The Buch stops here

The New York Giants’ 17-14 upset of the 18-0 New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII last Sunday has to go down in history as one of the greatest upsets of all time. Ruining a perfect season, beating an unstoppable team and doing it in the biggest and most crucial game of a season in which everyone expected them to fail means their place in the pantheon of immortal underdogs is forever assured.

Reconsidering the win with the benefit of hindsight, however, there are plenty of ways to rationalize it. The only challenge is picking the best one. Here are some of my favorite candidates:

The Dewey defeats Truman Theory:
After the Boston Globe had a book titled 19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England’s Undefeatable Patriots available for pre-order on Amazon.com a week before the game, surely it was clear that the Patriots couldn’t win. The moral of the story for newspapers and writers everywhere: planning ahead is great, but don’t leak your planning; things often won’t work out the way you had hoped.

The Shadows of Spygate Theory:
Perhaps Senator Arlen Specter’s questions about why the NFL quickly destroyed the video evidence of the Patriots’ Week I signal-stealing—combined with the Boston Herald’s revelation that the Patriots may have used similar tactics in the lead-up to their 2002 Super Bowl win over the St. Louis Rams—distracted the Patriots from their mission.

The Joe Namath Theory:
There was once a quarterback on an underdog New York team favoured to lose Super Bowl III by an 18-point spread (even larger than the Patriots-Giants 14-point spread) who boldly guaranteed a victory before the game. At the time, he was treated with derision, much as Giants’ receiver Plaxico Burress was when he made his own prediction. But Joe Namath’s guarantee led to his immortalization after he backed it up on the field, despite the rest of his career stats being somewhat lacklustre. Burress not only got the winner right, but got the score almost right (he predicted 23-17), which was even tougher. Perhaps the Namath parallels were strong enough that the football gods looked down on Burress and the Giants and decreed such a bold statement of faith couldn’t go unrewarded.

The Bill Simmons Jinx Theory:
After one of America’s most famous sportswriters wrote a column comparing the Patriots to the 1986 Boston Celtics and debating which one was the greatest team of all time, there were many assertions he had inevitably condemned the Patriots to losing. He even admitted it in this week’s column, saying, “And by the way, I think we have a final verdict. And then some.”

The Mike Woods Jinx Theory:
Similar to the Simmons Jinx, but on a much more local level. Our esteemed sports editor predicted an undefeated season for the Patriots not once, but twice, and came far too close to being right for my liking: I originally didn’t think they would get even an undefeated regular season. But perhaps his endorsement’s weight got to the Patriots’ heads. Funnily enough, Mike’s uncle wrote a humourous letter to this paper suggesting that this theory was the real reason New England lost.

The One Man Can Only Have So Much Success Theory:
Everything went right this season for Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady: he set numerous career, franchise and league records, he was named the NFL’s MVP (with 49 out of 50 votes), he won the ’ Sportsman of the Year award , was named the ’s Male Athlete of the Year and continued to date Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen. Surely there’s a limit to what one guy can accomplish.

The Curse of the ’72 Dolphins Theory:
The only NFL team to go undefeated, the 1972 Miami Dolphins (who went 14-0 due to a shorter schedule in those days), made themselves as prominent as always when a team threatens perfection. There’s a rumour that they always get together and share a bottle of champagne when the last undefeated team falls each year. They were certainly urging on the Giants, and perhaps added even more motivation to the fire, as was obvious in TSN’s post-game interview with New York cornerback Sam Madison. At the end of his interview, Madison shouted into the camera, “To the ’72 Dolphins: Pop that champagne, baby!” Perhaps their looming spectre (and they’re old enough that some of them look like spectres these days) got into the Patriots’ heads.

The Hug It Out Theory:
After Brady led the Patriots on a go-ahead touchdown drive with little time left, the cameras caught Patriot linebackers Tedy Bruschi and Junior Seau in a sideline embrace. They looked jubilant enough to have already won the game, which perhaps means that the defense was too overconfident on the last Giants’ drive. It also could just mean that pro athletes should wait until the game’s over to “hug it out” on camera.

The Sibling Rivalry Theory:
Eli Manning has probably felt pressure to live up to older brother Peyton’s performances ever since he was taken first overall in the 2004 draft largely based on his last name. With father Archie (himself a famous NFL quarterback) and Peyton both watching from the stands, Eli possibly felt the need to live up to their legacies. Also, this was his best and greatest chance to step out of his brother’s shadow and make a name for himself, which he certainly did: it never hurts to have that extra motivation.

