Grey Cup aftermath

It’s Sunday morning on Grey Cup day as I write this. When it’s published, I’ll either be completely right or wrong. But that’s sports.

My predicted winner? Winnipeg Blue Bombers

But only because the Montreal Allouettes aren’t playing.

Earlier this morning, I went on a YouTube marathon looking at videos describing the Canadian game versus the American one. Talk about fake news.

The top two are here – (this is the one that I put into my post)

And then there was this one. Warning, language….

The best comparison I found of the differences between the two games can be found here on Wikipedia.

Personally, I enjoy football from either league. If I had to pick between the two, I’d go for the CFL any time. For a number of reasons, I find it a little more realistic.

Salaries

There’s a huge difference in the salaries paid to the players which somehow means that it’s a little more personal. You’d almost think that you could go to work with a CFL player which isn’t all that crazy since they often need a second job to make ends meet. Now that’s realistic.

The Game Itself

Of course, any comparison of the two games involves that difference in field sizes (seriously, metric?), the number of downs, position of the goal posts, number of players, line of scrimmage, fair catch, rouge, and movement. The Canadian game is often more exciting because of the rules and the need to be moving the ball further and quicker. The only change that would be helpful is the position of the goal posts.

Advertising

The placement of all the advertising in the Canadian game is a dead giveaway that they work for every dollar they can get. It seems to be kind of weird to be running over Tim Horton’s advertising on the field or having it on uniforms but sports car racing has done it for years.

But seriously, Google Earth doesn’t show things live so we’ll have to wait until game time to see what advertising makes it to the game.

Television

I’m old enough to remember when both the CBC and CTV covered the big game. That’s something really unique; it had been done collaboratively or separately. In recent times, the game is broadcast on TSN which means that you need cable or satellite to watch it. Americans can watch it apparently on ESPN# or via live stream.

Weather

It’s somehow terrific that most stadiums are outdoors and it is late fall for the event. There’s always a chance for snow although the forecast doesn’t call for it for today.

It’s time to settle in. 5.5 hours of pre-game before the game starts.