Dear NFL fans:
We know you prefer the NFL to the CFL. You likely prefer college football and many other sports to the CFL. But we hear that lately, you are a little down on the NFL. Players kneeling. Owners kneeling. You don't want your Sunday filled with anything resembling a protest.
Well, the CFL is still here and perhaps you should take a look at what the CFL can offers you on a fall weekend.
Professional football — Players you might recognize from college are in the CFL. Athletes representing cities. Eligbility isn't a issue. The offspring of Cris Carter and Steve Tasker are great receivers. people are still talking about a one-handed catch Duron Carter made earlier this season.
Fewer teams — 32 teams is way too many. The CFL only has 9 teams. Don't worry. No teams share a nickname. There is only one Roughriders. They're from Saskatchewan.
More ways to score — The CFL has field goals, touchdowns, and safeties. But the league also has a single, or a rouge. Don't get bogged down in what happens to get a single. Just pay more attention to the scorebug on the screen.
Excitement — Receivers can move in motion behind the line of scrimmage. Teams almost always go for it on 3rd and 1. Yes, there is no 4th down in the CFL.
No fair catch — In the CFL, punt returners have to try and return the ball every time. They get space to do so. If not, there is a "no yards" call. Yeah, best not ask about that either.
Lots more passing — CFL quarterbacks are almost always in the shotgun. A good CFL game can have 300-400 passing yards for a team. The record for a game is 713 yards. That isn't likely to happen but it did occur once. And virtually every CFL quarterback is American.
Okay, there are some drawbacks. You don't know who to root for. There is no equivalent of the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots. 7 of the 9 teams have won a Grey Cup in the last decade. Feels like socialism.
Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver all have teams. They aren't the best teams but they play in places you might know. The BC Lions play in Vancouver: BC stands for British Columbia. BC and Saskatchewan are the only teams with a province in the name.
The East teams are in Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, and Hamilton. The West teams are in Vancouver (BC), Calgary, Edmonton, Regina (Saskatchewan), and Winnipeg.
CFL travels have sent me to every league city
If you watched the U.S. women's soccer World Cup championship team in 2015, the team played in the same CFL stadiums in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Vancouver. The team also played at Olympic Stadium in Montréal, the occasional home for the CFL Alouettes but also the MLB Expos.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are the small town team, like Green Bay but not as successful. The Tiger-Cats play in a stadium named after a donut shop so it's not all bad.
The Calgary Stampeders are successful like New England without the attitude and cheating. Calgary-Edmonton and Winnipeg-Saskatchewan are huge rivalries in the West though you missed those games already.
CFL kicks up Diversity Is Strength campaign
In the fall, there aren't too many games on Sunday. However, you can watch the rebroadcast off WatchESPN on your computer or hook up your computer to your TV. ESPN2 carried a lot of games earlier in the season. There are a couple of games left on the TV schedule. The playoff games are on Sundays so that will help in November.
Some CFL games do feature military flyovers before the game. Most of the time, the anthem isn't televised. There aren't protests when the anthem is shown. And the flag in question is Canadian. There were U.S. cities, such as Baltimore, Birmingham, and even Las Vegas, that hosted CFL teams in the 1990s. All 9 teams are in Canada.
2017 CFL preview
If you watch the NHL, you'll recognize Chris Cuthbert, the lead play-by-play on the CFL. Gord Miller fills in as a CFL play-by-play announcer.
Chris Berman was a huge CFL fan and talked about Canadian football quite a lot on ESPN. Tom Hanks showed up at the 2013 Grey Cup in Regina.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
We cover the CFL from a U.S. perspective. You can get caught up with this season by following this link. The Grey Cup airs on the Sunday after U.S. Thanksgiving. Even if you just try out the CFL, you can always go back to college football bowl games and college basketball in December.
video credit: CFL
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