Looking for some exciting sport today?
Thinking maybe the cricket? Or maybe a peak at the NFL? Both good choices I’ll admit, but what about something a little bit different. A bit less, what do the hipsters say? ‘mainstream’.
Well buddy today’s your lucky day, for today sees the 100th ever staging of the Grey Cup.
Ahhh, come again?
The Grey Cup, rather than being a horse racing exclusively for galloping greys or a Corey Parker charity golf tournament, is the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL).
Despite trailing behind hockey in the popularity stakes in its homeland, Canadian Football is still kind of a big deal, and the Grey Cup is easily the nation’s biggest annual sporting event, with 14 million Canadians having a squiz at some part of the game in the 2009 decider.
Which probably begs the question, why the distinct lack of interest round here?
It’s not as if Australia-Canada relations are particularly strained. Hey, we both kick arse in the Commonwealth games, use lots of ‘u’s and like to tease Americans. Maple syrup sales are at an all-time high downunder.
Mention the CFL to your average Joe Blow though and they’ll give you a sceptical look. Mention it to a sports fan and they’ll tell you it’s a poor mans NFL. Mention it to an NFL fan and you’ll get many rude jokes about big end zones and rouges all said in a patchy French-Canadian accent.
Well you know what? I like the rouge and I also have a soft spot for the CFL.
Ok ok, having Justin Bieber help you celebrate your big centenary match leaves you open for ridicule, but still there’s many reasons the CFL and the Grey Cup is worth your time.
The game is fast. Lots of passing. The teams in the competition have truck loads of history. And they have an advertising slant that would even make the new NRL logo feel unpatriotic in comparison.
Maybe it’s also because you can see a lot of synergy between the path rugby league has taken in this country and the CFL.
Both games went through a long period of stability before attempts to revolutionise the respective codes, via Super League in the case of rugby league and an ill-fated expansion into the US market for the CFL, sent each game into a downward spiral.
Both re-found stability through going back to focussing on core markets and quick money deals that probably undersold their game. Both have cashed up competitors continually barking at the door.
And both seem to cop a level of ridicule that’s out of proportion to the quality of each code as a sport, particularly from those you would expect to support it. Like the rugby league journo who’s quick to rubbish the expansion of rugby league around the globe, many Canadians I’ve met are quick to tell you how the CFL “Isn’t that good.”
Needle them a bit more though and you’ll find they do have deeply entrenched feelings for ‘their’ game, however the constant comparisons to the juggernaut which is the NFL leads them to talk it down.
So for these reasons I’ll be holding off from my usual NFL fix and instead be watching the Calgary Stampeders and the Toronto Argonauts play in the Grey Cup today (10am ESPN), and I’ll be cheering loudly for the underdog.
The CFL, that is.
Follow Chris on Twitter @Vic_Arious
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