2013 CFL Offseason Thread

[habernac]

Just when you thought the CFL couldn't be more embarrassing than having two teams with the same name, Ottawa comes through again!! What a horrible nickname. Makes the Toronto Raptors sound awesome.

[worth]

Little OT but not sure people understand why there were two teams with the same name. There is a reason you know, it wasn't just a joke.

When Ottawa and Saskatchewan formed, they were in two separate leagues. They did not play each other.

When the CFL formed in 1956, it amalgamated all the teams into one league, and you got two teams with a lot of history behind them with nearly the same name. (Roughriders vs Rough Riders)

It's not embarrassing if you know the history. It's actually really cool that it happened that way. There is well over 100 years of football heritage in Canada and this is just one of the quirks in that history.

[valo403]

It's really an embarrassing name. RedBlacks? It makes no sense. It's not based in any sort of history, it's not at all creative and the logo is abysmal.

[SebC]

Ottawa naming their team after their our colours reminds me of Chad Johnson re-naming himself after his jersey number.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Originally Posted by SebC

Ottawa naming their team after their our colours reminds me of Chad Johnson re-naming himself after his jersey number.

The Stamps are red and white.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Looks like Chick has signed with the Riders

Rod Pedersen (@sportscage) tweeted at 8:48 AM on Sat, Jun 01, 2013:
It's true. John Chick is on his way from Florida to Saskatoon. #riderswon

[M*A*S*H 4077]

TSN now only showing 2 pre-season games instead of the 6 like previously announced. Terrible decision. There needs to be some competition for them

http://cfldb.ca/2013/06/tsns-pre-season-prank/

[Fire]

Originally Posted by M*A*S*H 4077

TSN now only showing 2 pre-season games instead of the 6 like previously announced. Terrible decision. There needs to be some competition for them

http://cfldb.ca/2013/06/tsns-pre-season-prank/

Nothing worse than pre-season football (of any kind). Terrible football and the rating must have been horrible.

[Brannigans Law]

I love the Redblacks logo colours and even the name. It's a great nod to the history of the area and it isn't stupid sounding like the Renegades. The name just rolls off your tongue too, "Redblack". Very good stuff. In 20 years people will look back and approve of this and wonder what the fuss was initially.

The opposite being the Toronto Raptors. One of the worst logos and jerseys in the NBA. They tried to make huge merch sales because of Jurassic Park forgetting that they'd be saddled with this name for decades.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Originally Posted by Fire

Nothing worse than pre-season football (of any kind). Terrible football and the rating must have been horrible.

That's a very fair opinion but I disagree. I'd rather watch pre-season football than game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals (which I have done). It's football and I find the position battles so interesting as well as getting a chance to watch all the players around the league who aren't the big stars. I know I'm certainly in the minority in my opinion

[Rejean31]

Not sure why it is that both Eskimo pre season games get televised by TSN?

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Rejean31

Not sure why it is that both Eskimo pre season games get televised by TSN?

Cuthbert is an Eskimo fan.

[Drake]

Orrin Thompson done for the year with a knee injury which he sustained on day 1 of training camp. Major blow, losing top OL. If Edmonton doesn't get back Austin Pasztor from the NFL they are in for a long year at OL.

[Drake]

So, does he report, or sit out a year?

After facilitating a formal arbitration process with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Canadian Football League Players Association, an independent arbitrator has ruled that Chris Williams' contract with the team is legal and binding.

General Manager and Head Coach Kent Austin has issued the following statement:

"We are pleased that the independent arbitrator has reached this logical and obvious conclusion. As we have stated all along, and the arbitration result validated, Chris has a legal and binding contract with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. We're eager to put this matter behind us and continue our preparations for the 2013 season."


As a result of the arbitrator's ruling, there will be no penalties or fines issued to the team.

I think he sits out the year and becomes a free agent.

http://www.cfl.ca/article/arbitrator...al-and-binding

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by Brannigans Law

I love the Redblacks logo colours and even the name. It's a great nod to the history of the area and it isn't stupid sounding like the Renegades. The name just rolls off your tongue too, "Redblack". Very good stuff. In 20 years people will look back and approve of this and wonder what the fuss was initially.

