No-contact CFL practices a great decision, says former receiver
League also plans to add another bye week in bid to give players more rest
Football experts say the Canadian Football League made a smart move by eliminating padded practices during the regular season so that players can prevent serious injuries.
The CFL and CFL Players Association announced Wednesday they will discontinue full-contact, padded practices immediately and give teams an extra bye week to help reduce the risk of player injury. The 2018 CFL season will now be extended to 21 weeks.
Ken Evraire, former CFL receiver for Hamilton, Ottawa and Saskatchewan, told CBC Radio's All in a Day host Alan Neal "it's a great decision" in the name of player safety. But he said the more important takeaway of the announcement is the increase to three bye weeks to give players a break.
"It gives you a chance to get away from those three games in 12-day spans," he said. "You're in three major car accidents in the span of 12 days and it's tough to recover from that kind of stuff."
Since most teams already stay away from padded practices, the next challenge will be for minor league teams to change their approach to coaching amateur athletes, Evraire said.
"You can't go to the trump card of we lost the game on Saturday so next time we practice we're going to scrimmage and knock the snot out of each other so we can figure things out. That's not how it's done," he said.
"You've got to step back, look at the strategy, look at the scheme, look at what's gone wrong and coach these athletes up physically, but more importantly, mentally aware of what they need to do to be successful in the next game."
New rules won't have huge impact on Redblacks
Patrick Lavoie, fullback for the Ottawa Redblacks, told All in a Day his team does not do padded practices every week, so the new regulations will not have a huge impact for the players. But for other players in the league, it will could result in fewer injuries.
"The season's really long … so when you hit people every week towards the game, that's really hard for your body," Lavoie said.
"Even for your head, for everything. So, I just think it's a good thing for the safety of the player in general. Stay healthy and be able to recover between games easier."
With files from CBC Radio's All in a Day and The Canadian Press