In light of LeBron’s free agency, here are the top five historical CFL free agency moves

NBA star LeBron James' ongoing free agency saga is dominating sports media coverage this week, and for good reason; the NBA's a star-driven league and James is a four-time Most Valuable Player who's consistently been one of the league's top players, so where he lands will have major repercussions for the sport's landscape. CFL free agency hasn't been anywhere near that interesting lately; while some notable players always move during that period, this is a quarterback-driven league, and top quarterbacks haven't typically gone from starring for one team to starring for another recently. (Backups like Zach Collaros have moved to a spot where they can start, but that's rather different, as is Henry Burris moving to Ottawa this year after Hamilton cut him.) If we look back through CFL history, though, there have been plenty of situations more analogous to James', where an already-notable quarterback left one starting situation for another. Here are the top five historical CFL free agency moves (plus a few honourable mentions), ranked by the player's prominence at the time and how he would go on to do in his new situation.

1. Doug Flutie to the Toronto Argonauts (1996): You can argue that this move did more to change a team's fortunes than any other free agency move in CFL history. The Argonauts won the Grey Cup in 1991 with stars like Matt Dunigan and Rocket Ismail, but their ownership group of Bruce McNall, John Candy and Wayne Gretzky ran into cash issues, leading to those stars leaving (more on this in #3 later) and four dismal seasons. From 1992 to 1995, the Argos went 6-12, 3-15, 7-11 and 4-14. Then they signed Flutie (who had led Calgary to the Grey Cup game in 1995, thrown for 5,495, 6,092 and 5,726 yards with the Stampeders in the three seasons before that, and won four straight Most Outstanding Player Awards from 1991-1994), posted back-to-back 15-3 seasons, earned two more back-to-back MOP nods, and won back-to-back Grey Cups in 1996 and 1997. That remains one of the greatest two-year runs in CFL history, and while there were other factors involved too (including bringing in the legendary Don Matthews as coach), Flutie's signing was perhaps the most important. It marked a remarkable course change for the Boatmen.

2. Doug Flutie to the Calgary Stampeders (1992): Yes, Flutie has the top two spots on here, as he did this twice (perhaps making him the CFL's version of LeBron). Flutie threw for a still-standing pro football record of 6,619 yards in 1991 with B.C. and earned the league's Most Outstanding Player nod, but owner Murray Pezim got into a contract dispute with him and wasn't able to re-sign him. That led to Calgary owner Larry Ryckman swooping in with a three-year deal that was to pay Flutie more than $1 million annually by the end. (Flutie's book suggests he didn't get all he was owed from either Pezim or Ryckman in the end, which likely contributed to him leaving their teams in free agency.) Flutie went on to be great with the Stampeders too, and the only reason this is #2 instead of #1 is that they were already a good team, going 11-7 in 1991 with Danny Barrett as the starter, beating Flutie's Lions in the West semi-final and knocking off the Edmonton Eskimos in the West final before losing to Ismail, Dunigan and the Argos in the Grey Cup. They got better with Flutie, though, going 13-5 in 1992 and winning the Grey Cup (making him the only quarterback to twice win a Grey Cup in his first year with a franchise after signing as a free agent). The Stampeders then posted three straight 15-3 seasons, although they only made it back to the Grey Cup once (in 1995, where they lost to Baltimore). Bringing Flutie in helped make the Stampeders a powerhouse for several years.

3. Matt Dunigan to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers: (1992): Yes, two of these happened in one year. Flutie appears to be the only quarterback to win the Grey Cup immediately after switching teams, but Dunigan won the Grey Cup with Toronto (playing with a broken collarbone), then signed with Winnipeg, where he'd lead the Bombers to back-to-back Grey Cup appearances. According to then-Argos' GM Mike McCarthy's comments after the fact in Ed Willes' book about the CFL in the 1990s, this was because of cash issues with the McNall ownership group that made them unable to offer Dunigan anything close to what he could get on the open market. Regardless of what ultimately led Dunigan to switch teams here, the move worked; the Bombers improved from 9-9 to 11-7 in his first season and made the Grey Cup (losing to Flutie's Stampeders), then made it back to the Grey Cup the next year after a 14-4 regular season (losing to the Eskimos, with Dunigan sitting out thanks to a torn Achilles tendon). They went 13-5 in 1994 and lost to Baltimore in the East Final, and Dunigan then moved again in free agency to the Birmingham Barracudas. However, while he threw for a career-best 4,911 yards there and the team went 10-8, Dunigan broke his hand in their home finale and sat out their playoff loss to San Antonio.