The opposite being the Toronto Raptors. One of the worst logos and jerseys in the NBA. They tried to make huge merch sales because of Jurassic Park forgetting that they'd be saddled with this name for decades.

Yes, its a well thought out name that will carve out a unique and original identity.

Signed,

The Calgary Stampeders

[Drake]

Jeff Hunt wrote a column for the Ottawa Sun explaining how the name came to be chosen. Ultimately, it seemed to be about the R on the helmet and the colors. Still not of a fan of the name.

When we announced we were looking for a team name, we heard from the universe. We had lots of suggestions.

At an event we had at the Grey Cup, at Real Sports in Toronto, a guy said: 'What about Red and Blacks?' I said Red and Blacks is a bit wordy, how about just RedBlacks? It was one of those casual conversations that was relatively unremarkable.

I went from that right to dinner with some of my partners. I happened to be sitting right across from Bill Shenkman. I said, 'Hey, what do you think of the name RedBlacks?' We call him Blunt Bill because he's not afraid to speak his mind. He immediately said he liked it. He kind of took more ownership in that name than I did

We hired Downstream. We started with a wall of names. We had some very specific criteria that we wanted to achieve. We wanted a name that was authentic to Ottawa. I didn't want to take the name Bears or Nationals -- or any other prominent existing sports names. We wanted something distinctive, unique and authentic to Ottawa.
And obviously translation was a factor, a big factor.

Any name that started with R gave us the possibility of preserving that iconic R on the helmet. When I called Russ Jackson, Tony Gabriel as well, to share the name, I wanted them to buy in ... I told them, 'It keeps that R on the helmet.' That immediately struck a chord with those guys and I started to feel like we were onto something.

We still had this wall of names. We started to pick them off one at a time.
We put out five names for focus groups. It wasn't five names just for the sake of it. Every one of those names we were seriously considering. Let's just say going into it, if we had thought one of the choices was the fifth-most popular and the focus groups were overwhelming to that name, we would have had to take that seriously.

We started to narrow in on RedBlacks. Red stands for desire, black stands for power. One of the things I did not know, in the mid- to late-1870s, when the Rough Riders started, one of the thoughts is they were named after the Roosevelt Rough Riders. They took the red and black colours from this regiment. I believe those colours influenced the colours of every Ottawa sports team since. I thought, what a tribute to Ottawa sports history -- even if you think about the guards on the Hill with their red and black colouring. It's just so synonymous with Ottawa history.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/06/08/...r-the-cfl-team

[browna]

Originally Posted by Drake

Jeff Hunt wrote a column for the Ottawa Sun explaining how the name came to be chosen. Ultimately, it seemed to be about the R on the helmet and the colors. Still not of a fan of the name.


http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/06/08/...r-the-cfl-team

Hunt is reaching at straws. There are lots of words in the english language that begin with "R", and if that's the basis for trying to sell alumni, then its pretty weak. There are lots of things that can be taken symbolically out of a name to mean different things (look at the Oilers flying sperm alternate logo, with 10 "meanings" within its design) that can translate from a more meaningful franchise name.

Just saw an interview at the event with Commissioner Cohon and it was clear it wouldn't have been on his radar from a personal, and a league wide perspective for the merchandising/brand identity etc side of things.

[worth]

So the league has no input on names then? What about in the NHL? I would have thought the team would have had to run everything by the league and the league would have to accept it before anything happens.

[Drake]

LOL.

Ottawa's CFL group sent an e-mail saying their name is actually all caps, as in REDBLACKS. Sorry, but that's NEVER going to happen. #CFL

https://twitter.com/PentonKirk/statu...37702591049728

[worth]

Let's rename all the teams to colours.

ORANGEBLACKS
WHITEREDS
YELLOWGREENS
GREENWHITES

BLUEGOLDS
YELLOWBLACKS
BLUEBLUES
REDBLACKS
BLUEREDS