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And one of the main reasons is the players have always been compliant.

The first collective bargaining agreement of the Ambrosie administration was agreed to Wednesday and while neither side had announced official ratification at press time, it’s hard to believe the new deal won’t be accepted by both parties.

There was, in fact, much that was predictable about this entire process. The players talked a big game. They went to the bargaining table promising a fight. They took a strike vote. But, in the end, this was like one of those old-timey wrestling matches where you knew what the outcome would be going in, you just weren’t sure how they were going to get there.

Photo by CFLPA/Supplied / Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS

True, the players association’s bargaining committee pried a couple of concessions from the league that made the entire package marginally palatable for the players. But when the overall salary cap is going up by less than one per cent annually over the deal’s three years, it’s hard to see this as anything but another loss for the union.

“I can tell you being in that room this yr (sic) we had to fight for everything,” the Als’ John Bowman, a member of the CFLPA’s bargaining committee, posted on Twitter.

Just makes you wonder what this deal would have looked like if they hadn’t fought so hard.

The details:

• In addition to the puny raise in the salary cap, the league’s minimum wage will be raised from $53,000 to $65,000 in the second year of the deal. That seems like a gain for the players but it will likely mean some veterans will have to take salary cuts in Year 2.