Obsession with hockey, a reluctance to learn its many rules, a lack of a rooting interest in a particular NFL (or CFL) team, and a general spirit of anti-Americanism has often blinded many Canadian sports fans to the magnificence of the game of football. Yet more and more Canadians are beginning to recognize the greatness of the sport and are expanding their sports horizons.
Football is a game of chess on turf- its pieces made of flesh and bone- and is as unpredictable as it is intricate. At first glance one may think it is chaotic, a simple game of large men pushing each other around to gain ground. Yet as one begins to learn the game’s rules and many nuances, it becomes irrefutably clear that it is actually one of the most precise and well calculated sports in the world. Add to this fact that there are only sixteen games in a season (as opposed to hockey’s eighty-two game season) making every single one of them count. The unforgiving, nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat season is outmatched in intensity only by the all-or-nothing do-or-die playoffs.
The sport’s irresistible lure has caused many Canadian schools and sports organizations to create Football programs or to beef up current ones. It has also caused an increase in popularity for Canada’s national football league, the CFL, especially in hockey-teamless towns with football teams such as the city of Winnipeg. Any true Canadian sports fan willing to open his/her mind, dispel prejudices, and do a little homework while maintaining a sense of loyalty to the game of hockey will quickly fall in love with the sport that captivates American sports fans season after season.
