The Canadian Football League became a casualty of the coronavirus pandemic, officially canceling its 2020 season Monday.

The nine-team league had been trying to salvage at least a shortened season. First, the CFL announced March 30 the start of May’s training camps would be delayed. A week later, the June 11 start of the regular season was pushed back until at least July, then, later, September.

In recent weeks, alternatives ranged from a nine-game season to a six-game season — the CFL normally plays 18 regular-season games — and there was a plan in place to play a six-game season using Winnipeg as the hub city.

But because the league’s revenues are driven largely by ticket sales, even a shortened season was going to be difficult to pull off. The final nail came Sunday night when it was reported the Canadian government turned down the CFL’s request for a $30 million interest-free loan.

“I’d say about mid-July when we didn’t really hear too much going on, I kind of prepared myself for this,” said Hamilton defensive lineman Julian Howsare, a Clarion grad. “But then this past week, it seemed like people were talking about things falling into place, so I kind of got my hopes up.”

This will be the first season since 1919 there will be no Grey Cup presented.

“Our league governors decided today it is in the best long-term interests of the CFL to concentrate on the future,” commissioner Randy Ambrosie said in a statement. “We are absolutely committed to 2021, to the future of our league and the pursuit of our vision of a bigger, stronger, more global CFL.”

The cancellation affects a number of American players. About 50% of the CFL’s players are non-Canadian, and most of that 50% are Americans.

Several players with ties to Western Pennsylvania are among those affected, including Edmonton quarterback Trevor Harris (Edinboro), Toronto defensive back Tommie Campbell (Aliquippa/Cal (Pa.)), Howsare and Calgary defensive back Lorenzo Jerome (St. Francis (Pa.)).

Howsare, who was heading into his third season with Hamilton, had a breakthrough in 2019. He recorded six sacks and emerged as one of the Eastern Division’s better defensive ends.

On top of that, the Tiger-Cats advanced to the Grey Cup final — losing to Winnipeg — and were set to return many of their key players.

“I felt like I finally got my position in the CFL,” Howsare said, “and coming off the success we had as a team, we had such high expectations. And for this to happen, it’s devastating.”

Campbell, 32 and an established CFL All-Star, was set to begin his first season with the Toronto Argonauts after signing a two-year free-agent deal in the offseason.

“I felt like (the cancellation) was going to happen all along,” said Campbell, who has played four seasons in the CFL after four in the NFL. “It was kind of difficult with the virus and trying to scramble. We were playing against time, and there were a whole lot of variables.”

Campbell said he will return for the 2021 season. He isn’t sure what the missed year will do to his contract status but is confident the league will find a way to not make this year count against his or anyone else’s contract.

But there remains the issue of money. Campbell said he hadn’t received a football paycheck in months. While he said he is OK financially, he said he believes the CFL needs to do right by the players.

“You have to play the game to get paid. I understand that,” he said, “but the league is paying everybody else, and I don’t think that’s right. Players make the league, and I think they lost that mindset.”

Jerome hasn’t been paid, either. When the CFL announced its season would be delayed, Jerome took a job as a substitute teacher and security guard at Miramar High School in his native Florida.

But when schools switched to virtual learning amid covid-19 concerns, that job, too, was gone. So Jerome is filing for unemployment and picking up a few dollars on the side by training youth football players.

Making matters more frustrating for Jerome was he had just started to establish himself in the CFL. During the second half of the 2019 season, he became one of the Stampeders’ primary kick returners and recorded his first interception.

“Our special teams coach (Mark Kilam) messaged me to be ready to come in as a leader (for 2020) and be prepared when I came back,” Jerome said.

Jerome is in the final stages of rehabbing an injury and will consider his football future from there.

“I am going to aim for the stars. It could be the NFL, or I could be back in Canada,” said Jerome, who made the San Francisco 49ers opening-day roster in 2017. “You just have to move forward.”

Howsare put his down time to good use, completing his personal trainer certifications and starting to establish a clientele. While he is happy to get a head start on what will be his post-football career, he is fully prepared to return when the CFL opens for business again.

And prepared to perhaps have home-field advantage in the 2021 Grey Cup, which is scheduled to be played in Hamilton.

“I am positive about it,” he said. “I think they will have a good plan for us to come back and have a strong 2021.”

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