The Million-to-One Shot Theory
Manning’s miraculous evasion of two Patriots’ linemen who were hanging onto his shirt and his ensuing Hail Mary pass downfield to little-used receiver David Tyree—who made the even more improbable
“Helmet-Catch”—certainly comes across as having a million-to-one chance of success. But as British author Terry Pratchett points out in his classic novel , narrative convention means million-to-one chances happen nine times out of 10, as long as the probability is exactly a
million to one. This sequence, given the identities of the quarterback (Manning, who has never been known as the most mobile pivot in the league), the receiver (Tyree, who actually had more tackles than catches this year due to primarily featuring on special teams), the pass rushers and the defensive secondary (both among the league’s better units), was certainly improbable enough to qualify.

The Hollywood Theory
Closely related to the Million-to-One Shot Theory, this theory assumes sporting outcomes are driven by the kind of movie they would make. A movie about an undefeated season is cool, sure enough, but wouldn’t you rather see the underdog triumph in the end? This is the reason we have umpteen Star Wars, Rocky and Mighty Ducks movies: no one likes to see the overwhelming favorite win. Rather than see an insignificantly small rebellion thoroughly crushed by the might of a totalitarian empire, we want to see the snubfighter blow up the massive battle station, the nobody take down the fiercest boxer, and the cold female goalie stop “Gunner” Stahl on the patented triple deke. We like to see the Average Joes knock off the Globo Gym gladiators, filled with guys like “Blazer” and “Lazer”. This outcome produces possibly the greatest scenario for a true underdog movie ever (the “Miracle on Ice” came close, but the Americans’ 1980 upset of the Soviets occurred in the semifinals rather than the championship match, and nothing much actually happened in the last 10 minutes of the game). Thus, things had to go this way.

The Sportswriter’s Dream Theory
For those like myself who approve of some corny sports-based humour, particularly of the ironic variety, this scenario provides the ultimate gold mine. What else gives you the chance to talk about Giants playing David, or a New York team in terms usually reserved for small-town heroes? There are infinite puns within the game itself as well, such as riffing on the Patriots’ QB (who looked more like a “Brady Bunch” cast member than a NFL MVP), discussing the halftime show (which appropriately featured Tom Petty performing “Free Falling”) and my usual takes on the fine band They Might Be Giants (Terry Pratchett should get credit for the one I used as this post’s headline, though). Clearly, comedic laws also required a Giants’ victory.

The Stick it to “The Man” Theory
This comes out of reports that Vegas sports books lost $2.6 million on the Super Bowl, due to the great odds they were giving on the Giants and the many people willing to take them. As Jay Kornegay, the executive director of the Las Vegas Hilton’s book, told the Associated Press, this shows the impulse towards underdogs. “People came into Las Vegas and they wanted to root for David,” he said. “The last two days, all I hear is, ‘I told you so.’” Other interesting tidbits from this article: it was the first time the Vegas casinos lost money on the Super Bowl since 1995—when they only lost $400,000—and the
so-called “smart money” from experienced handicappers heavily favoured the Patriots. But the average fans gravitated towards New York. Perhaps the little guys were due for a win.

The Karma Theory
My personal favorite. As Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star reported on his blog, Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick had been an absolute jerk towards the media and the fans from his first days in Cleveland. More recently, he had continued that public persona while also embroiling his team in “Spygate.” As shown by an e-mail Simmons quoted in his Thursday mailbag from reader Mike from Nashville, TN, there are plenty of people who hate Belichick’s guts.
“Let there be no mistake, Bill Belichick is an evil man—evil in every way that only those who believe in the physical reality of the devil can understand. He is utterly without ethics or morals or any bedrock sense of decency. Few have trusted him, and let’s hope that no one ever trusts the cheating *$&*#! again.”
Maybe you really only can be evil for so long before it comes back to haunt you …

Today could have been a crucial day in the English Premier League title race. Arsenal won 3-1 in an early game at home against Manchester City to retake the top spot, and then Manchester United looked sure to lose for 92 minutes against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. To keep things interesting, though, Argentine striker Carlos Tevez fired home the equalizer in the third minute of stoppage time to earn United a point and avert a disastrous defeat.

