No starters. An 80-yard field. No kickoffs. The NFL in Winnipeg was a night to remember and forget.
The CFL goal posts are on the goal line as opposed to the NFL goal posts found at the back end of the end zone. The issues with the patch in the south end zone for the CFL goal posts forced the game into an 80-yard field. Oakland had decided not to play its starters before the goal post issue. Green Bay decided to pull its starters after that decision.
The Oakland Raiders scored the only 12 points of the second half; Daniel Carlson won the game with a 33-yard field goal with 8 seconds remaining. Oakland edged out the Green Bay Packers 22-21 at IG Field in Winnipeg last night. The Packers scored all their points in the 2nd quarter.
The 80-yard field wasn't the shortest in NFL history. The 1932 NFL playoff game between the Chicago Bears and Portsmouth (Ohio) Spartans (later Detroit Lions) had 60 yards in between the goal lines inside Chicago Stadium instead of Wrigley Field.
Hello, Canada! 🤙🇨🇦@AaronRodgers12 pic.twitter.com/RpLYP0C9UX
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) August 21, 2019
Aaron Rodgers was the biggest star potentially to take the field. Rodgers has not played in the preseason. The Green Bay star quarterback did make a dramatic entrance at the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport in a Canadian tuxedo.
Rodgers was introduced to the idea of the Canadian tuxedo via Cabbie aka Cabral Richards on TSN.
apologies to the citizens of Winnipeg, Manitoba... just a kid from Atlanta, Florida playing football in Oakland, Nevada with a low geography IQ @Raiders https://t.co/oh0i2tJbNR
— AJ Cole III (@AJCole90) August 22, 2019
AJ Cole III is hoping for a long NFL career as a punter instead of going back to school to learn to teach geography. Cole bought a shirt, reportedly via Amazon, that said "Winnipeg, Alberta." Alberta has Edmonton and Calgary, not Winnipeg. Manitoba has Winnipeg and Churchill, home of the polar bears.
The shirt maker didn't check to see if it was wrong. The player didn't check to see if it was right. At least Alberta is in Canada.
Jeopardy contestant comes up blank on Canadian cities
Getting an element Canadian and wrong reminded us of the Jeopardy player who told us under pressure that Edmonton was in Ontario; Whistler was in Alberta; and Moose Javians (Saskatchewan) live in Winnipeg.
Loud and proud for the North, @LWillson_82
— Oakland Raiders (@Raiders) August 22, 2019
—#HardKnocks airs Tuesdays at 10ET on @HBO pic.twitter.com/mawFbeVFBC
Luke Willson is a successful Canadian NFL player in his first season in Oakland. Willson grew up in LaSalle, Ontario near Windsor. He missed the first preseason game and only had a single catch for 4 yards last week. Willson didn't have any catches in Winnipeg.
The Upon Further Review podcast hosted on raiders.com interviewed Willson about Canada. Willson said he had never been to Winnipeg. He pointed out that the NFL is big in Canada. Willson noted that he was drafted by the Toronto Argonauts and has not been to a CFL game. To be fair, Willson grew up close to Detroit. He said the CFL draft happened 4 years past secondary school so he was drafted in his junior year at Rice University (Willson was red-shirted).
The Raiders started running back James Butler, who signed earlier this year with the Saskatchewan Roughriders but didn't stick around.
Hard Knocks from HBO is following the Raiders this summer. We don't anticipate too much coverage of Winnipeg.
Oakland, Green Bay to play NFL preseason game in Winnipeg
If the NFL is serious about building a relationship with Canada, the league should look into how much Canadians will invest in the product. We heard a lot of rhetoric from the Buffalo Bills Toronto series about exorbitant ticket prices for preseason and regular season NFL games.
The Oakland-Green Bay game easily sold out the $75 seats in the corners of the upper deck. The 40+ suites easily sold out. The average ticket price for the remaining seats (including parking, taxes, and fees) was reportedly just short of $200. All prices are Canadian dollars. U.S. media converts those numbers to American dollars but Canadians buy those tickets in Canadian dollars.
With about 2 weeks to go, the price of the 5,500-6,000 end zone seats went from $164 to $75 (both prices before taxes and fees).
The 3rd preseason game is considered the best of the preseason. Then again, CFL fans only get 2 preseason games in their league.
The better deal, and one that would have earned everyone more money, is to price the tickets so fans would want to buy them. You can’t make money off concessions and parking unless people show up. You get the nice visual of a large crowd in a beautiful facility.
We know the Blue Bombers are being compensated for providing the host venue. Not clear as to whether the compensation is tied to attendance.
The attendance was announced at 21,992. That number reflected purchases for the 40+ suites. They seemed to steer the fans toward where they would be on TV. The crowd didn't look too bad in the 33,000 seat stadium.
For future travel to the stadium, you can avoid parking costs if you take the #60 bus from downtown. The #36 and #51 buses also connect to the stadium.
Bills Toronto series is done
Wide receiver Mervyn Fernandez, who just got inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame earlier this month, also played for the Raiders. Fernandez played for the BC Lions from 1982-1986 and 1994 and for the Los Angeles Raiders from 1987-1992.
Fernandez traveled throughout Canada leading up to the game to promote the contest. The Oakland Raiders TV team interviewed Fernandez during the game.
CanadianCrossing.com NFL coverage
The Boston Red Sox drew more than 16,000 yesterday for the continuation of a suspended game. Admission was $5, free for kids, with $1 hot dogs. The game only lasted 12 minutes.
A different approach would have drawn a joyous crowd. What if the tickets were set up to draw a huge crowd? What if the NFL decided to have some fun and play an exhibition on a CFL sized field. The NFL and CFL played exhibition games with different sized fields from what one of the leagues was used to doing. If the NFL can play on an 80-yard field, why not a 110-yard field for a contrast.
The argument for not using Mosaic Stadium was the quick turnaround between NFL and CFL. The Saskatchewan Roughriders look like geniuses for not hosting the NFL. If the NFL had more imagination, they could have played on a CFL field in Regina.
Let's not put NFL games in Canada with people who don't understand the country and have no imagination. Imagine what the impact would have looked like with a full stadium and the joy of playing on a larger field.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
The halftime show was Winnipeg band Attica Riots. The set didn't make the cut for the NFL Network.
TSN, RDS, and the NFL Network picked up the Oakland Raiders feed via KTVU-2 Oakland and KICU-36 San Jose. The crew made some references to Winnipeg and Canada. Beth Mowins made a joke late in the game about Green Bay being "3rd down and Alberta" referring to Cole's shirt.
photo credit: KTVU/Oakland and KICU/San Jose / Oakland Raiders/NFL
Twitter captures: @packers; @AJCole90; @Raiders