Interestingly enough, while those appear to be the only two times Dunigan moved as a free agent, he was involved in several other notable transactions. He briefly left the CFL after Edmonton won the 1987 Grey Cup (with backup Damon Allen leading the way after Dunigan got hurt partway through the game) to try Major League Baseball, signing a class-A deal with the Montreal Expos but getting cut. Edmonton still held his CFL rights and sent him to B.C. for seven players. Dunigan played well there for two years, then was sent to Toronto in 1990 for a different seven players. He also wound up in Hamilton after the Barracudas folded following the 1995 season, presumably through the dispersal draft. Still, it's his moves as a free agent that are under consideration here, and the 1992 one in particular is good enough for the third spot on this list.

4. Danny McManus to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1998): Danny Mac moved around a lot during his remarkable 17-year CFL career, including a backup-to-backup free agent move from Winnipeg to B.C. before the season 1993, a released-to-free-agent move from B.C. to Edmonton before the 1996 one, and two trades in the same offseason (Hamilton to Edmonton, Edmonton to Calgary) before the 2006 campaign. It was his 1998 move that led to his greatest success, though. McManus had thrown for over 4,000 yards in each of the preceding three seasons (one with B.C., then two with Edmonton), his first three years as a regular starter, and got the Eskimos to the 1996 Grey Cup, but left town after a tough 31-30 West Final loss to Saskatchewan in 1997. He landed in Hamilton and went on to be even better there, throwing for 4,864 yards in 1998 and leading the 12-5-1 Tiger-Cats to the Grey Cup (where they'd lose 26-24 to Jeff Garcia's Stampeders), and then posting a career-high 5,334 passing yards in 1999, winning his only Most Outstanding Player award and leading the 11-7 Tiger-Cats to a 32-21 win over the Stampeders (quarterbacked by Dave Dickenson at this point) in the Grey Cup. McManus would stay in Hamilton through the 2005 season and have several more great years.

5. Tracy Ham to the Baltimore CFLers (1994): Ham was already a prominent quarterback by this time, starring in Edmonton through the 1992 season, then being sent to Toronto in a blockbuster offseason trade. (Blockbuster offseason quarterback trades between Edmonton and Toronto? Those never happen any more.) He didn't play all that well for the Argos, though, completing just 48.3 per cent of his passes and throwing for just 2,147 yards, which is why his move to the expansion Baltimore franchise (at first called the Colts, which ran into NFL trademark trouble, leading to them being the CFLers in 1994 and the Stallions in 1995) in 1994 isn't higher here. Ham found incredible success in Baltimore, though, leading the expansion team to 12-6 and 15-3 records with back-to-back Grey Cup appearances (and a triumph over Flutie's Stampeders in the 1995 game). He then stayed with the franchise when it relocated to Montreal, playing until 1999 and finding further success, including throwing for 3,687 yards in 1997 and eventually mentoring future pro football passing leader Anthony Calvillo once the Alouettes signed him in 1998. Looks like Baltimore/Montreal GM Jim Popp knew how to pick QBs even then...

Honourable mentions: Damon Allen from Edmonton to Ottawa in 1989 (also Ottawa to Hamilton in 1992 and Edmonton to Memphis in 1995), Henry Burris from Saskatchewan to Calgary in 2005, and Anthony Calvillo from Hamilton to Montreal in 1998.

It's fascinating that all of the top five moves here came during the 1990s. Part of that's thanks to the extra expansion teams during the U.S. era (1993-1995), which opened up starting jobs and made grabbing top quarterbacks an even-larger than normal priority. The U.S. teams that wound up with good quarterbacks (Baltimore with Ham, Birmingham with Dunigan, Sacramento/San Antonio with David Archer and Memphis with Allen) wound up doing much better than those who didn't (Shreveport with Terrence Jones, Mike Thompson and Billy Joe Tolliver, Las Vegas with a very green Calvillo) and the many Canadian teams that struggled for quarterbacks at that time. Throwing money at a top quarterback seemed like the thing to do then, especially considering that there was no functional salary cap (leading to million-plus salaries like Flutie landed) and that many of the teams had delusional ideas of the revenues they'd bring in.

It's been tougher to do this since, as few great quarterbacks have really hit the market; Burris in 2005 is one of the few recent examples, as was his limited free agency this year (choosing between Winnipeg and Ottawa after Hamilton cut him). Blockbuster moves involving proven quarterbacks are much less prominent now, with the Ricky Ray trade in the 2011-12 offseason really the only notable one recently (you can make arguments for say, the Burris-Kevin Glenn swap in 2012, but both of those guys had worn out their welcomes with their old teams.) Top quarterbacks seem even less likely to hit free agency these days, with teams that get them locking them up to long-term deals; the main quarterback movement seems to be backups looking for starting jobs elsewhere (Zach Collaros, Drew Willy) or veterans teams decide are past their prime (Burris, Glenn, etc). Thus, while the CFL has seen LeBronesque free agency moves in the past, particularly with Flutie, that appears unlikely to happen again for a while.

Thanks to CFL-focused Twitter users for their suggestions for this post. You can find many of the best ones in my tweets and replies from 4:08 p.m. Eastern to 4:36 p.m. Eastern Thursday.