Tottenham played a brilliant game, defending with a ferocity that has rarely featured in their side. They’ve always been strong in attack but have had trouble taking care of business in their own end until recently: things appear to be different under new manager Juande Ramos, though. They were able to shut down United’s midfield passing game and occasionally created chances of their own off dangerous counter-attacks. Their goal was somewhat questionable, as Jermaine Jenas clearly hit the ball with his hand as he fell, nudging it to Aaron Lennon. Lennon’s shot was stopped by United keeper Edwin Van der Sar, but the rebound fell straight to Russian striker Dmitry Berbatov, who made no mistake and drilled it home from six yards out. Despite doubts about the integrity of Spurs’ strike, they certainly deserved to take at least a point from this match given their effort.

United, on the other hand, were less than impressive. They struggled to get any sort of flow to their passing game, and weren’t able to create too much offensively. They also didn’t seem to play with the same intensity Tottenham brought to the match, which shows how sorely they miss former captain Roy Keane, who’s now managing Sunderland. The most likely successors to Keane seem to be hard-tackling Canadian midfielder Owen Hargreaves and English striker Wayne Rooney, but Hargreaves isn’t the vocal presence Keane was and Rooney is certainly intense, but not always effective. Rooney had a good game, though, tracking back all the way to his own 16-yard box several times to help out the defenders. As Setanta Sports match commentator Martin Fisher pointed out, however, Rooney’s own frustration showed at times—particularly towards the end when he went down easily to try and draw a free kick rather than pressing on and taking a shot.

“He got away from Dawson, and chose the easy option for once of going to ground,” Fisher said.

As Fisher said, this was certainly out of character for Rooney. It does raise questions about him as Keane’s successor, though: Keane probably wouldn’t have gone down with the ball loose if he had broken his leg. That drive and determination are what United could surely use at the moment, and someone will have to step up. One possibility is wing back and captain Gary Neville, who’s still trying to recover from an ankle injury he suffered last year. If Neville’s able to return, his leadership will certainly make a difference down the stretch.

Spurs did a great job of neutralizing United’s most potent offensive weapon, Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo looked dangerous at times but never really threatened the Tottenham goal, which is highly unusual for him this season. As commentators Fisher and Lou Macari pointed out, though, the rest of the team needs to step up, offensively: they can’t rely on Ronaldo to do everything.

In the end, though, United did what great sides do: they pulled something out of absolutely nothing (or as Journal photo editor Harrison Smith would say, turned lead into gold). A corner from Ronaldo on the last play of the game—which looked as innocent as the eight before it that were cleared away—fell straight to Tevez, who made no mistake and drove it into the net to salvage a point. It was really the only weakness Tottenham showed all day, and United took full advantage, as Macari said.
“They made one mistake in 90 minutes, the Spurs defence, and they paid for it,” he said.

That single glimmer of hope for United in what was otherwise an uninspiring match means today’s results are far less significant. Sure, they drop behind Arsenal for the moment, but there’s still a lot of football to be played. The ability to salvage a point from a tough fixture like this indicates there’s likely better to come down the stretch, and means the title race is still very much a dead heat. This should make for some great games as the season goes on.

Last weekend may have been a turning point in the race for the English Premier League title. In an early game Saturday, Arsenal was held to a shocking 1-1 draw by lowly Middlesbrough. Defending champions Manchester United then took the field for a later game against Newcastle United, knowing that a win would put them back into the lead based on their better goal differential. Newcastle defended well at first, and the game was scoreless at the half, partly due to a couple of strong United penalty appeals denied by referee Rob Styles. For a moment, it looked like Newcastle could hold on to a draw, and United would be unable to make up ground on Arsenal. Everything changed in the second half, though, as United poured in six straight goals for a decisive victory, throwing down the gauntlet of a determined title challenge to Arsenal.

What was most impressive was the quality of the goals, demonstrating the undeniable attacking flair this United team. As a Setanta Sports commentator remarked after Rio Ferdinand’s stunning goal, “It emphasizes what Manchester United at their flamboyant best are all about.”

United’s domination of the second half was so absolute, they easily could have had a couple more goals.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson told Setanta Sports their success in the second half was due to the team’s cohesion.

“I thought there were too many individuals in the first half,” he said. “Once they got the passing and movement, they were a fantastic team in the second half. It was a marvellous performance.”

