It's the absolutely slowest time for sports if the year - there's nothing, not even a WNBA game, to even minutely distract any red-blooded sports fan's attention from the MLB All Star festivities (unless you have the NHL Network)- especially since the game is being played at Yankee Stadium. Did you hear? It's the last year of baseball in the old House That Ruth Built (henceforth to be known as the House That Hamilton Shut the Fuck Down. Increible!).
It's times like this that cause ESPN to actually throw CFL highlights on SportsCentre, er, SportsCenter. You know it's a deathly slow sports news day when video of some Hamilton Ti-Cat drilling a Montreal Alouette*, or even some Winnipeg Blue Bomber QB spiking the ball in to his own nads, makes the nightly Top Ten. However, seeing a few of those clips made me want to take a little time and see which of the Rough Riders (or RoughRiders) teams is doing better and to see whatever happened to the Baltimore Stallions (the only American team to win the Grey Cup, and who promptly moved to Montreal and assumed the old Alouettes name). It turns out that the Ottawa version of the RoughRiders/Rough Riders folded a decade ago and there are currently only 9 teams in the league.
I also learned that the salary cap for CFL teams is $4.05 million ($4.04 million USD). Or less than half of Ken Hamlin's recent signing bonus.
There's a term in Canadian football that always sounded weird to me: "imports." It's a way for Canadian fans and G.M's to say "American" without having to actually mention their imperialistic, gun-toting dullards from the south. In order for the CFL game to have any measure of speed or skill, they had to allow players from the good ol' U.S. of A in - but they made sure that their game wasn't totally overrun by imposing limits on the number of Imports a team could employ. That number is currently 21 on a roster that can't exceed 42.
Another definition of Import could be "NFL Cast-off." A third definition is "CFL Stats Leader.**" Take a look at some of the current statistical pace-setters in the CFL:
Passing:
1. Anthony Cavillo - Montreal - Utah State
2. Henry Burris - Calgary - Temple University
3. Ricky Ray - Edmonton - Sacramento State
All of the top passers are from American colleges. Other notables include NFL flame-outs Michael Bishop (Kansas State) and Jarius Jackson (Notre Dame).
I won't break down rushing and receiving stats, but there are a total of TWO non-imports (aka Canadians) total in the top ten of passing, rushing and receiving. Hell, there are more impactful Canadians playing Major League Baseball right now than in their own football league that has a history as lengthy as the NFL's.
Oh ya - I also stumbled across an Edmonton Sun writer's "Best Defensive Players in CFL History." (In the first sentence, he says, "We all know defence wins championships." Shouldn't it then be "Defencive" players?) Anyways, all ten of them are Amuuurrrican!
How ironic it is that the CFL's current slogan "This is OUR League." Or "Notre Ligue. Notre Football."
(There really wasn't a point to this exercise other than to fill my time during the MLB All Star game and to poke our neighbors to the north with a sharp stick.)
*An "Alouette" is a "Skylark" in English. Lame.
**Yes Gord, there is a CFL Fantasy Football League.
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2 comments:
If the NFL had a rule about the number of non-natives allowed on rosters there would be an outcry like you've never seen. Man, its always those racists up in Canada, isn't it?
I think we definitely need an Import rule in baseball. Sheesh - those damn furiners are taking all our jobs!
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