Yes, I know this was the NFL's opening weekend, and yes, I was excited about that.
Yet, when I checked ESPN's listings in the morning, I saw not one, but two CFL games scheduled, and so decided to watch those, and go back and forth between them and the NFL game that was on (it was the Jets and the Raiders), which I actually did not wind up turning on at all.
That's right. I passed on the early game of the NFL, and watched much of the game between the hosting Montreal Alouettes and the visiting Hamilton Tiger Cats.
Now, before I go on, let me just say this: the Alouettes had perhaps the ugliest uniforms that I have ever seen in American football before, and that's saying something! These really were atrocious, with gray jerseys and pants with these ugly wing designs all over it, and helmets that looked half red and half black, with the letters MTL on it. It seemed that they blended the worst of the Seahawks uniforms from just a few years back, with that colorless uniform from head to toe, with a particularly boring and ugly helmet. I normally would pull for the Alouettes in any game that they play, but a part of me recognized that they might just deserve to lose for those ridiculous uniforms alone!
Anyway, ugly uniforms are certainly not unique to the Canadian Football League, right? I remember in college football, the Maryland Terps. And frankly, I'm not so thrilled with some of the NFL uniforms, either. I mean, Tampa's uniforms, which came highly touted, just look plain ugly to me. Jacksonville's uniforms are right up there with them, as well (must be something about those Florida teams). Besides, I think those ridiculous uniforms the Alouettes wore for the game yesterday were a one-shot deal. At least, I hope so.
Of course, there are differences that exist between the CFL and the NFL. Everyone seems to know about the 110-yard field, but that is only one difference. The end zones are much bigger, and the goal posts are in front of the end zones, like they used to be in the old days of the NFL. Also, the scoring is different, although I'm not entirely clear on how it works, precisely. Unlike the NFL, there is more than one way to get a single point (not just with a PAT after a touchdown). Theoretically, a team could probably win 1-0, although I cannot say this with absolute certainty. It has something to do with punt singles, and I think that means when you kneel down in the end zone after a punt, the other team gets a point. Interesting..
One of the things that always puzzled me when younger about the Canadian Football League was that not only were there far fewer teams, but two of those franchises that did exist had the same franchise names. There were the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Ottawa Rough Riders. It was as if there were only a few names possible to choose from, and both franchises picked that name in particular, with neither willing to let it go. That, from an outside point of view, had seemed a little absurd, admittedly.
Still, the main reason that I never got more into the CFL was simple: it never came on tv. Oh, I might watch it a little bit while up there, but when you are on a trip, you usually do not want to spend too much of your time watching television, right?
So, I never really got more into Canadian Football, or even more acclimated with it, mostly due to the fact that I could not really watch it, which makes it hard to follow. Now, I should make a bit of a confession here: I hardly watch NFL football, either. Really! I know that I write about it quite a bit here, and can talk at length on the subject, for that matter! But it's the highlights and stories and records and statistics that keep me going. And perhaps tradition, since I have followed every NFL season since 1981. You would think someone like that watches every single game when his team plays on Sundays, and a lot of people assume that I do.
But they are wrong. I used to, trust me! But there came a point - it was in the early nineties for me -when I recognized that no matter what the weather, I was sitting inside, cooped up, trying to follow everything that happened on the football field. Instead, I began to make a point to go out, particularly on nice days. It was easy at that time, because that was the peak of my social life, and so going out with a friend was not difficult. And before I knew it, it was almost like watching a football game was resigning myself to the idea of not having anything better to do than watch tv which, let's face it, is what most of us who follow the sport do. Oh, there may the occasional game - and I have been to quite a few! - but for the most part, you are watching television. And commercials, ad infinitum. And it occurs to you that you are spending an inordinate amount of time watching millionaire athletes pining for even more money, sometimes even suggesting that they are underpaid, and in some rare instances suggesting, as Terrell Owens once did, that he is seeking more millions because he has to feed his family. As if he was not a multimillionaire, living a life that most could never afford. As if going to see the football game on Sunday afternoons was like seeing the same level of pay for the employees there that you would see on a trip to the local fastfood chain or Walmart.