The game also showcased the continuing evolution of United winger Cristiano Ronaldo into one of the undisputed best players in the world. Ronaldo notched his first hat trick for United, improving his league season goal total to 16, only one shy of the 17 he scored last season that led to his selection as Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year. He also had a penalty appeal denied, and could have easily notched even more goals. There’s still four months to go, so he should easily pass last year’s total, barring injury.

Ferguson said he favoured Ronaldo to surpass last year’s stunning performance early on in the year.

“They said he couldn’t match that, but why not?” he said. “He’s a young lad, he’s improving, and his decision-making’s been better all the time.”

Newcastle interim manager Nigel Pearson recognized United’s overwhelming superiority in his post-match comments.

“That is a very difficult day,” he said. “They were just a lot better than us.”

The stunning performance from United against Newcastle was a clear statement of challenge to Arsenal, as the play-by-play announcer remarked at the end of the game.

“In the most resounding possible fashion, Manchester United say to Arsenal, ‘It’s our title, and we intend to keep it,’” he said.

This weekend showed a return to quality for both sides, with United pulling off a 2-0 win away against Reading and Arsenal recovering to win 3-0 at Fulham. Both sides are still tied at the top of the table at the moment, but United should continue to gain momentum due to the return of some key players. Regulars such as Owen Hargreaves and Wes Brown started Saturday, along with Korean winger Ji-Sung Park. Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Louis Saha should be soon to follow down the stretch. This will boost their chances of clinching the title, but nothing is certain competing against a strong Arsenal team that delivered a strong display of their own Saturday. Chelsea could pose an outside threat for the championship, but their lack of consistency thus far, and their four-point deficit to the leaders, suggests it will be United and Arsenal in it at the end.

United still has an edge, however. Their squad is generally equivalent to Arsenal’s, but most neutrals would likely take their star playmaker/striker pairing of Ronaldo and Rooney over Arsenal’s Fabregas and Adebayor, both of whom are terrific players in their own right but don’t quite seem to be at the all-world level yet. As Reading manager Steve Coppell pointed out after his side’s loss today, those two can make all the difference.

“You look at their incisive individuals—and by that I mean Ronaldo and Rooney,” he said. “By and large we handled the other nine well but over the course of 90 minutes their appetite will create openings and opportunities. In the end it was one too many.”

Coppell also sees it as a two-team race, and favours United.

“It is between United and Arsenal. European commitments will be key because from now on for them it will be a game every Saturday and a game every Wednesday,” he said.
“If either team lose any key individuals that will be significant. But if both sides stay healthy then I would say United by a nose.”

As Coppell points out, both sides are almost equally talented and either could legitimately take the championship. The X-factor of injuries also makes predictions tricky, but I tend to agree that United’s depth gives them a slight advantage. Regardless of whether United can defend their title or Arsenal rise to the challenge, either case should make for a great showdown and a tremendous stretch run towards the Premier League title.

The soccer world is abuzz following the much-publicized sacking of manager Steve McClaren after England’s dismal failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championships, as several interesting candidates have emerged to replace him. Many high-profile candidates have already declined the job, such as Aston Villa’s Martin O’Neill—the only British citizen judged to be among the favourites. The best man available is still out there, though: former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho has all the qualifications necessary for the job. He has proven he can lead an underrated group of players to unprecedented success, winning both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup with FC Porto and knocking off giants such as Manchester United along the way. He also won back-to-back league titles with Porto before his move to Chelsea in June 2004. At Chelsea, he proved he can succeed in the opposite situation, leading a team of underachieving superstars to back-to-back league titles before leaving due to conflicts with wealthy owner Roman Abramovich. Both experiences will be crucial to leading England, a team that often underachieves but may need to overreach its talent level to have any significant success.

Perhaps the most vital qualification Mourinho possesses is his ability to survive a media maelstrom. A tabloid feeding frenzy that makes the Toronto Maple Leafs’ press circus pale by comparison surrounds the English national team. In many ways it was the press that proved McClaren’s undoing, as he seemed unable to cope with the pressure and eventually gave into their wildest demands with his ill-fated team selection for the crucial match with Croatia, as the Globe and Mail’s soccer columnist Ben Knight wrote shortly after the Croatian game and the demise of England’s qualifying campaign.

