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“I said ‘Randy you need to see this.’ I’ve sent a lot of players to the CFL and I want the CFL to get stronger. I said to Randy, ‘the Mexican people love football, can you imagine if we have an affiliation? You have 100 million people in Mexico and 10 per cent of them are wearing a CFL T-shirt. That’s a lot of exposure.’”

Ambrosie, who had already broached the international initiative with receptive CFL governors, was typically enthused, so Nill flew with Perez to meet the commissioner in Edmonton in June to talk possibilities and synergies.

Bada bing, bada boom.

“Blake is deserving of a great deal of credit,” said Ambrosie. “You might say the real birthplace of CFL 2.0 was Edmonton. From that introduction, Blake participated in a follow-up conversation in Vancouver sometime later and we just started to gain momentum on how we could work with the LFA, the opportunity we would have in Mexico, how to grow this international concept.”

They are just starting to do exactly that. A player combine and draft held here on Sunday and Monday kick-started the project that has the blessing of CFL governors, team presidents, and most GMs and head coaches. But a talent search is only a small part of a big idea, as Ambrosie likes to say.

With Nill providing introductions, Ambrosie spoke to Canadian university coaches across the country and came away convinced the CFL had to grow more than just its own revenues and fan base. The grand old league has to accept the responsibility for supporting football at all levels in Canada. And it didn’t take him long to embrace the idea that junior football needs a professional champion too. And that university ball players who have run out of eligibility, but not passion for the game need international avenues to keep playing.