MMQB / Sports Illustrated - Canada Week

Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback is having a “Canada Week” this week starting June 23rd, 2014.

http://mmqb.si.com/ [url=http://mmqb.si.com/2014/06/23/marc-trestman-canada-week-guest-monday-morning-qb/]http://mmqb.si.com/2014/06/23/marc-tres ... orning-qb/[/url]
For the next 7 days, The MMQB will cover North America's other great football league. To kick things off, Bears coach Marc Trestman, winner of two Grey Cups in Montreal, explains the rules and nuances that make the CFL unique!

Note from editor-in-chief Peter King: Today opens Canada Week at The MMQB. It’s the opening week of the Canadian Football League season—the league traditionally plays from the end of June until the end of November, with the league championship, the Grey Cup, always happening around our Thanksgiving. We’re trying something novel here at our site: We’re covering three CFL games, with Toronto at Winnipeg on Thursday night (our Jenny Vrentas will be on site) and we’ll have some other features on the site to tell you about the game up north. I’ll have a full explanation at the end of the column, in an abridged Five Things I Think I Think.

Now for this week’s Monday Morning Quarterback guest columnist, Chicago Bears coach Marc Trestman, on his five seasons as a Canadian Football League head coach.


I always enjoy Peter’s MMQB … Will be very interesting to see their coverage & articles of the CFL.

Thanks for posting this Fender :thup: It was a great read,looking forward to the rest of the articles this week on the CFL :cowboy:

Super!

Thank you for posting this!

SI has said if there is enough interest, they will run more CFL stories. Fans of the CFL UNITE and flood them with Emails and comments! I'm going to make it a personal goal to read this column daily while they cover the CFL and comment regularly!

Hell, I already wrote Peter King and invited him for a beer at the Calgary vs Montreal season opener (which he is attending).

:cowboy:
[url=http://mmqb.si.com/2014/06/23/marc-trestman-canada-week-guest-monday-morning-qb/3/]http://mmqb.si.com/2014/06/23/marc-tres ... ning-qb/3/[/url]

Welcome to Canada Week
For the next 7 days, The MMQB will cover North America's other great football league. To kick things off, Bears coach Marc Trestman, winner of two Grey Cups in Montreal, explains the rules and nuances that make the CFL unique

Note from editor-in-chief Peter King: Today opens Canada Week at The MMQB. It’s the opening week of the Canadian Football League season—the league traditionally plays from the end of June until the end of November, with the league championship, the Grey Cup, always happening around our Thanksgiving. We’re trying something novel here at our site: We’re covering three CFL games, with Toronto at Winnipeg on Thursday night (our Jenny Vrentas will be on site) and we’ll have some other features on the site to tell you about the game up north. I’ll have a full explanation at the end of the column, in an abridged Five Things I Think I Think.

Monday—Marc Trestman: Welcome to Canada Week

Tuesday—Doug Flutie: Reflections on my time in CFL

Wednesday—Bruce Arthur: The CFL's small-town charm

Thursday — Emily Kaplan: CFL players' offseason lives

Friday — Jenny Vrentas: Toronto-Winnipeg opening night

Monday — Peter King: MMQB from Calgary and Regina

  1. I think my big boss at Sports Illustrated, Paul Fichtenbaum, had an interesting comment when I told him about our “Canada Week? plans. “Peter,’’ he said, “how many people are going to read this?’’ I told him I didn’t know, but part of what I want to do at The MMQB is to troll the waters with different ideas. If our numbers are very low, we get the message; we won’t cover the CFL anymore. If they’re high, well, we’ll probably cover the Grey Cup this year. So it’s up to you, the readers and video viewers (yes, we will have a videographer with me on the weekend in Alberta and Saskatchewan) to determine whether we do more CFL coverage. I will say that I have a good feeling about it. When I said on Twitter we planned some CFL stories and I wanted to know where to go, I got a landslide of responses—so many of you say we’ve got to go to Saskatchewan because of the fervor of the ‘Rider fans—and I’m hopeful that all of you will come back to the site often this week and read what we’ve got.

Very cool :slight_smile: Nice find! Gives the CFL more exposure. Already almost 200 comments on the site :slight_smile:

Yes,!! This is Huge coverage for the CFL. Please leave a comment at the bottom of the article, the editor stated the more interest the more SI will cover the CFL !!