Which brings me to the next thing that I prefer about the Canadian Football League - that it is not filled with millionaire athletes whining about not making enough money. There are some wealthy guys that play football in the CFL, surely. But for the most part, their salaries are actually not all that high, and many of them try and work other jobs during the offseason. Now, here are professional football players that truly do have to work to put food on their tables to feed their families! But they just happen to play a sport, a game, in order to earn that paycheck. So, you don't have to worry so much about a star skipping town for greener pastures in another city, to make a few more million per year. That, too is refreshing, because it's not all as transparently about greed as it has become in the NFL.
However, I digress. Ultimately, all I am saying is that now that Canadian Football League games are being broadcast here in the States, I hope that they are getting an audience. I'm certainly interested!
And so I watched the games this weekend. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats (another of those names that I found kind of weird, admittedly) were visiting the Montreal Alouettes. And in the first half, Hamilton was pounding Montreal. I mean, the Alouette offense could do nothing, could not get anything going. This was a team that, just a few short seasons ago, was the equivalent of a dynasty in the CFL. The Patriots of the CFL, if you will. And now, they had the worst offense in the league, and watching that game, you could see why! Hamilton had a prohibitive 21-7 lead at halftime.
It was at this point that I took my son out for a hike, and then to do a bit of reading with him by a lakefront (I'm reading the first of the Percy Jackson books to him).
When we got back, I turned the game on, just in time to see Montreal score, and the crowd go wild. I figured that maybe they had clawed their way back in the game, and were closing in on Hamilton. Instead, I saw that the touchdown and the PAT made the score 38-24, in favor of Montreal! Somehow, they had totally dominated the second half! I wonder what the coach said or did for such a dramatic turnaround?
The second game of the CFL doubleheader was similar in some ways. This one, for reasons that I'm not entirely sure I understand, was nicknamed the "Banjo Bowl". The Saskatchewan Roughriders, the defending Grey Cup Champions, were all over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (another name that I kind of found a bit weird whenever I heard it), and had managed to make it 27-8 by halftime. Needing to get back to the apartment, because my girlfriend had an appointment with people to sell her sleeper sofa and loveseat, and she wanted me to be there, I turned the television set off, sure that the result was pretty much in the bag.
It wasn't. When I turned it on later, in the fourth quarter, I again turned it on to the team that had been trailing badly scoring a touchdown. This time, it was to get Winnipeg to within a touchdown. Despite their complete dominance in the first half, Saskatchewan was clinging desperately to a 30-24 lead.
Unfortunately for Winnipeg, however, they were not able to get the touchdown to tie it, or go up. That was where the score stayed, and Saskatchewan had survived a scare to earn a hard-earned road win. It came at a price, however, as they lost starting quarterback Darian Durant. No word yet on how serious the injury is, or is not.
There were two other games this weekend that they showed highlights of. The first was on Friday night it Ottawa, and the weather was a huge factor, because it was absolutely pouring! Still more than 20,000 fans braved the weather to attend, and they watched the visiting BC Lions defeat the hometown Redblacks (another strange name), 7-5.
Finally, the Calgary Stampeders, the best team in the league thus far with a 9-1 record, went on the road and beat their interprovincial rivals, the Edmonton Eskimos, in a shootout, with a final score of 41-34.
Which brings me to the other oddity that I always wondered about: that there are so few teams (understandable, on some level), and that there are an odd number of teams in the league at the moment. I always wondered why they did not expand nonetheless to some other cities, like Quebec. Or other regions, like the Maritimes. Or maybe give Regina a franchise, for another interprovincial rivalry.
In any case, I enjoyed the two games that I got to see this weekend, and hope for more games in the near future. Hopefully, in fact, this can keep going all the way to the playoffs, and maybe even the Grey Cup! It would be the first time that I got a chance to actually see one of those, and how cool would that be?
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