I love anomalies in sports. Whether it’s Jamaicans on a bobsled, Andrei Kirilenko stumbling up and down EnergySolutions Arena or Americans playing soccer, nothing gets my juices flowing more than athletes playing a game that should be left to the real professionals.
So when my roommate asked me Sunday if I wanted to watch Canadians attempt to play football in something called the Grey Cup8212;the Canadian Football League’s championship game8212;I was all over it.
We found the game on ESPN 360, projected it from my laptop to TV and witnessed how truly marvelous the CFL is.
In case there was any doubt as to where this game was being played, early in the game a cameraman cut to a lady wearing all camouflage, except for the 12-pack box of Pilsner she was wearing for a hat8212;limiting possible locations to either Canada or North Dakota.
I have to admit, I shouldn’t have been so hasty in judging the CFL. It turns out, some real football players, like former Utah kicker Louie Sakoda, are in the league. In fact, Sakoda was the punter and kickoff specialist for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The other team was the Montreal Alouettes, a ferocious mascot if there ever was one.
We convinced one more friend to watch the game with us, making it an official party. This “Grey Cup Party” seemed like a perfect remedy for my hatred of Super Bowl parties.
We were all football fans, so I figured I’d be able to watch this championship game without the “how many points does a touchdown get” question that shows up anywhere the Super Bowl is televised.
I was right8212;we all knew that a touchdown is worth six points8212;but it was just every other aspect of the game that left us clueless.
Figuring out the basic rules, and even the playing field, in the CFL was a crash course with a lot of help from the Internet. The football field itself is 110 yards from end zone to end zone and 65 yards wide, and the end zones themselves are 20 yards deep, compared to a football field in the United States that has the dimensions of 100 yards, 53.5 yards and 10 yards.
In Canada, teams only get three downs instead of four, and, oh yeah8212;punters routinely score points.
After Sakoda booted the ball down the monstrous field and forced the Alouettes’ return man to take a knee in the end zone, the score changed from 13-3 to 14-3. Horrified by the endless possibilities of what disgusting rule the CFL had in place to cause this, we immediately began searching for an answer.
The explanation on Wikipedia just confused us, so we finally resorted to ChaCha, which came through in the clutch and gave us an explanation as to what type of Canadian shenanigans had just taken place.
Apparently, on any kick attempt, whether a field goal, punt or kick-off, if the ball lands in the end zone and it goes out of bounds or a player downs it for a touchback, that’s one point for the kicker.
Yes, it seems that Canadians are just that polite to make a decision that either everyone on the field can score or no one does.
This only increased our enthusiasm for the game, as we realized Sakoda had a chance, albeit small, to win Most Valuable Player. Unfortunately, that was King Louie’s only score of the game, and the Roughriders lost 28-27 on a last-second field goal. Alouette running back Avon Cobourne was named MVP and slotback Ben Cahoon won Most Valuable Canadian (at this point, are we really surprised?).
But the Canadian in me says we all won. And by that I mean, anyone, like us, who were exposed to the CFL for the first time Sunday. But not the Roughriders8212;they definitely lost.