The CFL’s balls are bigger
Go for the rouge!
Jesse Beach, Volunteer Staff
The cool chill of November is such an invigorating feeling — the fall air becomes crisper, mid-terms are over, and the CFL playoffs are underway. Though playoff time is a rather depressing signal that the season will soon come to a close, it is always a relief to be able to watch CFL football on Sundays, rather than its subordinate cousin to the south, the NFL.
Not only does playoff time mark the beginning of Sunday games in the CFL, as opposed to games that are mostly played on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the regular season, it also marks the presence of an atmosphere and feeling that can only be felt in Canada. The Canadian Football League has such a long history in our country, and so many resulting traditions, that the passion and fervour expressed by fans reverberates across the nation.
Canadian football has its origins in a version of rugby football that has been played in Canada since the 1860s, the first documented game being played at the University of Toronto on Nov. 9, 1861. The origins of the modern governing body, now referred to as the CFL, was originally the Canadian Rugby Football Union, which was formed in 1884. These teams began competing for the Grey Cup, donated by the then-governor general of Canada Lord Earl Grey in 1909; making the upcoming Grey Cup (excluding the years of the First World War when it was not held) the 95th championship of its kind. Whether you realize it or not, Canadian football is ingrained in the history of our nation, pre-dating even Confederation.
The NFL represents every aspect of the greedy, arrogant personality of the American people that most Canadians claim to despise so much.
Compare this immense history with that of the National Football League, which was created relatively recently in 1920 and did not even compete for the Vince Lombardi Trophy (originally called the World Championship Trophy) until 1967. This was when the NFL arranged a competition between itself and the newly formed American Football League, making the upcoming Super Bowl only the 42nd of its kind. Though the NFL has become much more hyped up and commercialized over the years, largely because of the larger population and wealth of the United States in comparison with Canada, it is hard to imagine that a league so newly formed could invoke the passion and fervour of CFL fans, fans whose devotion pre-dates the very formation of our nation.
Of course, though the vast historical significance is of extreme interest and importance to the die-hard fan, the casual observer would not accept this as a valid reason of the CFL’s pre-eminence over the NFL. However, it is these fans, those of the fair-weather variety, that should view the CFL as pre-eminent over the lacklustre NFL; because CFL games are far more entertaining than NFL games. The long-held belief is that defence wins championships, but the offense is how fans measure the entertainment quality of the game. In that light, CFL teams average more points per game than NFL teams do, for a variety of reasons. First of all, the CFL is a passing game, while the NFL is more a running game. This is because CFL rules only allow three downs, meaning a team has three attempts at getting the first down before they have to turn the ball over to the other team. In the NFL, teams are allowed four downs, giving them an extra attempt to gain the first down and making it less necessary to risk throwing a pass. The CFL, by forcing teams to pass more frequently, creates higher scoring, more dangerous, more exciting games. Often games come down to last second, hail-Mary passes that can change the entire outcome of the game — take Milt Stegall’s 100-yard game winning pass reception in the final seconds of a game against Edmonton last year, for example.
Not only does the CFL get one less down than the NFL (all the while still averaging more points per game), the CFL’s field is both longer and wider than an NFL field, giving teams more room to manoeuvre and allowing them to make bigger plays. Receivers are given more room to escape from defenders, and running backs, especially fast, agile scat-backs like Charles Roberts, are given more room to hit the open field where their best ankle-breaking moves are put on display. The very field the CFL plays on is created to give fans a more enjoyable experience.
This is what makes the CFL a superior league. It is not created by vast, imperialistic corporations bent on making billions, run on the backs of players making hundreds of millions per year. Rather, it is the fans’ league, run for the enjoyment of the people who watch and support the league. This is evident in teams like the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders, which are community-owned. No one is making huge financial success off of these teams; they are owned collectively by the fans that support them. You don’t see this kind of fan appreciation in the NFL, you see a bunch of bitchy millionaires who don’t show up in training camp and hold out during contract disputes. The NFL represents every aspect of the greedy, arrogant personality of the American people that most Canadians claim to despise so much. Although I appreciate having some form of football to watch after November ends, it is always a disappointment when the truest form of football, Canadian football, concludes its season.
Jesse Beech is a fourth-year English student.
