CFLPA all-star team released, and there’s a lot to like

In many sports leagues, there are split awards: some are selected by the media, while coaches and players hand out other awards. That's the case in the CFL, where the league all-stars are selected by a panel of media (head coaches vote too, and there's a fan-balloting component, but it's mostly media), while the CFL Players' Association does its own list of league all-stars. That list was released today (at an impressively-packed party at Vancouver's Ceili's Irish Pub that included players, fans and media) and although this is probably a treasonous statement for a media member, I like it better than the one my notepad-toting comrades picked.

There's a lot of crossover between the two lists, of course, but in the vast majority of cases where they disagree, there's a great case for the players' nominee rather than the media's. Start at quarterback, where the CFLPA rightly chose Montreal's Anthony Calvillo (seen above) over B.C.'s Travis Lulay, unlike the league all-star team. Lulay had a great year and was a worthy West Division MOP nominee, but Calvillo was better in just about every statistical category, including touchdowns to interceptions (32/8 to 32/11), yards (5,251 to 4,815), completion percentage (61.8 per cent to 58.7 per cent, and quarterback rating (98.2 to 95.8). The case for Lulay over Calvillo relies on the small sample size of the final game between the two (which Lulay's team won decisively), the Lions' late hot streak and B.C.'s better record, but none of those are great indicators of quarterback play alone.

The interesting selections don't stop there, though. At the second running back position (league rushing leader Brandon Whitaker made both teams), the players chose Avon Cobourne over Jerome Messam, which was a notable decision. Messam had a solid year and picked up more raw rushing yards than Messam (1,057 to 961), but Cobourne was a far more complete back, picking up 459 receiving yards to Messam's 248, eight touchdowns to Messam's six and excelling in the blocking game. I'd actually have gone with Jon Cornish here over either thanks to his superior effectiveness on a per-play level, but Cobourne is a better pick than Messam. The players also made a good selection at offensive tackle, where they picked B.C. LT Ben Archibald, the league's most outstanding lineman in 2010, over his teammate, Lions' RT Jovan Olafioye. Olafioye had a great year and is one of the league's best up-and-comers, but Archibald was again a dominant force on Lulay's blind side and a key reason why B.C. surrendered the least sacks in the league. Montreal left tackle Josh Bourke was selected on both lists, so it can be argued the writers wanted to pick a LT and a RT, but lots of left tackles do very well kicking over to the right tackle spot (and there's a reason left tackles tend to be drafted much higher, as they usually go up against the top opposing pass-rusher and are protecting the quarterback's most vulnerable angle).

Of course, some of the players' selections can be quibbled with too; they chose Adarius Bowman and Chris Williams at receiver over the better-statistically pair of Geroy Simon and Fred Stamps, they took Damon Duval at punter over the always-amazing Burke Dales and they left the CFL's co-sack leaders (Odell Willis and Justin Hickman) out in favour of Keron Williams and John Bowman. Still, on the whole, this is a pretty impressive list, and it means a lot to the honorees too. It's derived from a unique voting system where each group of players (and they position coaches for that group) vote on the players they most typically go up against (so defensive backs vote for receivers, etc), so this is telling the honorees that their opponents don't want to face them. On the whole, all-star selections are mostly a way to stir debate, so it's great having both the league all-stars and the CFLPA's own selections. It also means that more terrific players get recognized, which is a nice thing as well. Good for the CFLPA for continuing to do these, and especially for their members taking the time to get some of the crucial selections right.