This is simply Awesome :thup: :thup: Thx Bob !!
Canada is Canadian Football.
I grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. But I’ve now spent the majority of my life in countries other than Canada. Instead of becoming less Canadian this has made me more appreciative of things Canadian than any of the resident Canadians I know. The best single example of what I know about Canada that many Canadians don’t seem to understand is Canadian Football.
· The 101 year old Grey Cup Championship is the most watched sporting event in Canada year in, year out.
· The oldest continuously operating North American “Football? (of any sort) club is the Canadian Hamilton Tiger-Cats, founded in 1869. According to Wikipedia it is the 55th oldest football club anywhere, including Europe.
· The typical CFL football game is watched by three to four times as many Canadians as watch any US football game.
· Canadian high schools, colleges and junior football leagues are all played under Canadian Football’s three down rules.
So why is there even a debate on this topic? Because of probably the second most Canadian cultural identifier - namely Canada’s odd habit of undervaluing our own culture. So Canadian Football cannot be any good simply because it has been developed, is played, and is enjoyed by Canadians. This sad instinct has major Canadian corporate leaders somehow thinking that because Canada’s Championship was played in Regina Saskatchewan it could not be world class.
But it is precisely that fully a quarter of the population of the capital of one of Canada’s 10 provinces came out for a Canadian Football game in sub-zero weather, and a third of the country tuned in on TV, that makes it world class.
So why does this effort to bring the American sport of four down NFL football to Canada persist? It is a direct result of this lack of appreciation of Canadian culture by Canadians that is to blame. How else do you explain great Canadian leaders like Mr Paul Godfrey bragging about his failed thirty year crusade to bring the NFL to Toronto?
Or why would a great Canadian corporation like Rogers Communications Inc. spend millions promoting a US competitor over a more popular Canadian institution? Particularly given that Rogers’ prospers thanks to Canadian Government rules (CRTC regulations) that give it, as a Canadian supplier, great competitive advantages over foreign competitors. The oddest bit is that Rogers’s own marketing folks know, but don’t tell their bosses that, outside of downtown Toronto no one likes Rogers’ using its clout to damage a Canadian institution we all love.
These folks are not less patriotic than you and me. They care every bit as much about the success of Canada and Canadians. They are simply making the same mistake that millions of Canadians have made before them. They simply see things as being more valuable, more worthwhile, or maybe just “cooler? if societies other than Canada’s also value these things.
No Canadian musician is considered successful in Canada if they have not been successful in the United States. It is the rare Canadian cultural icon who becomes successful in Canada without foreign endorsement.
So how does the Canadian Football League prevent the NFL from wanting to put a NFL team in Canada? The CFL has to do two things, first it must convince Canadian leaders such as Mr Paul Godfrey and Canadian corporations such as Rogers, of the value of our hundred and fifty year old Canadian cultural institution.
And secondly we must partner with the National Football League in an organized and mutually profitable way. It is already true that CFL coaches and general managers, whether Canadian or American have many friends among their counterparts in the NFL teams. The CFL league office has more in common with the NFL league office (and vice versa) than they do with any other institution on the planet. After all, the CFL and NFL are the only two “gridiron? football leagues.
The National Football league is a lot like the Canadian Football League, being a collection of teams who banded together to form an institution dedicated to their collective success. Our leagues are among the most successful cooperatives in the history of business anywhere. We have more incentive to cooperate with each other than any two businesses you could name.
The Canadian Football League is stronger than ever. We are now able to do more to support athletic achievement in Canada, we are doing more to support the charities we all care about, and more to celebrate this great country. I’m personally very proud to be a small cog, along with my free market capitalist colleagues, in the recent progress of our league in our contributions to Canada and Canadian culture.
Canada is Canadian Football. And unlike Canadian Football which is well appreciated coast to coast across our remarkable country, Canadians need to learn to celebrate Canada and things Canadian, whether or not the rest of the world even notices.
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