CKNW - Pierce to tryout for Texans

[Jim Mullin]

http://cknw.com/Channels/Reg/SportsLoca ... ID=1057889

[WestCoastJoe]

Best wishes to Buck.

It is very interesting that a number of NFL teams wish to give him a look-see. It seems to me that NFL scouting of the CFL is on the rise. IMO Buck all the intangibles any team would want, and enough of the skills to make it a real possibility. I think Buck has a decent chance of catching on with one of the NFL teams.

For selfish reasons, as a Lions fan, I do not really want to see it. But these guys obviously have to take their shot at it when they get the chance for the bigger bucks.

[PigSkin_53]

Best wishes to Buck.

It is very interesting that a number of NFL teams wish to give him a look-see. It seems to me that NFL scouting of the CFL is on the rise. IMO Buck all the intangibles any team would want, and enough of the skills to make it a real possibility. I think Buck has a decent chance of catching on with one of the NFL teams.

For selfish reasons, as a Lions fan, I do not really want to see it. But these guys obviously have to take their shot at it when they get the chance for the bigger bucks.

What's wrong with being selfish when it comes down to the survival of our franchise WCJ???

How many best wishes are you willing to extend to a league that views us as nothing more than a bottom feeding farm to pluck at the will of their own egocentric convenience, while the Leo’s best players are dwindled away to not, and seduced one by one by the lure of ugly American $$$.

Wake, Pierce, Logan, Murphy, who’s next for the NFL’s encroachment on Wally’s entire harem?

Looks like everyone and anyone are ready to jump his sinking ship.

It looks to me as if we have resigned ourselves to the corruption of our own ambivalence.

[WestCoastJoe]

What's wrong with being selfish when it comes down to the survival of our franchise WCJ???

How many best wishes are you willing to extend to a league that views us as nothing more than a bottom feeding farm ...

I hear ya, PigSkin.

It's just the nature of the beast that some of our CFL players move on to bigger dollars in the NFL.

I think Wally has a practical attitude towards it. He does not begrudge Cam Wake or Jamall Johnson or any of the others their shot at more money. Players leaving is just a fact of life. Wish 'em well, and get on with our own business.

What else can you do? I don't like losing the chance to see Cam Wake play here, but I understand why he is leaving, and, by this time, these things do not bother me as much as they might once have.

It's not just the CFL - NFL situation. In baseball, the Yankees end up buying a lot of the top talent other teams develop. In hockey, the NHL takes players from the leagues in Sweden, Russia, Czech and Slovakia, etc. In Europe, the rich teams like Chelsea and Man U buy up top talent all the time. In hockey the NHL teams take their "rights-owned" players away from teams like the Vancouver Giants, and the Manitoba Moose when it suits them. It sucks for the Giants and the Moose and their fans, but what are you gonna do? To me, it is just a fact of life.

And I enjoy the CFL, with the problems it faces, very much anyway. It is a heckuva good show, no matter what players are on the field.

As for Cam Wake, and Jamall Johnson, who are gone, and Stefan Logan and Buck Pierce, if we lose them, I do wish them well. If the opportunity is there, they have to go for it.

And, actually, I am not all that concerned about our level of talent this year on the Lions. Teams can re-load and re-build very quickly in the CFL. Wally has shown that time and time again.

[firstdown45]

Add the Dallas Cowboys to the list of teams that want Buck

[bclions16]

Add the Dallas Cowboys to the list of teams that want Buck

Ok, I've added them. Now what?

[PigSkin_53]

As for Cam Wake, and Jamall Johnson, who are gone, and Stefan Logan and Buck Pierce, if we lose them, I do wish them well. If the opportunity is there, they have to go for it.

And I as well Joe, but what I'm trying to get at is the old time value of why players played for the love of the game, and that which has been corrupted by the money-go-round.

If you really love the game the way that I love it, and the difference between winning and losing hung in the balance, could you be true to yourself knowing that you had the where with all to have been the difference in that game, but have not the chance for the fact you are there on the sideline holding a clipboard?

Could be happy to languish on the sideline knowing that your only hope of contributing was if the one, two, or three guys ahead of you incurred injury?

As for Jamal if this is true and he is gone it may be the unhappiest news of all for me, but if it means a chance for him who has been held back and overlooked due to injury, or linebackers ahead of him playing out of their natural positions, then I am ecstatic for his opportunity to shine, although the shame of his lose is difficult to bear.

[West Coast Blue Fan]

Love of the game doesn't put food on the table.

Players have a fairly small window of opportunity to make their money. WCJ hot the nail on the head with his comparisons to the Man U soccer and the Moose of the AHL.

I'm sure these players do love the game, but can you truly say that when they were young their dream was to play in the CFL? Everyone of the players born in the US would say no. You have have to try for your dream when you have the opportunity.....clipboard or not. Kurt Warner is a great example of that.

[Tighthead]

Add the Dallas Cowboys to the list of teams that want Buck

Ok, I've added them. Now what?

