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03 Roughrider Draft Pick Mike McCullough and Rod Pedersen


 It was once relegated as a joke on the Simpson's but this past weekend the CFL Draft was broadcast on national television. The entire first round and part of the second round was shown live on air on TSN this past Sunday, giving Canadian Football League fans a chance to view the possible future of their clubs.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders grabbed the spotlight of the draft as they made a trade on Saturday picking up the 1st and 8th picks in exchange for the 2nd and 4th picks along with punter Jaime Boreham. The Riders were quick to draft linebacker Shomari Williams from Queen's University with the first pick.

Linebacker Mike McCullough a Roughrider draft pick in 2003 thinks that the move of the draft to national television is a nice step for the league. He says that broadcasting the draft will create more publicity for the league and get the college kids even more excited when entering the league.

The Play By Play Voice for the Riders Rod Pedersen agrees that the draft is a big hype machine to draw in more fan interest. He thinks that fans might not be fully aware of tomorrow's CFL stars that play in Canadian and US college football, but the important thing is fans are talking about it. Pedersen also gives credit to TSN who he says have done an amazing job of promoting the CFL.

Despite the recent success of Canadian players in the CFL there was talks over the last few months while negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, there was talk that the CFL owners wanted to reduce the number of Canadians on a CFL roster. McCullough feels that it would be a mistake to change the Canadian ratio and thinks that the idea was more of a negotiating ploy by the owners. He says that if the amount of Canadians on the roster was lowered, the overall appeal for the game would be reduced.

The CFL owners is currently negotiating a new CBA with the players which is set to expire in June. Currently all signs are pointing to a new deal being signed by both parties.