Come a little closer to the fire, CFL, we need to hold your feet to it.

Despite all the positive moves you've made in officiating concerns, in determinedly targeting a younger demographic, firming up drug testing and planting a stronger footprint in Toronto, you're dropping the ball with your media policy.

Coming from a media guy that must sound a little self-serving but it's really about fans, and potential fans, not the writers, broadcasters and bloggers who make up the Football Reporters of Canada.

"We're your, the fans', representatives," says FRC president Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun. "We're there because you can't be there. So players can essentially talk to you, the public."

Jones and The Spectator's Drew Edwards met with CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge in mid-winter, hoping to get reporters the same kind of multiday access to locker rooms that the NFL media has and which Canadian media once did.

Now, in direct contrast to pro hockey, baseball and basketball in this country, football locker rooms are effectively off-limits at all times except for the hour or so directly after a game.

But, in a recent email Jones, wrote, "The new CFL media policy will specify that the dressing rooms should be open for a half-hour once a week. But when they got finished adding clauses to that, it effectively offers the option of no change."

Why does that matter? Because the media is a conduit from players to fans and that conduit runs most informatively, accurately and interestingly when it's used more often, and more openly.

"The most important part is that the NFL allows access to the dressing room, over and above game days, four days a week for 45 minutes," Jones says. "Enough time to do you job, and look for other ideas."

In most CFL markets now — and, to be fair, the Tiger-Cats have usually been very co-operative in providing requested players to The Spectator — there are no prepractice interviews, and post-practice interviews are conducted either on the field, or a space near the dressing room. But there is limited time allowed, there's usually a company representative nearby, and it's difficult to talk to more than a couple of players in a session.

If, for instance, you want to take the temperature of the whole team on a general football concept, you can't just slip by a dozen or more locker stalls and ask for the occupants' quick thoughts. The resulting story isn't as full as it could have been.

Plus, it precludes the accidental discovery of a great story because the reporter doesn't get unprompted ideas from the players themselves. The CFL should recognize how much that hurts their television partner. The NFL gives its media far more access for one reason only: more intimate, focused, coverage drives up TV ratings.

Players think they don't want the media in their "home" but it always turns out in the long run that, with the odd dramatic exception, they do. Otherwise, only a few marquee players get repeated exposure.

Casual contact encourages trust and relationships and players will say things they wouldn't in a more formal, monitored, setting. Management can be afraid of this, understandably, because it could lead to disgruntled players lighting a wick.

"But what happens far more often is you'll get a back story that not even the team knows about, and it's a great read for the public," Jones counters. "And the fans will have a favourite player that they didn't have the day before."

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With rosters changing more frequently than ever before, and television ratings in decline the past couple of years, how beneficial would that be to the health of the league? The only answer is "very!"

The league loves to boast about fans' accessibility and one season that was actually its marketing slogan. Well CFL, put your media where your motto is because whether the league likes it or not, the football media still represents your potential audience and what they really want to read and hear about.