Part I - What's in the name?

The third CFL team is about to break ground within the next couple years. In addition, the new grounds at Lansdowne Park should hopefully be started within the next 6 months to a year (pending Friends of Lansdowne's court case).

Be it as it may I have no rumblings really of possible names to the new CFL team. Some Ottawa super fans would want to keep up with the old school tradition and name the team the Ottawa Rough Riders. This would be a BIG joke to the league unfortunately, as Saskatchewan already has laid claim to that name for years. The CFL would never agree to allowing two Rough Rider franchises anyway, and Saskatchewan won't be changing their name to something new just to appease the fans in Ottawa.

Another possibility could be to continue with the last franchise name, the Ottawa Renegades. This name holds great significance to me, as it was this franchise that truly got me hooked on the CFL, and more importantly football in the Canadian capital! Going into its final years of operation this franchise was really going places on the field. They had a core group of players who were capable of winning: Kerry Joseph, Josh Ranek, Pat Woodcock, Jason Armstead, etc. The Renegades were getting especially good at winning games within the eastern division, games they needed more to help their playoff chances. There's no doubt in my mind that if they had lasted another year they would have made the playoffs in their 5th season in the league.

This name to many non-hardcore Ottawa football fans will forever be associated with failure, therefore the new franchise should not incorporate the Renegades into their team. Even though it was entirely the Glieberman's fault that caused the Renegades to fold, most Ottawa citizens do not get this and probably won't attend new CFL Ottawa games because of it.

So just what should the new CFL Ottawa team now be? It needs to be something that represents the city, and not to sound corny, but the country. As Ottawa is the capital city of Canada they need to represent a little bit more in my mind. The first thought that came to my mind was to name the new team something to do with the Rideau Canal. The Canal is a big part of the city, and the stadium will be right along side of it. Alas, the Toronto Argonauts (Ottawa's most despised rival) are known as the "Boatmen" and already have long established ties with water.

So what could these options for a new name be...
Stay tuned!

CFL Ottawa's Draft Plans

Back in February 2002, the Ottawa Renegades expansion draft took place. Within this draft Ottawa was allowed to take up eight imports (Non-Canadian players) in the first round from other CFL teams, and eight Non-imports (Canadian players) in the second round from CFL teams. In total they selected 32 players from this draft process, with 16 of them already having CFL experience on their resume.

The draft was criticized, as it allowed the eight CFL teams to protect two of their quarterbacks (QB) from Ottawa in their expansion draft. Teams were also allowed to protect up to seven non-imports on their team as well. This meant that Ottawa was dealt the shaft in many ways, as they ended up having to choose from a plethora of 3rd string or practice roster type players. In the end, Ottawa’s starting QB ended up being Dan Crowley, a 3rd stringer from the Edmonton Eskimos. Crowley would eventually end up being outplayed by up and comer Kerry Joseph in 2003 (This was met by much fan approval as Crowley just could not get the job done).

CBC story on 2002 Ottawa Expansion Draft

Though many media “experts” say the Renegades were never competitive, I would wholeheartedly disagree with them. In their fourth season, if cross over rules were not in effect, the Renegades would have made the playoffs. If you were a true fan, and saw the Renegades game in and game out, you would know that the players had passion and were building something. Either way, maybe if the expansion draft was more in Ottawa’s favour from the get go they would not be rebuilding again (Though I still think it was an ownership problem over anything else… Gliebermans…).

A couple months ago, plans for the new CFL Ottawa team’s expansion draft were laid out. The big changes were: the addition of another round of non-imports (equally a total of one import round and two non import rounds), the current CFL teams can now only protect one QB, CFL Ottawa can only take two QBs within the first three rounds,and Ottawa can only choose one kicker/punter within the first three rounds. CFL teams in addition to protecting one QB will be allowed to protect ten imports from the import round, and six non imports in the non import rounds.

Outside the expansion draft, Ottawa can take up to four 2012 underclassmen from the NCAA and will get the 1st pick in each round of the official 2013 CFL draft. All these plans will help Ottawa fight and become the “Beast in the East” right from the beginning.

I know it’s super early to predict much, but one player I would be interested in Ottawa picking up is Justin Palardy, the kicker from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He had a lot of success in university as he kicked the third most field goals (65) and scored the fifth most points (320) in CIS history. For the Bombers last year he converted 26/30 FG for a 86.7 conversion percentage. This was the second best FG percentage only behind B.C.’s McCallum. Having the full time gig next season should help Palardy to improve upon his numbers even more.

All in all, I'm excited about the draft plans as Mark Cohon clearly wants to see Ottawa succeed in its third CFL attempt!