I am a Canadian journalist with a fierce passion for all sports, but the CFL has always been one of my favourites. I've spent most of his life in B.C., and have been following the Lions ever since watching Lui Passaglia's last-second field goal against Baltimore in the 1994 Grey Cup on a small, fuzzy television. I currently works as a reporter for the Black Press chain of community newspapers and am the editor of Sporting Madness and Canuck Puck. I am an assistant editor at The CIS Blog, The Phoenix Pub and Out of Left Field. You can e-mail me at andrew_bucholtz[at]hotmail.com, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

Quick Links: Fan Blog Photos | Grey Cup Fan Central | CFL.ca

Around the CFL and the Grey Cup, much of the focus is frequently on the Canadian players and what it means to them to play football at home. However, the league is special to many of the Americans that play in it too. Eventual NFL stars like Warren Moon and Doug Flutie made their name in the CFL, and the league continues to provide an opportunity for many talented Americans to continue playing the game they love after college. Some, like B.C.’s Cameron Wake and Stefan Logan, are eventually able to make the jump to the NFL, but others spend long, fruitful careers playing football up here in the north and have a great time doing so.

With this week being Thanksgiving down in the U.S., many of the Americans on both teams’ rosters were expressing just how grateful they are for getting the chance to play in the CFL Saskatchewan running back Wes Cates. I spoke to Cates at the Roughriders’ practice the other day, and he had some interesting things to say about how much the league means to him.

Cates, who played his college football at the Division II California University of Pennsylvania, said the CFL gave him a new chance. He graduated in 2001, but fell off the football radar until the Stampeders signed him in 2006. “I got new life in this league,” he said.

It wasn’t an instant road to glory, though. Cates dressed for most of the Stampeders’ games that year, but didn’t play a lot, and he was traded to Saskatchewan in the offseason. There, he became a star, rushing for 866 yards on 153 carries and catching 45 passes for 452 yards in his first regular season and then playing through injury to help carry the Riders to their first Grey Cup since 1989. The next year was even better from an individual standpoint; he ran for 1,229 yards, put up 451 receiving yards, scored 16 touchdowns and was named the team’s most outstanding player. However, the team lost in the West semifinal, making his personal success bittersweet.

This year was a bit more of a struggle for Cates. He underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason and only ran for 939 yards and five touchdowns, adding 33 catches for 336 yards and two touchdowns. He said he isn’t concerned with putting up personal stats in today’s Grey Cup game, though.

“I’m just trying to get a win however we can get it,” he said. “If I only get five touches and we win, wonderful.”

Cates applies that same positive outlook to his time in the CFL, despite all the ups and downs it’s featured.

“I can’t be thankful enough for the CFL,” he said. “It kept my dream alive as a professional football player.”

- Andrew Bucholtz

Quick Links: Fan Blog Photos | Grey Cup Fan Central | CFL.ca

The question of parity often comes up when discussing sports leagues. Competitive parity has frequently been cited as key to the success of leagues, and it’s been used as a reason to put salary caps in place. The longer the period for which every team has a chance to win it all, the more engaged the fans of that team tend to stay; it’s tough to muster emotion about a squad that’s just playing out the string. CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon spoke about parity this morning at his State of the League address, and he was particularly impressed by all the teams jockeying for playoff position in the final week of the season this year, which brought considerable importance to three of the four games. Edmonton’s 45-13 win over B.C. assured them a spot in the Western semi-final, while the Calgary-Saskatchewan clash was for first place in the division and a first-round bye. The Winnipeg-Hamilton clash had the Bombers’ playoff future at stake, as well as Hamilton’s chance to host a playoff game for the first time in 10 years. Only the Montreal-Toronto game had little at stake, which is remarkable.

