Darrell Davis: CFL salaries have too much disparity

Stop overpaying CFL quarterbacks!

That’s the first issue the league needs to rectify with its players’ association. The CFL and CFLPA have resumed their negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement, with the focus on health, safety and salaries. All of them cost money.

Too much of each team’s money is going to its starting quarterback. Mike Reilly’s free-agent contract with the B.C. Lions pays him $725,000 annually. That’s 14 per cent of B.C.’s $5.2-million cap on players’ salaries and it dominoed into the release of high-priced linebacker Solomon Elimimian.

Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Zach Collaros, if he remains healthy, is a comparative bargain at roughly half Reilly’s salary. But despite the importance of CFL quarterbacks, they should not receive such a large chunk of a team’s payroll. It’s unfair to the other players, some of whom make as little as $54,000.

It’s time for the CFLPA to get rid of that disparity.