Yes, it was a home game for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, but let's not forget that the Alouettes have, in their own way, been as much a success with their own fan base as Rider Pride has to Saskabush.
And just as important to the CFL.
The Als' success, in some ways, is even more impressive. Not only did they revive a vital market for the CFL, they boosted the game in all levels throughout the Le Province Belle.
By moving out of the cold, cavernous Big Owe to the ancient, funky -- and downtown -- McGill yard, they provided a retro model for the CFL. (One that the Argos foolishly failed to follow.)
WARRIORS COME OUT TO PLAY
Yes, the length of the pre-game show was Super Bowl-esque, but you have to know few, if any, viewers are going to be watching it whole hawg.
Much of the material was interesting -- the champion Riders and the tough-loss Ticats from 1989; the Als and their surprisingly ineffective recent Grey Cup history -- but the features, as is the tendency, too often leaned toward the kind of forced sentimentality where, instead of a wisp of heart-string-tugging cellos, they use the "sound" of cold, hard silence, meant to evoke the epic, historic-ness of it all.
This is a tool most-often used in documentary interviews with World War II soldiers, but is more affectation, than effective, when it comes to sports interviews.
(BTW, this reminds me: Weren't sportscasters -- north and south -- supposed to voluntarily eliminate the use of "warriors" when it came to describing athletes? This always was a ridiculous overstatement even before this past decade.)
Then there is that clasped-fingers affectation that Brian Williams has always used, just making that we know, yes indeed, this is history in the making.
There needed to be a little more sense of fun, a little levity with these 'docu-dramas.'
COOL SHADES OF BLUES
Coolest pre-game feature, hands down, was about Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor and their high school playing days in Montreal.
Who knew? Busts any stereotypes that football players are more likely to beat up musicians than actually be musicians.
But it didn't dispel an obvious stereotype of the two players. Jim Cuddy: pretty-boy singer and pretty-boy quarterback.
Greg Keelor: grungy guitarist and down-and-dirty defender.
In the zone
Who built those temporary grandstands along the endzone at McMahon Stadium?
Lego?
SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE
Gladly, no one at TSN has thought of splitting the broadcast between the two play-by-play/analyst duos, having -- as it should be -- No. 1 unit Chris Cuthbert and Glen Suitor do the whole game.
If you've watched the classic Grey Cups on their Classic channel this past week (a wise continuation of what CBC did in their last decade or so of being the game's broadcaster) you've seen those '70s-era games when they split halves of the game between CBC's crew and CTV's crew.
It was an awkward situation for both sides of the equation. Or should I say all three sides of the triangle, if you include those who tuned in.
It was made even worse by the garish suit jackets routinely foisted on the crews and viewers.
This was when colour television had become the norm, the black-and-whites relegated to the garage or to kitchen duty.
The oranges and yellows wrapped around the men with the microphones was the visual equivalent of pigging out on pizza and beer after fasting for a month.
Hall of a halftime
If Blue Rodeo wasn't already Canadian Hall-of-Fame worthy, their halftime performance seals the deal.
Even if it was temperate, it was outdoors in Calgary in November.
No lip-synchs! No jackets!
Buy these boys a Pilsner. And a Maudite.
IN CONCLUSION ...
- Some joke that there aren't enough men left in Saskatchewan. Somehow, there was too many on the field.
- Does this get Don Cherry off the hook?
- And, no, Ken Miller, we really can't imagine how much that hurts.
- Anthony Calvillo dodged a Hall of Shame marker -- going 1-and-6 in title tilts would have left him that notch above fellow quarterbacks Fran Tarkenton (Vikings, '70s) and Jim Kelly (Bills, '90s), both 0-for-several Super Bowls.
- For you old schoolers: Come back Don Sweet, wherever you are.
DAVID.CAMERON@SUNMEDIA.CA