That parity went beyond just the final day, too. Sure, the Alouettes were largely dominant this year, but they still lost to Edmonton, B.C. and Winnipeg, and many of their victories were narrow. The West Division featured incredible parity all season and constant battles for positioning. In the end, Saskatchewan finished on top with a 10-7-1 record, but they only took top spot from Calgary thanks to a tie-breaker. Edmonton was 9-9 and B.C. was 8-10. When your first-place and fourth-place teams are that close, that’s a pretty good sign of some impressive parity. Even the East Division, where many of the teams have struggled recently, saw a huge improvement from Hamilton and a great late-season run from Winnipeg. Also, the Tiger-Cats’ turnaround from 3-15 last year to 9-9 this year shows there’s plenty of hope for even struggling franchises like the Argonauts.

Another element of parity is close games. By and large, fans prefer to watch close matchups, which provides a significant ratings boost; if people turn away from your game at halftime thanks to a lopsided score, it hurts your overall ratings. That didn’t happen in the CFL this year; Cohon said 40 per cent of the games were decided in the last three minutes. “The old adage that anything can happen in the last three minutes of a CFL game came true,” he said. The average margin of victory was 13 points, the same as last year, but that would drop significantly if you removed the Alouettes’ average margin of 21 points from the mix.

In view of this, it’s perhaps no surprise that the CFL recorded such impressive television ratings this year. Most games were important, and most games were close. Cohon said the league averaged three million viewers a week for all four games, with a per-game average of 700,000 after the introduction of the new Portable People Meter measurement system partway through the year and 600,000 before that. The playoffs also set viewership records. On the whole, the CFL has become one of the hottest Canadian sports television properties, and the parity the league has found has played a key role in its success. As Cohon said, “Other leagues would kill for the type of parity we had this year.”

- Andrew Bucholtz

Quick Links: Fan Blog Photos | Grey Cup Fan Central | CFL.ca

It’s been an eventful first few days in Calgary, but one thing that’s stood out to me so far is how unique the CFL really is in the world of professional sports. Through the team practices yesterday and today’s media breakfast with the Roughriders and lunch with the Alouettes, I got to talk with many players from both teams including Saskatchewan’s Rob Bagg, Andy Fantuz, Chris Getzlaf and Jason Clermont and Montreal’s Shea Emry, Shawn Mayne and Mike Giffin. I’ve covered plenty of athletes in both the professional and amateur ranks, but what impressed me about these guys was how down to earth they were. They’re outstanding at what they do on the field, but they don’t have a lot of arrogance off it.

To me, that’s one of the things that makes the CFL so interesting. In other professional leagues, we often get inundated with stories of athletes behaving badly. In the CFL, it’s far more the norm to hear about a guy like Roughrider defensive end Kitwana Jones, who famously chased down and tackled a mugger who snatched a woman’s computer on the street in Edmonton this year, or B.C. Lions slotback/kicker Bret Anderson, who works as a firefighter in between stints with the Leos. You could write a compelling profile of just about every player involved in this game, and all of them would have their own stories to tell about the different ways they get involved with their fans and their communities. Many coach minor football, while others run charities and donate their time to support worthy causes, but you don’t often see them out mugging for the cameras while doing so. It’s about trying to make a positive impact, not blowing their own horn.

That applies to the Grey Cup, too. Unlike championships, playoffs, and even regular-season games in many other leagues, the CFL’s showcase is a down-to-earth event that’s still very much about regular fans. The league makes a clear effort to connect with those who follow it, and that’s great to see; it’s resulted in such initiatives as the CFL Green Drive to reduce emissions arising from the Grey Cup, which is entering its third year, and the first-ever Grey Cup TweetUp, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. The associated festival events throughout the week also give fans the chance to feel like they’re part of something special, and they really are. This week isn’t just about Sunday’s game or the coaches and players; a large part of it is about the fans, and that’s something very cool to see. After being here for only a few days, I already have a sense of why so many media members and fans keep coming back to the Grey Cup year after year; I doubt you’ll find another professional sports event anything like this.

Andrew Bucholtz