I hope that one small element of training camp is a CFL History 101 and Ticats History 101.
I believe that if these guys understand it is not just a job and that they are playing for a team with a storied history
for a trophy that is nearly 100 years old. They may respect that fact they are privileged to be playing in our league.
I also believe those who do will have a long career playing Canadian ball!
Go Rookies :rockin: , and see you on the field!
Jare
It's a great sentiment but with how short CFL camps are they need every millisecond to concentrate on the playbook and player refinement. Maybe after camp..
I'd like to point out that there were a couple names in the Rookie camp sign in video that haven't been annouced as signed.
Rodney Van DB
Jason Vega DL
I think they understand just fine what it means to play in the CFL and am sure they are aware of the CFL's Past ...
why would you suggest anything different?
I think the Canadian kids get it, but most US players will be saying..
"Where is that place again?"
"There's a league up there?"
"The Grey what?"
I remember a CFL commercial once on how some CFL vets were teasing a Rookie about
there being 3 downs in our game. The commercial ended with the Rook storming off saying
"Coach! They're doing it again!" and the vets laughing and saying to each other
"Ya and wait till we tell him about the rouge!"
Do you think most US football players of any age below the bordering states have a clue about CFL.
Let alone the history of the teams and the heritage of the league?
I can tell you that alot of people around here know about the CFL and know there are rule differences … but in the running order of popularity for real football fanatics there are 2 lists it’s either 1. NFL 2. College 3.High School 4. all others
and for some people it’s College then NFL …
Last year i watched a few football games …not many 3 or 4 and the grey cup here on local cable think it was an espn channel
I can tell you one of the preceptions people here have about it … and it’s the same as some people look at the AHL …
When football players here do not make it to the big show (the NFL) then there is nowhere for them to turn to unless they head north to play for the CFL hone their skills and come back and try again …usually the guys coming up from the states are real sought after players the CFL teams do what they can to try and lure those players to play for their teams sometimes with good results sometimes not so good …even some of the players Canadians have high praise for do not make the NFL …Lumsden was one of them before people found out he was injury prone …
So when you see that it’s hard to not think of it as a second tier league …but … there are a few here that really enjoy the game and know more about the league than you do …
The players going up to Canada are players that really want to play ball and while maybe a couple act like prima donnas when they first arrive you cannot lump every player from the USA into that group … or call them all stupid and ignorant to it all just because of one or 2.
Look at it in a way that some Canadians look towards European Hockey players or American Hockey players and it’s the same thing in reverse …
But at least here in the states they will let anyone play in the NFL no matter where they are from as long as they are good enough to make the team and you will never hear " sorry you cannot play for us we already have some Canadians on our team"
Good repsonse RYCK:
Accept for not getting that the first part of my response was tongue and cheek, and the part where you put words in my mouth of me saying US players are stupid and insulting my knowledge of the CFL. But otherwise good response.
Don't get me wronge I'd love to see a huge following of US Canadian Football fans, it would be great for popularity of the game and help the bottom line. Sorry to paint the US football community all with the same brush, I've met some really great US citizen who are passionate about our Canadian Football League. I can see you are one of them and the more fans we have the better. Don't worry though I know you're better then me, hey maybe we can PM each other so you can educate me using your superior CFL knowledge. I'm always open to learning new things.
You have a nice day and keep educating those folks down south on the Canadian game that insists on playing Canadian players because oh gee whiz the game is played in Canada, we Northern folk appreicate it.
An Addendum to my last post:
What precipitated this whole thread is seeing players giving up, not appearing to be taking their job seriously, laughing and joking on the side lines when they are loosing a game (sometimes close games)....and yes the players I saw doing this were imports. So my desire for rookies and imports to appreciate the history of the league and the Ticats is founded on personal eye witness experience.
This is supposed to be the best football played in Canada and should be taken seriously until the final whistle. This team, and this league matter to alot of Canadians, the people who are paying good money to watch these men play. When US football players come up here they need to know, it's to play the best football they can in Canada, not the just earn a pay check. If they can't do that then stay home.
well first off ... I live in the south ... I am Canadian born and raised ...
i asked why you would think they didn't respect playing for the cat's and you went on a "Americans are stupid" kind of answer .... tongue and cheek as you may call it it still didn't answer anything ... and so what if players are laughing and joking on the sidelines ... would ya rather they sit there and pout about it .. but you still haven't answered my question ... or was your answer that they were having a good time so not serious tiger-cats ... or maybe they are not cry-babies who sit and pout because they lost a game
I forget what rookie it was but from watching one of the videos on Ticats TV he seemed pretty aware of the long history. I would think most rookies do some research on their own when they get signed by a team in the CFL.
With widespread access to this thing called “the world wide web”, I would think that a simple google search by ANY rookie on the team that signs them would be A Good Idea. It would take, what, a single night of intense searching and reading to research the BASICS of a team like the Tiger-Cats and the CFL in general.
Actually, I EXPECT every CFL first-timer to do that…
Absolutely...I agree.
I've talked to a few rooks through my fundraising efforts and many had no idea of the history of our game.
When I enlightened them to some of the history of the team and it's players they were very interested and
wanted to learn more.
Now I'm not saying they won't learn about the game, it seems often that they aren't aware of what they are coming into.
The video's of this years Rooks all indicated that they respected the game and the leagues lineage. That's a good thing.