Today is the day for the 99th Grey Cup, with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers taking on the hometown B.C. Lions - by the end of the day, there will be tears of joy from the victors, sadness from the defeated and nobody from south of the 49th parallel will give a shit.
Forget that the Grey Cup has been around almost 3 times as long as the Super Bowl - the only people who care about the CFL outside of Canada are the few University players in the states who can't make it to the NFL, and sportswriters who are tired of covering Cricket and Badminton.
I don't know if its the size of the field, the fact that there's one less down, or just that most of the Canadian teams play in weather that makes guys from Green Bay leave icicles in their pants but our brand of football has almost no traction where it counts - down south. (That's where the money is, and money rules sport.)
So what's one of the biggest sporting days in Canada is a very small blip on the North American sports radar.
...and I'm missing it.
Oh yeah - did I mention I was working today? We have a guy on holidays, another who got tickets to the game as a gift, and my boss hasn't worked a Grey Cup in the last 10 years.
So that leaves me.
I've got the game on the 'puter upstairs, but it ain't the same. No beer, no nachos, nothing. And if there's one similarity between American and Canadian football, its the fact that it's always better with beer.
Later.
Forget that the Grey Cup has been around almost 3 times as long as the Super Bowl - the only people who care about the CFL outside of Canada are the few University players in the states who can't make it to the NFL, and sportswriters who are tired of covering Cricket and Badminton.
I don't know if its the size of the field, the fact that there's one less down, or just that most of the Canadian teams play in weather that makes guys from Green Bay leave icicles in their pants but our brand of football has almost no traction where it counts - down south. (That's where the money is, and money rules sport.)
So what's one of the biggest sporting days in Canada is a very small blip on the North American sports radar.
...and I'm missing it.
Oh yeah - did I mention I was working today? We have a guy on holidays, another who got tickets to the game as a gift, and my boss hasn't worked a Grey Cup in the last 10 years.
So that leaves me.
I've got the game on the 'puter upstairs, but it ain't the same. No beer, no nachos, nothing. And if there's one similarity between American and Canadian football, its the fact that it's always better with beer.
Later.
Any football is better than no football! Enjoy it!
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