OUT OF THE TUNNEL: FOOTBALL IS BACK!
BY: RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF
Can you feel that? That is the feeling of a full weekend of football and damn, did it feel good! It began Thursday night and ran all weekend with a full slate of college and NFL games. It was glorious and yet, it still has a strange whiff of weirdness.
Some college and most NFL stadiums didn’t have any fans, a few college stadiums allowed just friends and family, and there were a few that had capacity limits around 25%, one of the states that allowed that was, of course, Florida.
It was an interesting microcosm of how each state is handling the pandemic. It also got us to thinking about football in Canada.
This is going to be a long fall for so many of us in this country. There will not be fall USports or CJFL seasons and it looks like there will not be any high school or CEGEP (Quebec) football either.
B.C. will re-evaluate fall sports later in the season. Some schools in Alberta are having practices but no games have been announced yet. Saskatchewan has most of their regions cancelling fall sports but some schools may start practicing this week. Manitoba has outright postponed fall sports until spring, as has Ontario and most of the provinces on the east coast. Quebec has also postponed their fall schedules as well as Cégep programs, though there are some that want to get back on the field.
So other than some minor football programs, there may not be a down of football played from the high school level on up to the CFL until spring at the earliest.
We feel for those players in their final season of high school football. This is the most important season in their football development. This is the time where they become the leaders, get an incredible amount of playing time and really strut their stuff in an attempt to have a shot at playing post-secondary football.
So, let’s say they play in the spring. There are challenges to that as well. If football doesn’t kick off until April, they will play a whole season that finishes in June and then turn around two months later and get dropped into university and junior programs for another four month grind.
Yes, we know there are already late-spring and early summer programs and elite provincial teams, but those situations are much more condensed than a high school season and are adjusted around high school and post-secondary football seasons.
If there is football returning in the spring we really hope those running the programs will adjust things for players safety around the pandemic and their future football opportunities.
Quick hitters:
- We love the idea of donating to the CFL with the Grey Cup “Fan Base” program. This tries to keep the connection between the fans and the league that has been missing in 2020. What we would like to see many people do with their football dollars is support their local high school, junior and university programs. They are also in desperate times and many programs may disappear due to the pandemic.
- Daved Benefield’s op-ed on how the CFL lost its way really spoke to us. Many of the things he laid out are things we have been talking about here for the past three years.
The biggest thing he really hammered upon is the lost history of the CFL.
Sure we know about Russ Jackson, Ron Lancaster and the few stories and documentaries that have dotted the media over the past few years. Here’s a test: ask an NFL fan to talk about Dick Butkus, Reggie White, Earl Campbell or any other non-quarterback star and they would be able to tell you a few lines about most of them.
Now do the same to a CFL fan about James “Quick”Parker, Less Browne or Grover Covington. These are three of the greatest defensive players in CFL history and maybe 25% of fans could tell you a little about one or two of these greats.
The CFL is treated like the MLS or the Toronto Raptors. It feels like CFL history started in 2003 and this is one of many reasons why fans come and go from the CFL. There is a lack of full-rooted love of the history of the league like there is in any of the big four leagues.
Think about it this way: one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the CFL, Solomon Elimimian is currently winding down his career. 20 years later you will just have old-timers speaking about his record breaking seasons and other than that, nothing else.
For some reason, the CFL is treated as a week-to-week event and any historics is up to the thread-bare content departments for each individual team. There are many reasons for this but a great and easy first step is to do a full hearted embrace of the history of the league.
Finally, we were stung by the tentative nature of football in the COVID-19-era. We had the Tulsa/Oklahoma State game as one of the games to watch this past weekend. Out of the Tunnel is written on Sunday and that game was postponed a week this past Monday.
Because of this, TSN still has a full slate of NCAA games scheduled for this Saturday but didn’t (as of Sunday morning) get specific on what games will be broadcast. So, there goes our previews out the window!
We still have something in our back pocket and the Canadian to watch in the NCAA will return for a fourth season!
Canadian to watch in the NCAA:
Jared Wayne (Sophomore)Wide receiver – Pittsburgh
6’3” 195lbs
Peterborough, Ontario
High school – Clearwater Academy International (Florida)The Peterborough native played in eight games as a freshman with the Panthers in 2019 and was outstanding with 18 catches for 261 yards. His first and only touchdown came in Pittsburgh’s Quick Lane Bowl victory over Eastern Michigan.
Wayne is slotted as their number two receiver and will see a lot of action as the Panthers have a solid returning senior at quarterback in Kenny Pickett.
Originally a quarterback in high school in Canada, Wayne went to Clearwater Academy International in Florida for his final high school season and was one of the top receivers in the state as well as the number four high school prospect according to ESPN.
