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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/ZappaOMatic on 2025-05-12 22:14:01+00:00.
Original Title: [OC] In 1980, Jamie Bone became the first Canadian university quarterback to be signed by the NFL. It came after he won a human rights case against the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats for discrimination against Canadian QBs
Earlier today, the Packers signed Taylor Elgersma. Coming from of Wilfried Laurier, he is the fourth quarterback from a Canadian university to sign with an NFL team. The Bengals are responsible for two of those with Dan Feraday in 1982 (who Cris Collinsworth thought was raw but had insane arm strength) and Steve Samways in 1987 (a left-handed QB like Boomer Esiason).
The Cowboys, however, had the first. In 1980, they gave Jamie Bone a shot, though he crossed the border with some controversy…
Bone attended Western University in London, where he led the Mustangs to back-to-back Vanier Cups in 1976 and 1977. He won the Hec Crighton Trophy (the Canadian version of the Heisman) in 1978, led the country in passing for three straight seasons, and even represented Canada twice at the Can-Am Bowl, an exhibition between Canadian and American college all-star teams.[1][2]
While his senior year was certainly a success, he was also playing mad as hell. Prior to the 1978 season, Bone was on a Canadian Football League roster hoping to go pro.
However, there was a bit of a problem: he’s Canadian.
The import rule
For those who don’t follow the CFL, there are rules on how many non-Canadian citizens/residents (imports) a team can carry. The specific numbers and policies have changed many times throughout the league’s history, officially to strike a balance that allows Canadians and Americans to be fairly represented in a Canadian league, and because teams kept finding loopholes to sign more Americans.
Currently, the 45-man active roster may have 19 American players at most, at least 21 Canadian nationals, and a Global player who is neither a citizen of Canada nor the United States. During Bone’s career, teams were allowed 14 imports and a designated import; the designated import is a non-Canadian who can enter the game but the player he replaces is not allowed to return afterward.
Basically every team throughout the 1970s had an American as their starting quarterback and one of the 14 imports. Given American QBs are often better than their Canadian counterparts, however, they also used the designated import to bring in another American.
This might sound redundant today, but the adage that “if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks” was not a thing back then. At the time, backup QBs were often players of other positions, meaning the talent drop-off if the starter went down was staggering. The CFL was aware of this too, and in 1970 tweaked the rule so that if the designated import was a quarterback, he and the starter can perform unlimited substitutions without the latter having to sit out the rest of the game.[3]
Thus, basically every team started having two Americans in their QB rooms. By the end of the 1970s, Gerry Dattilio of the Montreal Alouettes was the only Canadian quarterback on a CFL roster as other teams doubled up on guys from across the border.[4]
1978 Hamilton training camp
Bone was drafted by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1977, but decided to go back to school. The Bombers then traded his rights to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats a year later. Soon after, the Tiger-Cats lobbied to the CFL to increase the roster size by two, adding one import and a non-import; if accepted, Bone would be the new non-import and potentially their QB1 once he developed.[3]
However, the proposal was rejected. From there, Bone sensed something was fishy. His agent Alan Eagleson first reached out to the team on May 3 to negotiate his rookie contract, but didn’t get an answer.[5]
The moment Bone arrived for training camp on May 29, Ti-Cats general manger Bob Shaw immediately told him he was two days late, while Bone asserted camp had actually begun on May 27, two days earlier than scheduled.[3][5] Bone was then unable to negotiate his contract as Hamilton insisted on a one-year deal for $14,000. After signing, Bone joined the team for practice… only for Ti-Cats head coach Tom Dimitroff (yes, the father of the former Falcons GM) to apparently not know who he was nor have a playbook available.[3]
Bone was one of five QBs at camp, the other four all Americans: Mark Cahill from Cal, Jimmy Jones from USC, Tom Shuman out of Penn State, and a certain Northern Michigan man and future head coach named Steve Mariucci. Although Jones was the incumbent starter, he had struggled as a solely pocket passer in 1977 while Dimitroff was installing a new offense, meaning the starting gig was wide open.[6]
On the other hand, Bone was basically a camp body. According to Bone, however, that might be putting it very lightly:[3]
While the four American quarterbacks would run five plays in succession, Bone was often allowed to run only three. The coaches would run a certain play several times with the American candidates, but when it came to Bone’s turn, they would often start a new play at the beginning of the rotation.
“Sometimes I’d run only two or three plays with the offence on a given day out of two practices,” recalls Bone. “I really felt they wanted me to quit. That would be the end of it.”
For 14 days he was either ignored or verbally abused in front of the entire team. “I couldn’t do anything right. I could have thrown 20 touchdown passes and they wouldn’t have known it.”
Bone dressed but didn’t play in the Ti-Cats’ preseason opener against the Saskatchewan Roughriders either. He tried to stay optimistic, figuring Dimitroff had seen enough in camp to warrant keeping him around without needing to see him in preseason action.[3]
He was cut the next day.[3]
The lawsuit
After returning to London, Bone reached out to Western head coach Darwin Semotiuk for advice. He told Semotiuk what happened, and the coach quickly came to the conclusion that he had been discriminated against and even suggested he contact the Ontario Human Rights Commission.[3]
“When Jamie was cut by Hamilton, he was very bothered by it,” explained Semotiuk.[3] “He came to me to see what he could do. I gave him alternatives but didn’t push him. He’s a grown man and can make his own decisions. He understood what he was doing.”
While Semotiuk warned him that legal action would guarantee the end of his days in the CFL, Bone decided to go for it and filed a complaint to the OHRC in June 1978. He specifically cited what is now Part I, Section 4 of the province’s Human Rights Code, which stipulates protections from discrimination because of statuses like race, creed, and nationality.[3]
“I told them if they don’t do something about it, then nobody will. And then the CFL is not responsible to anyone,” Bone said.[3]
After a year of delays, the hearing began in July 1979 and lasted four days.[5] Bone was represented by John Sopinka, a former CFL player and later justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.[4]
Bone explained his case, that while American players are indeed usually better, CFL teams made little attempt to even scout their own backyard for talent:
For its part, the CFL claims Jamie Bone is out to destroy the league. Bone argues that the league is destroying itself. Two years ago he spoke to a high school quarterback in London who had decided to change his sport because of the designated-import rule. Bone points out that if the better athletes shy away from the quarterback position, then the offence as a whole suffers. And when the offence a bad the defence comes down to play at the same level.
CFL scouts spend too much time hanging around American colleges and pro training camps, says Bone, and not enough recruiting and developing Canadian talent. The problem, according to Bone, is that the CFL does not have any long-term philosophy. The CFL says it has no money to put into college or amateur ball. but it will still manage to pay the American Tom Cousineau $51.3 million to play football in Canada.
“The only time the league was involved in philosophy was when the World Football League tried to get a franchise in Canada.” says Bone acidly, “and then the CFL went running to the federal government for protection.”
Dattilio, as the lone active Canadian QB, was called to testify on the second day. He explained how he was promised by multiple teams including the Alouettes that he would be allowed to play quarterback, but ended up playing linebacker, defensive back, and receiver instead as those teams prioritized Americans for QBs. Hamilton’s lawyer Judson Whiteside argued it was normal for players to be in other positions, but Dattilio said in turn that he only converted out of necessity and would have ben out of a job otherwise.[4]
Semiotuk also spoke, calling Bone “the best college quarterback I’ve seen.”[4]
On Day 3 of the hearing, Dimitroff, who had been fired by the Ti-Cats just five games into the 1978 season, was summoned. It didn’t take long for him to basically confirm the …
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