Jamie Nye: CFL teams need to sweeten pot to keep players longer term

Roughriders linebacker Solomon Elimimian is the second vice-president of the CFL Players’ Association. During Grey Cup Week, Elimimian explained why one-year contracts are becoming more and more common.

It’s quite simple, really: Players were finding they were getting released from two- or three-year deals after one year, sometimes the day before a guaranteed bonus was to be paid.

So why then do fans complain about the players taking one-year deals? Elimimian has a point.

How to end this? Elimimian acknowledged fully guaranteed deals like the NHL has are unrealistic. But how about partially guaranteed money, so a team owes a player a certain amount if the team releases him before the contract is up?

Elimimian believes you’d see a lot more two- or maybe three-year deals if that were the case.

The players want power, and right now the only way they can have power over their own career is signing one-year deals. It’s up to the teams to find a way to sweeten the pot if they want more stability within their locker rooms.