Just do it, and don't ask any questions.

[mightybuck]

Pigskin_53 - I could say I understand how you feel but that would be a lie because I am not in your shoes. But I do feel for you, the Lions and the CFL. The thing is - the money is not the only issue here. Yes, I will not deny the fact that there is more money, but it is more than that.

West coast blue said:

I'm sure these players do love the game, but can you truly say that when they were young their dream was to play in the CFL? Everyone of the players born in the US would say no. You have have to try for your dream when you have the opportunity.....clipboard or not. Kurt Warner is a great example of that.
Love of the game doesn't put food on the table.

Players have a fairly small window of opportunity to make their money. WCJ hot the nail on the head with his comparisons to the Man U soccer and the Moose of the AHL.

I'm sure these players do love the game, but can you truly say that when they were young their dream was to play in the CFL? Everyone of the players born in the US would say no. You have have to try for your dream when you have the opportunity.....clipboard or not. Kurt Warner is a great example of that.

He is so right. You ask any player in the NCAA what their dream is about playing football and its the NFL. Every kid down here playing pop warner to high school sees him self playing in the NFL some day. When Buck grew up he watched Joe Montana, that was his favorite and pulled for the 49ers. What a dream that would be to come out on the field in a 49er uniform. There are guys in the NFL who grew up watching their favorite team, even worked as a vender in their stadium and now find themselves actually playing for that team. It’s a dream. So yes, the money is more, but so is the dream.

Now, I don't know what will happen, know one does. But if Buck does catch on with a NFL team it wont be because he dislikes Vancouver, the Lions or the CFL. If he comes back I know he will do all he can to help the Lions win and bring a Cup back to Vancouver. He will be just as determined as ever just as Ricky Ray and Henry Burris were. Besides that - if one wants to talk about the money and business side of football. A player that everyone likes and wants to help the team could end up being traded or cut. Its a business. If the francise is going to do whats right financially for the club then why shouldnt the player want to do whats good for him and his family - that is if you want to deal strictly with the money issue here. It has to work both ways. But like I said, there is more than just money here, its a dream since youth football. I know this post may not make a difference to some but I agree with westcoastblue.

[PigSkin_53]

Love of the game doesn't put food on the table.

Players have a fairly small window of opportunity to make their money. WCJ hot the nail on the head with his comparisons to the Man U soccer and the Moose of the AHL.

I'm sure these players do love the game, but can you truly say that when they were young their dream was to play in the CFL? Everyone of the players born in the US would say no. You have have to try for your dream when you have the opportunity.....clipboard or not. Kurt Warner is a great example of that.

The league you have dreamed about playing for all your life, as an American has long since passed you over, as inadequate to warm the bench in the vaunted NFL, as either too small, too light, too slow, attitude problem, or high risk potential to offend.

Why is that the CFL serves to show you as the biggest fish in the pond that if you eat all of the smaller fish you deem to be worthy of your consumption and are still left wanting, only then those you have spurned as not worth eating become somehow most appetizing when they appear to be someone else’s meal?

Most of these athletes would have had to accept real jobs in the world of hard knocks like the rest of us, if it wasn't for the CFL giving them the chance that the NFL would most certainly have robbed them of.

That has to account for something more than easy come, easy go!

What’s to stop me as a fan from feeling I hope Buck leaves so that Jarious gets the chance to prove he has always been a better #1, and that Wally Buono has made a disastrous mistake by naming BP as his starting qb, before training camp as he has always done in the past.

Could it be that Buono is showing his desperation to keep Buck, as he did when he failed to do so with Casey Printers when he offered CP the starting assignment over DD, and afterward Dickenson went on to win the GC the following season?

Look at Geroy Simon or Milt Stegall as examples of how players of their magnitude have had the chance to jump to the world of big bucks many times, but instead understood it is much better to reign in the CFL than ride the pine in the NFL.

[Bleddyn]

It is not the lure of the American $ that leads them all to look down there. It is A.) the big show and B.) the home league of pretty much all the players discussed.

Love of the game is only valid if the CFL is their only chance to play. If they had the opportunity to play just as much in the NFL at the same money they get in the CFL, they would take it I assure you. It is the draw of the league itself. The fact they make gobs more money is just a massive bonus.

Imagine you are a hockey player and you are guaranteed the same $ and ice time in two different leagues... NHL or Swedish Elite League... what would you pick?

NONE of these players grew up watching and fantasizing about playing in the CFL. Any chance to play in the NFL will be jumped at.

[ziggy]

No doubt money is part of it, but lets face it ,there are guys here who grew up in an NHL hockey culture who would pass on an overseas contract for a chance to play in the NHL, even if they had to take a paycut and perhaps initially ride the pines. I completely understand how an American kid who grew up with the NFL culture would like to take his shot at the league he idolized as a kid. Better to take a chance than to regret it the rest of your life. Money is no doubt a consideration but likely not the only one.