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Redblacks' demand for Maas compensation is dumb, and the CFL should axe it
Following Edmonton head coach Chris Jones' move this week to leave just after winning a Grey Cup to become the new general manager and head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, there was a lot of talk on Twitter and in media circles about if the Eskimos should try and collect "compensation" from Saskatchewan. Never mind that CFL coaches have been leaving for promotions for countless years, never mind that every single team in this league has benefited at one time or another from hiring someone still under contract elsewhere for a better job, and never mind that Edmonton general manager Ed Hervey emphatically said Jones was free to leave and that he would never discourage someone from advancement, there were still those figuring that the Eskimos were somehow owed something because their employee was offered a higher-ranking job elsewhere. That was easy enough to largely ignore when it was just the chattering classes of fans and media espousing it, but now the Ottawa Redblacks' organization appears to have jumped on board this ludicrous train, with TSN's Gary Lawless and Dave Naylor reporting Sunday night that in the wake of Edmonton reportedly hiring Ottawa offensive coordinator Jason Maas, the Redblacks intend to seek compensation from the Eskimos
Edmonton called Ottawa last week to seek permission to speak with Maas, who has one year remaining on his contract. The RedBlacks granted permission but it is believed they also informed the Eskimos that compensation would be sought if Edmonton wished to hire Maas.
The CFL has no official policy regarding compensation for hiring coaches and executives under contract to another club, and commissioner Jeffrey Orridge was non-committal on the subject at his state-of-the-league news conference during Grey Cup week.
Teams differ in their approach. The Eskimos, for instance, granted the Saskatchewan Roughriders permission to speak with and eventually hire Chris Jones without seeking compensation. Jones was head coach with the Eskimos and is now VP football operations, GM and head coach with the Riders.
First off, it is ludicrous that the CFL doesn't have a standardized policy on this front. Hiring under-contract coaches for better positions elsewhere happens literally every offseason, so it's remarkable that it's never been enshrined that this doesn't deserve compensation. Even a mistaken policy of allowing compensation would be better than no policy at all, as no policy means that the Eskimos could be punished for their sensibility in letting Jones take the offered promotion in Saskatchewan and then hiring a lower-level replacement from another team. This is particularly hilarious as Edmonton was willing to let another team hire their head coach, who's vastly more important to the offseason than the offensive coordinator. Regardless of whether they decide to ban or permit demands for compensation, the league office absolutely needs to standardize this process. (And while they're at it, they should standardize that teams cannot refuse interviews with under-contract coaches, as long as those interviews are for higher-level positions.)
Beyond that, the CFL should realize that this discussion of compensation is flawed, fruitless and time-consuming. In fact, the National Hockey League just announced this week that they were getting rid of compensation for coach and executive hires because "On balance, it just wasn't worth the debate, the confusion, the uncertainty that flowed from it." Those words are from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and when Gary Bettman is saying something smarter than the current policy (or lack thereof) in your league, it's a rare enough event that you should sit up and take notice. Again, every team benefits from this. Every team hires coaches from other teams for better jobs; Maas himself is one, as he was previously a receivers and quarterbacks coach with Toronto before becoming Ottawa's offensive coordinator this year. (It's not clear if he was still under contract to the Argonauts or not, but it wouldn't have been unusual if he was; tons of position coaches are hired for coordinator jobs every season, and many of them are under contract.)
If there is a compensation system set up, it's going to be incredibly unwieldy and it's going to add to the already-complex CFL draft. Look at how many 2016 draft picks have already changed hands, almost half a year before the actual draft. Demanding compensation for under-contract coaches is going to lead to a lot more picks changing hands. It would also be challenging to figure out just what sort of picks each kind of coach is worth; is a HC worth a second-rounder? An OC or DC a third-rounder? How do you compare coaches to personnel guys? This is particularly difficult in an era where many have responsibilities on both the coaching and personnel sides.
Beyond that, a compensation system would have a negative effect on the quality of coaching in this league. Teams are going to think twice about going out and getting a top position coach from elsewhere to be a coordinator if they have to pay draft picks for doing so, and they'll probably just promote in-house or find someone from the NCAA or NFL ranks instead. That doesn't lead to the best coaches in the best positions, and that doesn't help the CFL's product. By contrast, allowing coaches to advance when given the opportunity makes all the sense in the world, as Hervey said earlier this week:
“I would never deny anyone permission to have an opportunity to go and better themselves and their family. … The coaching profession, they don’t have pensions and all those different things. Why would we stand in the way of that?”
Why indeed. It appears those in Ottawa didn't bother to read Hervey's insightful comments. Hopefully those in the league office did.
