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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
The Grey Cup: If only NFL players played by CFL rules. That goes for refs too.
Dec 1, 2005 | Am I the only sports columnist in the United States who gets publicly chided for not talking about the Grey Cup?
I can hear the hard drives whirring in your heads, American sports fans, as you flip through your mental files trying to remember which of those cups the rest of the world is always battling over the Grey Cup is. Is that rugby? Soccer? Cricket? Golf? Or are we just talking about protective equipment for Vinny Testaverde?
I'm going to talk about the Canadian Football League championship game now, three days late, not because it was such an amazing game -- the Edmonton Eskimos beat the Montreal Alouettes 38-35 in double overtime, meaning two possessions for each team in the college-style format -- or because the halftime show by the Black Eyed Peas was more entertaining than anything we can hope for at the next Super Bowl from the Rolling Stones, who are more like the Strained Peas.
I want to talk about the best thing I saw: The officiating.
Stay with me on this, my fellow Americans, I'm going to be talking about the NFL.
Maybe it's because I write about the CFL from time to time and have even confessed to having a favorite -- 'scuse me: favourite -- team, the British Columbia Lions, who got bounced in the Western final this year by the Esks, darn it. But one letter writer gave me grief for ignoring Sunday's Grey Cup game.
I'd meant to watch it Sunday, but I got caught up in family holiday stuff and the NFL and didn't get the chance. I finally watched a tape of the second half and overtime Wednesday -- pilot error on the DVR scotched the first half for me -- and it was no less exciting because I knew the final score.
An unscientific poll on the CFL's Web site asked if this was the most exciting Grey Cup game ever, and the answer, by 79-21 percent, was yes.
Take that with a grain of salt. This was the 94th Grey Cup. Keeping in mind the demographics of the Internet, how many of the people voting do you suppose have been alive for even a third of them? I mean, come on, no love for Edmonton beating Montreal 26-25 in 1954, the teams combining for over 1,000 yards and Red O'Quinn catching 13 passes for 316?
Red O'Quinn, people!
