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But that doesn’t make it any easier for those who shared a jam-packed locker-room with them since May 18.

“As sad as it is, we know it’s a reality and the players know what they signed up for, the coaches know what we signed up for: The hard decisions and we have to make them,” Maas said. “But it’s also exciting because it’s the end of camp. You’re excited about the future of this organization because I like what I’ve seen for the past three weeks. I like how we’ve come together, I like how hard the guys are working and coming as one.

“I hate to see anybody go home, but ultimately, we all knew that was going to come. It’s just part of the business.”

Evaluations went right up until the final day of camp Thursday, as the Eskimos closed out the three-week grind with a situational scrimmage.

“There was a couple question marks,” Maas said at the time, shortly after breaking one final training-camp huddle. “Great effort all camp. We talked at the beginning, we wanted to be a close-knit group at the end of training camp, I think we accomplished that goal. We also said let everything be, as players we look at, on the field. Don’t let anything off the field get you out of here.

“So let’s become Eskimos and I thought they all did and I wanted to congratulate them on that. And then, it’s reality. We’re going from 97 down to 46 and 10, so they know the numbers. I told them the good thing is, there will be callbacks and if they want to keep playing football, they just keep their heads up and keep grinding.”