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At that crucial inflection point, their hand-in-hand drive toward the end zone, whatever it looks like in this new normal, was stopped cold. The CFLPA foisted paragraph 16 of the standard players contract onto the table and it was seen by the league as an act of aggression, whether that was the intention or not.

It states:

It is mutually understood and agreed that if the operation of the CFL is suspended, this contract shall immediately be terminated and the remuneration to be paid to the Player shall be on the basis as provided by Paragraph 11 herein.

Paragraph 11 states players are entitled to compensation for work they have completed, meaning there would be no pay cheques if the 2020 season is cancelled.

So the interpretation of paragraph 16 is indeed a major issue, given that its trigger mechanism would send every CFL player into immediate free agency.

And yet, it seems obvious that the intent of the paragraph is to address a complete cessation of league operations, a folding of the tent if you will, not a postponement in the midst of a pandemic, or even the cancellation of an entire season. And it’s believed the CFLPA doesn’t want to leverage such dire circumstances to create an entirely new class of free agent.

So why the discord if both sides can see the most logical intent of paragraph 16?

The pandemic and its potential to shorten or wipe out the CFL season creates myriad CBA-related issues that require collective bargaining and room for gains and losses on each side. Once the players raised section 16 as an issue that needed to be addressed, it entered those discussions as a threat to league stability — in other words, a massive bargaining chip.