CFL Thread

[Savonarola]

I just learned that since 2018 Canadian footballs have been the same size as US footballs!!!!

Semi-seriously, were there any legitimate reasons to adopt "football with Canadian characteristics."  I get that Canada is paranoid about being culturaly swallowed by Teh Leviathan, but it's an odd thing to do.  I can't think of any other country that has taken an established sport and tweaked it just to be different, can you?

Gaelic Football or Australian "Rules" Football maybe?

[Admiral Yi]

Good one

[Barrister]

I just learned that since 2018 Canadian footballs have been the same size as US footballs!!!!

Semi-seriously, were there any legitimate reasons to adopt "football with Canadian characteristics."  I get that Canada is paranoid about being culturaly swallowed by Teh Leviathan, but it's an odd thing to do.  I can't think of any other country that has taken an established sport and tweaked it just to be different, can you?

We didn't just take US football and tweak it.  Instead the two sports evolved from rugby at the same time.  Originally in fact in the US you had only 3 downs, goal posts on the goal line, and movement prior to the snap - those rules were changed in the US, but not in Canada.

[crazy canuck]

We shrunk our football? 

[Barrister]

We shrunk our football?

IIRC they changed suppliers.  The size difference was always quite small.  But hey the "Our balls are bigger" campaign helped the league survive in the aftermath of the disastrous US expansion.

[Josephus]

Went to my first CFL game since the early 90s on Friday, at BMO in Toronto, Argos v. Hamilton.
Forgot what fun these games can be; though a totally different crowd experience than a Toronto FC game.

[Barrister]

Went to my first CFL game since the early 90s on Friday, at BMO in Toronto, Argos v. Hamilton.
Forgot what fun these games can be; though a totally different crowd experience than a Toronto FC game.

I haven't been to a CFL game in person for a number of years.  Which is odd, since I am actually a big CFL fan.  I really should go.

How is the crowd experience different between the Argos and Toronto FC?



And this is your friendly reminder that the Blue Bombers have already wrapped up first place in the West and seem well-placed to defend their 2019 Grey Cup championship.

[Josephus]

Went to my first CFL game since the early 90s on Friday, at BMO in Toronto, Argos v. Hamilton.
Forgot what fun these games can be; though a totally different crowd experience than a Toronto FC game.

I haven't been to a CFL game in person for a number of years.  Which is odd, since I am actually a big CFL fan.  I really should go.

How is the crowd experience different between the Argos and Toronto FC?



And this is your friendly reminder that the Blue Bombers have already wrapped up first place in the West and seem well-placed to defend their 2019 Grey Cup championship.

And the Argos wrapped up first in the East. Grey Cup challengers?

The main difference in the crowd atmosphere primarily is that football, like baseball, requires a lot of attention-grabbing. By that I mean, other than the cheeleaders, there is this constant barrage of PA announcements.
"MAKE SOME NOISE ARGOS FANS", and everybody cheers or blows their annoying horns.

Also...I noticed fans with bells that they would jingle every now and then. Is that a thing?

And lots of "OK FANS LOOK AT THE VIDEOSCREEN AND WATCH FUNNY MOMENTS FROM THE SEASON".

The main reason for this is that football, like baseball, has a lot of stoppages and TV commercial breaks. So whenever there's a pause in play there is this need to entertain the fans somehow.
Oh and rap music...but that's me being old.

Toronto FC games by contrast have none of that. The "cheerleading" comes from the supporters' section who sing their songs and wave their flags. There is no prompting from the PA announcer. Soccer, of course ,has no stoppages or TV commercial breaks, so the action is constant.

The fans themselves, and this is a generalization of course, but I find CFL goers tend to be more blue collar crowd. (Granted there were lots of fans from Hamilton, a pretty blue collar town). TFC fans are more likely to be white collars. All this is based on a sample of one game in 25 years, so accuracy may not be 100 per cent correct. ;-)

[viper37]

No one talks of the Grey Cup match yesterday?  I mean, Blue Bombers winning, it's got to be an interesting event for one football fan of this board, at least.  Maybe he hasn't gotten over yesterday's victory party yet?

The first half was really boring, but the second and the OT, wow!  Now, there were some plays

[Barrister]

No one talks of the Grey Cup match yesterday?  I mean, Blue Bombers winning, it's got to be an interesting event for one football fan of this board, at least.  Maybe he hasn't gotten over yesterday's victory party yet?

The first half was really boring, but the second and the OT, wow!  Now, there were some plays

I missed it!

So Mrs B had wanted to go to this zoo Christmas lights show.  So she booked tickets for Sunday, with me not realizing it was Grey Cup Sunday (note that the Grey Cup is usually in November, season was delayed because of what else Covid).  So I got to watch the fairly boring first half, and the pretty decent half-time show (Arkells, featuring the Lumineers).  But I missed the crazy comeback and overtime.

But anyways - YOUR Winnipeg Blue Bombers are back-to-back Grey Cup Champions!

[viper37]

But I missed the crazy comeback and overtime.

But anyways - YOUR Winnipeg Blue Bombers are back-to-back Grey Cup Champions!

Yes, it was moved this year.  A little later than I'd liked, but it's better than no Grey Cup at all

Congrats on your team winning!

But that Als did the back-to-back championship before!

[Barrister]

But I missed the crazy comeback and overtime.

But anyways - YOUR Winnipeg Blue Bombers are back-to-back Grey Cup Champions!

Yes, it was moved this year.  A little later than I'd liked, but it's better than no Grey Cup at all

Congrats on your team winning!

But that Als did the back-to-back championship before!

In a nine team league winning back-to-back championships is not that unheard of.  Hell back in the 70s-80s the Edmonton Eskimos won 5 in a row.

But given the 29 year gap between Grey Cup wins for the Bombers (1990 to 2019), winning two in a row feels pretty good.

[Barrister]

By the way (and for our non-Canadian friends) - this is perhaps the first Grey Cup in history whose outcome turned on a motherfucking rouge.

Late in the game, Blue Bombers are down by four.  Bombers kick off, ball goes into the endzone and is caught.  The receiving team has two choices in this situation - they can run the ball out, or they can take a knee, concede a single point (the rouge) and get the ball at their own 35 yard line.

Now lots of times it makes sense to concede the rouge - a single point rarely matters, and it would be hard to run the ball to your own 35 yard line from the end zone.  But in this case it's late in the game and the Tiger-Cats are up by 4.  But inexplicably the Ti-Cats player takes a knee and gives up the single point.  It's now a 3 point game.

And then yes, with 4 seconds left in the game the Bombers score a field goal to send it into overtime, and then ultimately win.

[Oexmelin]

Grey Cup next week

https://www.cfl.ca/2023/11/12/blue-bombers-and-alouettes-set-for-first-ever-grey-cup-meeting/

[viper37]

I knew we had a CFL thread.

Sorry BB.  War is war.