arguably helps by promoting the stability you say you want. The Eskimos' decision to keep Reed's contract a secret means they've essentially announced that they have an announcement to make, but they won't announce the most important part of that announcement. This approach works about as well as the Cone of Silence. It's a silly move by the team, and one that negates the apparent intention of providing an appearance of stability in the Eskimos' coaching ranks. Here's hoping other teams don't follow this unnecessarily-secretive approach of refusing to announce contract lengths as well as numbers.