Duane Forde’s love for the CFL runs deeper than lifelong fandom, his experience as a Grey Cup-winning fullback with Calgary and his current role as a TSN broadcaster.

Forde, you see, loves the CFL draft. To its core.

All 70-plus picks, give or take the two territorial exemptions in the second round that are awarded to the two lowest-ranked teams from the previous season.

“I hate that rule,” he said Wednesday in his typical smash-mouth style. “As much as I love the draft, and the Canadian draft is in part about development, it’s like this is supposed to equalize something somehow? ‘OK, this team really struggled last year so we’re going to help them by giving them an extra rookie Canadian, but he has to be from their area.’ It comes off as more of a marketing thing to me.”

Love is like that. You acknowledge the flaws, but keep tending to the relationship.

Forde, who covered his first draft in 2005, three years before he joined TSN, is still all-in on the big event. He is TSN’s de facto CFL draft guru and will be called upon for expertise and insights on his 16th consecutive draft April 30 when TSN provides TV coverage for the first two hours then switches to its online platform for whatever remains.

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Forde has a keen eye for evaluation and a never-ending thirst for the work. He consumes game film and highlight videos as if they were snack food. He spends hours googling Canadians in U.S. schools and tracking U Sports stats. He regularly talks to university coaches and takes in as many U Sports games as he can shoehorn into his travel schedule during the CFL season.

“It doesn’t feel like work,” the 50-year-old said. “I genuinely enjoy it.”

Each draft class starts with 600 potential prospects. Soon enough, that’s whittled to a couple hundred legitimate candidates, from which this year’s 73 will be chosen.

“It’s not about which of these are going to go in the first or second round because that’s easy to figure out,” he said. “I’ve always taken pride in not being caught off guard, in being able to talk about anybody who might get picked at any point in the draft.”

Forde’s impassioned relationship with the CFL draft actually dates back to 1991, when the Western University Mustang was selected sixth overall by the Stampeders. It was in retrospect a great pick, as he played 189 CFL games with Calgary, Toronto, Winnipeg and Hamilton, and contributed to a pair of Grey Cup championships in Cowtown. The only players from that class with more games played were kicker Troy Westwood (293 after being chosen 48th by Winnipeg) and offensive lineman Bruce Beaton (the eighth pick by B.C., who suited up for 212).

After a January evaluation camp in Edmonton, the CFL invited 10 players to attend the 1991 draft in Hamilton in February. All of them were among the first 18 players selected. In addition to Forde and Beaton, the others on hand for the proceedings were eventual No. 1 Nick Mazzoli, No. 2 Dan Farthing, No. 3 Dan Murphy, No. 4 Bart Hull, No. 5 Paul Vajda, No. 13 Chris Green, No. 15 Christian Massoti and No. 18 Bruce Dickson.

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Much has changed in three decades since, not the least of which is the influence exerted on the CFL draft by the NFL’s event, which begins Thursday and is being conducted virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. These days, the best Canadian prospect might not even be drafted by a CFL team.

“That’s a big part of what makes it unique,” Forde said. “It is the one draft where if the best guy gets picked first overall, it means it’s a weak draft class. Because it means nobody in the draft class is getting NFL interest.”

The national/international roster ratio also provides draft day twists.

“The team with the No. 1 pick may not have a need at the position of the best prospect, so there are multiple reasons why the best guy won’t go first.”

That said, Forde expects the top two Canadian prospects — Oklahoma defensive lineman Neville Gallimore and Notre Dame receiver Chase Claypool — to eventually be picked by CFL teams late in the draft on April 30.

“You’re talking about guys who are going to go in the first two rounds, certainly by the third round, of the NFL draft,” Forde said. “Even if they’re kind of busts down there, they’re still going to make a lot of money and bounce around down there for a long enough time that there’s a pretty good chance we never see them up here.”

Twitter.com/sportsdanbarnes