OUT OF THE TUNNEL: CORONAVIRUS AND THE CFL

BY: RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF

Around the continent we are all hunkered in, practicing physical distancing, employing social closeness through our video chat of choice, and trying to stay as safe as possible. All we can do right now is dream about when things return to normal, whatever normal was or what “normal” will be when this is over.

The burning question on the minds of many CFL fans is: Will there be a season in 2020? In Canada we are doing many of the right things to curb the rapid spread of COVID-19 (remember to stay home and keep washing those hands!) and that gives us all hope. So when Canada is ready, will the CFL be ready?

There are many roadblocks along the way to executing whatever type of schedule ends up in place to get us to the possibility of Grey Cup 2020 at Mosaic Stadium in Regina. Stadium availabilities, proper training camps, possible restrictions on crowds, but the biggest obstacle may be the situation in the United States.

They are not doing well at slowing down the spread of COVID-19 and it feels like their leadership system isn’t doing (or saying) the right things to have a successful outcome. Canada could be ready to play football but if the U.S. is still in the grip of this crisis, there is likely zero chance the Canadian government would allow Americans over the border, even if healthy.

Now, if things are positive across North America and players can freely cross the border and play football, there are a few more things that will really impact the bottom line of the CFL:

• If football is back and people are allowed in the stadiums, there will be many who won’t want to risk being in that big congregation of people. We don’t blame them, there will still be a lot of fear.
• Also, will football be top of mind when we are allowed out of our houses and can go camping, play softball, tennis, go to a concert or any of the other numerous activities that will compete for our precious few summer hours?
• Finally, this has hit so many people financially, a ticket to a game will be low on many people’s list of things to purchase. 

All of this sucks and it hurts but we are hearty Canadians and will work together to overcome what’s coming over the coming weeks and months. For now, all we can do is hope (and stay home, and wash your damn hands!).

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It’s time for a little distraction and our second instalment of throwback games Out of the Tunnel would love to watch again. We embrace the dumb, and here is another wonderfully stupid game from the CFL past.

We head back to the 1970’s (for some reason the 70’s was a decade of wholesome dumbness). Specifically August 31, 1976, when the 2-4 Hamilton Tiger-Cats faced the defending Grey Cup champs, the 4-2 Edmonton Eskimos.

To give you a feeling of what was happening across Western Canada at the time: hockey was getting ready for Canada Cup ’76, the WCHL (precursor of the WHL) was moving to three divisions with Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon and Flin Flon in the East Division and you could get a 20″ Hitachi solid state colour television for $540 ($2,460 in today’s cash).

And with all of that brewing, Clarke Stadium in Edmonton was host to the second lowest scoring game in modern CFL history. The Eskimos knocked off the TiCats 5-1. 

Hall of Fame writer Terry Jones summed up this game in one wonderful sentence in the Edmonton Journal: “Edmonton Eskimos 5-1 win(?) over Hamilton Tiger-Cats is one of the great non-thrillers of all time, was an embarrassing joke.”

Edmonton was coming off 10-days rest and their offence remained asleep. The boxscore was a little bit deceiving. Edmonton’s quarterback duo of Tom Wilkinson (16-21) and Bruce Lemmerman (4-6) combined for 20-27 for 200 yards without an interception. The Eskimo offence was able to pick up 344 yards of total offence.

Hamilton’s offence was haunting. Just 282 yards of total offence and they turned the ball over twice. 

The majority of the game was played in the middle of the field. Edmonton crossed the Hamilton 30 just three times while the Ticats managed just two entries beyond their opponents 30.

This is a gloriously gory and gross football game. You can’t blame the weather; it was a beautiful day in Edmonton and you can’t say it was early season hiccups because they were seven weeks into the 1976 season. It was just downright stupid.

The kickers were one of the biggest culprits of this debacle. Ken Clark of the Tabbies missed from 32-yards in the first quarter to open the scoring but after that it was all Dave Cutler of the Esks. He hit from 32-yards at the end of the first half but then missed from 23 and 31-yards in the second half for the whole of the scoring.

There was one big play that got the 25,641 faithful fans at Clarke Stadium out of their seats. Eskimos returner Joe Hollimon took a first quarter punt 94 yards for a touchdown that was called back for a clipping call back at his own 19-yard line.

Hamilton had a chance to win it late in the fourth quarter when they were on the Edmonton eight-yard-line but quarterback Rick Cassata (fresh from a year-long stint with The Hawaiians of the World Football League) was intercepted by linebacker Dale Potter with 1:06 remaining on the clock. 

Edmonton improved to 5-2 but this deliciously dim-witted distraction was the highlight of their season. They would finish the season 9-6-1 and lose to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the West Final. Hamilton would drop to 2-5 but would win six of their last nine games to finish at 8-8 but lose to the eventual Grey Cup champions (don’t worry we won’t ever bring up that game dear Rider fans) the Ottawa Rough Riders in the East Final.

So there you go kids, another wonderfully dumb game from CFL history. Now don’t mind us as we daydream about going to Woolco to buy a sweet set of white-wall tires for $60 with installation.

(RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF/PHOTO: TORONTO ARGONAUTS)