Football: Why Russ Jackson is not walkin' through that door

David Naylor is the latest to take a swing at the Canadian QB quandary:
"For years, the absence of Canadian-bred quarterbacks in the CFL was attributed to the bias of American coaches, who were unfamiliar with the Canadian university game and not willing to take its quarterbacks seriously. But that argument no longer stands up, given there have been three former CIS head coaches to hold CFL head coaching jobs – Jim Daley, (current Western coach) Greg Marshall and current Tiger-Cats boss Marcel Bellefeuille – and none of them have employed a Canadian QB.

" 'If there was a Canadian quarterback (who could play at the CFL level) at the time, I certainly would have,' said Marshall, whose two-plus seasons at the helm of the Ticats ended in 2006.

" ...CFL head coaches – all of them, not just the Americans – agree quarterbacks coming out of Canadian schools simply don't measure up to the ones coming out of the upper U.S. college ranks. And they say it's no mystery why: American quarterbacks come from a more competitive level, usually have been playing the game longer and had far-more coaching specific to the position.

"There have been Canadian university quarterbacks who've had the physical skills to play at the professional level. But their development isn't far from a level akin to U.S. college football at the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III or lower Division II. And the CFL almost never employs quarterbacks from those levels either."
It's a total self-aggrandizing move to point out that Streaming Sports Network Canada's CIS Touchdown had a commentary on this several weeks ago (check its Week 4 episode), which pointed out it's a self-fulfilling prophesy by the CFL. They don't do anything to develop the Canadian quarterback (and frankly it's more of a chatterati issue than one rank-and-file fans care about; has the CFL's attendance or TV ratings suffered?), then say there are none qualified. Meantime, CIS football has to contend with a lack of depth at the pivot position.

(You'll note the unintentional comedy of the one Globe & Mail user noting, "This story fails to mention the great Russ Jackson, one of the greatest Canadians to ever play in the CFL." As if David Naylor doesn't know about Russ Jackson, who last played in the CFL eight years before I was born (and I'm not that young). Things have changed, people, try to keep up.)

Related:
A Canadian game without the Canadians; No matter how many yards they pass for, no matter how many touchdowns or awards they score, the nation's university quarterbacks are shunned at the pro level (David Naylor, globesports.com)
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