A Glorious Football Weekend

When it comes to football, it sure pays to be Canadian.

As this past weekend proved, it means you get double the fun.

Professional and collegiate football on both sides of the border delivered a wild assortment of results and news on the weekend. Our poor American friends, however, just got to watch the NFL and NCAA.

Here in the Great White North, we also enjoyed the CFL and the CIS over the past 48 hours.

See? Just another reason to love living here.

Here's what the weekend delivered:

The 94th Grey Cup. No, it wasn't a particularly entertaining game, but it's the Grey Cup and it's ours and only the CFL would see its championship trophy busted in two in the boisterous post-game celebration.

The Paul McCallum sidebar was great, it was quintessentially Canadian to see the winners use three quarterbacks with none being injured and there's no denying the Lions were the most dominant team in the league this season.

A spectacular comeback by the University of Saskatchewan Huskies against the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Saturday pushed the Huskies into the Vanier Cup, which coincidentally will take place in their home province at Saskatoon next Saturday.

Saskatchewan will face powerful Laval, which destroyed Acadia on Saturday. Next season, don't forget, the Vanier Cup will move to Grey Cup weekend when it will be played on the Friday night at the Rogers Centre before the 95th Grey Cup two days later.

A tremendously exciting clash in NCAA between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Michigan, with the Buckeyes coming out on top by a field goal in a fabulously entertaining match set against the backdrop of the passing of legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler in the hours before the big game.

It was a unique experience to sit in a bar in Winnipeg on Saturday, with one TV on the Huskies-Gee Gees game and the other on Ohio State-Michigan.

The absurd NCAA ranking system, however, cranked out a new top 25 yesterday that left the Buckeyes and Wolverines still ranked 1-2, thus keeping alive the possibility the two schools could meet again in the U.S. title game.

That, needless to say, could leave every major school, possibly including USC, Notre Dame, Florida and Arkansas, severely annoyed, but some believe it could also potentially create momentum for a true playoff system in the future to decide the U.S. collegiate champ.

Oh yes, the NFL. Indianapolis is no longer undefeated, and doesn't Bill Parcells look like an awfully smart fellow for replacing Drew Bledsoe with Tony Romo?

Donovan McNabb is out for the year, a terrible blow for a Philly franchise that tried to do the right thing when it came to T.O. and now seems cursed by bad luck.

The Bears squeaked by in New York, the Chargers dumped the Broncos and it remains absolutely unclear who will emerge with the Super Bowl this winter. But it's unlikely the winner will break the trophy in two.

So the CFL, CIS, NCAA and NFL, all of which matter to varying degrees to Canadians, delivered a generous blessing this weekend for those who love the game of football.

Comments

[vhigge]

I know Football is American!

However, Argos, er, U of T and McGill go way back!

To see Tackles and Sacks is heart breaking!

This is why we don't like the NFL up here.

They don't understand the CFL dynamic of the game. It's win or die. "Red, White and Blue"

You get Pringle out there telling how he "sold out" the Allouettes to the Eskimoes, rather Montreal to Edmonton and you wonder how he sleeps at night?

At least, it wasn't Edmonton and Montreal anything, like hockey or the last few playoffs.

Still it all makes you want to go down the 401W and pound Buffalo and their toasted Quiznos Western Sandwiches and Buffalo Wings!! NYNY!! Frank Sinatra sucks!

Go Jays GO!

[Duane R]

Thanks for including the CIS game. A lot of Canadians don't know that the university game in this country can be wonderfully entertaining (and inexpensive).

Sask/Ottawa was the best game of the weekend.