2010 Canadian Football League season off to a good start on and off the field

By Rob Ficiur

The Canadian Football League season kicked of with good news off the field and the promise of excitement on the field:

OFF THE FIELD – The CFL and CFL Players Association agreed to a four year collective agreement.  At a time when the league is growing; any kind of labor stoppage would have harmed everyone.

ON THE FIELD – The Saskatchewan Roughriders were one play away from winning the 2009 Grey Cup.  On the last play of the Grey Cup game, the Riders had 13 players (not 12) on the field.  The penalty and extra play was all the Montreal Alouettes needed to snatch the Grey Cup from the Rider fans.  Can a team that was that close make it all the way back and win again?  In the first game of the season, the Grey Cup rematch, Rider fans thought they were seeing a re-run.  With the game in overtime, the Alouettes made an incomplete pass that should have won it for the Roughridrs.  Instead Saskatchewan was called for a penalty…13 men on the field.  Roughrider fans could not believe their team made the same penalty…again!  The Alouettes used the penalty and extra play to tie the game.  This time the Riders came back and won the game.  Any writer who would have written this script would have been by a publisher this is too far fetched, this could never happen twice…it did.

OFF THE FIELD – Ottawa city council just voted to make major renovations and upgrades to the existing football stadium in Ottawa.   CFL football has not been played in the nation’s capital since 2005.  In the intervening years several groups have tried to get together to start a new team.  A new(er) stadium will bring in more revenue and in time attract the type of owner who could keep football in Ottawa.  (Then Winnipeg can move back to the Western conference where it belongs).

ON THE FIELD – Who will win the Grey Cup?  No team has repeated as champions  since the Toronto Arogonauts (lead by Doug Flutie) did in 1996 and 1997.    Three times in the last 12 years the loser of the previous Grey Cup won next year.  (Montreal lost in 2008 and won in 2009) (Edmonton lost in 2002 and won in 2003) and (Hamilton lost in 1998 and won in 1999).  Montreal looks to be the strongest team in the East; while all four teams in the west look evenly matched.

OFF THE FIELD – The CFL will play its first ever regular season game in Atlantic Canada in 2010.  On September 26 the Toronto Argonauts will play the Edmonton Eskimos in Moncton, New Brunswick.  In the 40 years I have been a football fan, ideas / dreams have been floated about having a team in Atlantic Canada.  The  new Stade Moncton Stadium on the campus of the University of Moncton only holds 20,000; so not enough for an expansion team.  However, tickets for the game were sold out in 36 hours.  It is one step to bringing the league coast to coast.

ON THE FIELD – Each of the eight CFL teams are lead by a legitimate CFL quarterback…except Toronto.  In the CFL a team cannot win without a reliable quarterback.  In Montreal and Edmonton, veterans Anthony Calvillo and Ricky Ray are aging, can they still play like they did in the past?  In Calgary and Hamilton veterans Henry Burris and Kevin Glenn want to prove they can take their teams to the championship.  In BC, former Most Outstanding Player Casey Printers wants to show that his two dismal years in Hamilton were not the real him.  In Winnipeg, they hope the new QB in town, Buck Pierce, can avoid the injuries that plagued him last year.   In Toronto…they are rebuilding…hoping someone will show they are a legitimate CFL quarterback.

If Toronto needs to look for a new quarterback, maybe new Argos owner David Braley can talk to the BC Lions owner David Braley and see if the Lions have an extra QB.  As much as I like the CFL, I still don’t understand how they can let one person own two teams; but it works and that is what makes the CFL so great.