There are 220 potential free agents in the CFL. That’s ludicrous!

For the good of the CFL, it’s time for the players to backtrack and eliminate their one-year contracts.

League rules used to insist that players’ contracts were for a minimum of one year plus an option year. But in the last collective bargaining agreement, the players insisted that veterans be allowed to sign one-year deals. The result is that ridiculously long free-agent list.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders have 22 players whose contracts expire Feb. 13. Every year there’s turnover on a team’s roster. Some players aren’t invited back, some aren’t affordable under the salary cap.

The biggest complaint about the CFL is each team lacks identity; its players don’t stay with teams long enough to become fan favourites.

Think about Lancaster, Reed, Narcisse, Elgaard, Aldag, Makowsky. Longer contracts would help teams retain players until they become icons. It would help with roster stability and costs. And it really wouldn’t reduce the money paid in each contract. It would just make sense.