I like what some guy replied, mentioned that the CFL is still rarely talked about compared with the NFL in Toronto. Guess this commenter doesn't quite get so what, that's the case in just about any Canadian city but the fact is the NFL doesn't have teams in Canada and we like going to football games here in many Canadian cities, CFL cities, CIS cities or cities with both. And the CFL has a great TV partner with Bell and TSN with some super ratings. So guess what the story is? We get it. :wink:

Toronto will eventually join the fold in Canada and get a football first stadium for the Argos to play in. Eventually.

Peter King is a hack of a writer and I am actually a little ashamed that his vanity project, simply given to him to feed his massive ego, will cover the CFL. I gave up reading Peter King a while ago. The guy offers no insight, so expect a lot of "People in Saskatchewan wear watermelons on their heads. Weird." type stuff. I will not be reading his CFL stuff.

I don't need some American buffoon telling me how great the CFL is. I hope this bombs and we don't have to worry about him or his team covering the CFL in the future.

I think this is great and disagree with you, to the casual American football fan who would otherwise mock or at the very least brush off the CFL is now getting first hand knowledge from current and former CFL/NFL greats alike. This is only more exposure for the league in an area where the CFL is perceived as a joke, perhaps after a quick read from Trestman, Flutie or Moon will at the very least have them watch a game.

I think it's awesome that Sports Illustrated, who is predominantly US based is giving the league positive PR. It makes our own native Rogers continued smear job look humorous and pathetic.

Agreed…Looks to be a great read, a travel log of sorts with video too. Fantastic for the league. :rockin:

Sadly, it’s not in the United States where the CFL is ridiculed and perceived as a joke…it’s in our own backyard! It’s either the soccer guys and their moral superiority who see us as competition against their “footie,” or the insecure NFL only types who sit around in bars talking about their fantasy picks while trying to impress their friends with their football intellect. Of course, part of that process is say the CFL is a joke even though they never watch it. :roll:

Actually, I travel to the USA a lot for work and am impressed by the genuine interest and respect our league gets from Americans.

We call the Americans ignorant and snobbish , Thanks for tying it up :lol:

Awesome, like some have said this would likely never hit the print in the Sportsnet magazine.

This story was trending as #1 yesterday on Twitter

When does part 2 come out?

Doug Flutie exerpts/sentiments on the CFL…

[b]I miss playing in the CFL, no doubt about it. Boy, it was a lot of fun. People in America have no clue what goes on up there, or about the quality of football we had. Most of the guys were NFL-caliber talent, but were undersized or just didn’t fit the mold in one way or another.

In the CFL, I was in a position where if I saw something in the middle of the game, I could just put it in without having to ask anybody. As long as you keep it simple enough, guys can just react and go.
The NFL, for years, has been a copycat league.
A coach would have to see something be successful elsewhere before he was willing to try it—and the league has been very slow to change because of that.

The game in Canada was more exciting, more explosive, more wide open.
In the CFL, it was more of a game. And it was a lot more fun.

I was actually, for a while, making more money in the CFL working a 4½ hour workday than I would have in the NFL with a 12-hour workday. And I was in total control of the offense. You can see why I enjoyed it so much. I’d go in around 10 a.m., watch some film on my own and do some game-planning, grab lunch, and then start the day with the team at 1 p.m. We’d end by 5:30.

Another thing I’ll always remember is how fanatical the fans are up in Canada.
Especially in some of the smaller markets, this is their football and they love their teams. You can draw a parallel with just about every city to a team in America.
Saskatchewan reminds me a lot of Green Bay. They live for their team. Hamilton, with its blue-collar fans, is Pittsburgh. Calgary would be Denver

You couldn’t tell me winning a Super Bowl would feel any nicer.
(than a Grey Cup)[/b]

I hope it does well, but from reading his columns in the past, I can understand how you’ve come to your prediction.

“This just in: Peyton Manning is good. Really, really good.”

I know that some people will think that’s a crock, but when I read comments like that, I always think of the one image of Eli Manning immediately after winning the Superbowl, where he actually looks more relieved than happy. The pressure and scrutiny is so great around the NFL that I can totally understand why Flutie would feel that way.