“This is tabloid soccer at its worst,” Knight wrote. “McClaren, in the centre of one of the world’s most horrendous hype-storms, appears for all the world to have bought into the hype! Given the choice between two experienced, talented goaltenders who’ve been savaged in the English papers, and a sweet, shining kid who just shut out the Austrians, McClaren … went … with … the … kid.” The aforementioned kid, Scott Carson, made a memorable hash of an easy shot early on in the match, allowing Croatia to score a goal that proved to be the critical nail in the English coffin.

Mourinho, on the other hand, manipulates instead of letting others manipulate him, as ESPN Soccernet’s Jon Carter explained perfectly in a recent piece advocating Mourinho’s selection.

“He is well versed in the art of media seduction, has experience of how the English press works, and his unique interview style would certainly provide a welcome change from the likes of Steve McClaren and Sven Goran-Eriksson,” Carter wrote. “Charm is an important characteristic for a national manager. McClaren missed that trick, but Mourinho is master of the art and it would be refreshing for the FA [the Football Association, responsible for overseeing the national team] to appoint someone who the fans were actually in favour of.”

Mourinho’s ability to use the press to his advantage is an asset that will desperately be needed in the England job, and he refined this talent to an art form during his Chelsea days. He’s outrageous and controversial but revered in spite of it. Knight perhaps described him best with the ultimate analogy for Canadian fans: “Hockey fans, imagine a Don Cherry who can kick Don Cherry’s ass – and outcoach the heck out of him, as well.”

The outpouring of support for Mourinho has been massive so far. In addition to the aforementioned columns by Knight and Carter, many other journalists and commentators have selected Mourinho as the best candidate. Current England captain John Terry, who played for Mourinho at Chelsea, has also given him high praise.

“He’s a fantastic manager, a fantastic guy,” Terry told The Associated Press. “There’s many more being talked about at the moment but he is one that stands out for me and could make a big difference. He’s a great guy, he’s tactically very aware and he understands the game very well.”

Former national manager Sir Bobby Robson also included Mourinho in the shortlist of five candidates that he revealed in his Daily Mail column. He will present the list to the FA, who will determine McClaren’s replacement. Robson also gave Mourinho strong support in his comments.

“Jose’s advantage is he knows our football and he would be welcomed back with open arms,” he said. “Tactically, there is nobody better—I still remember his dossiers at Porto and Barcelona when he worked with me!—and that’s important for one-off international games.”

The most impressive comments supporting Mourinho’s candidacy, though, are those from one of his former rivals. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who competed fiercely with Mourinho during his time at Chelsea, was quoted in Carter’s column as saying, “If the FA consult me about it I’ll give them a shortlist of one, and tell them to get Mourinho.”

It’s appearing increasingly likely Mourinho will get the job. He’s supported by fans, media and those on the inside of the game. Apparently he’s even the odds-on favourite, according to British bookmaker William Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe. “Jose was the only man anyone wanted to back early on and 80 per cent of the bets we took were for him,” Sharpe said.

Mourinho appears interested in the job as well. In an AP interview yesterday, his media advisor Eladio Parames said Mourinho would be receptive to any offers from the FA.

“It would be an honour,” Parames said. “He likes English soccer, the English people, the country, the players. It would be something he’d consider. But he’s not waving his hand in the air trying to get (the FA’s) attention. If he’s approached, he’ll reply.”

The FA absolutely need to get this decision right. This is the darkest period in the history of the national team since their failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, and they desperately need someone special to lead them out of it. Fortunately, there’s a self-proclaimed “Special One” available. This decision will be crucial for the England national team: they can continue to wallow in mediocrity, or they can land the best man available for the job. Here’s hoping they do the latter.

Jose Mourinho. (Daily Mail photo)

Sunday saw a tremendously successful Grey Cup game take place in Toronto between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. As the Globe and Mail’s William Houston observed earlier this week, the CBC averaged 3.34 million viewers—the sixth-highest audience ever for a Grey Cup telecast—despite fears by many that the small-market nature of the competing teams would lessen national interest. It was the first time the Grey Cup had been held in Toronto since 1992, when thousands of unsold tickets detracted from the atmosphere.

This time around, the organizers got it right: tickets were sold out; tremendous acts such as Great Big Sea, Spirit of the West and Lenny Kravitz were lined up for the festivities; and the whole country was talking about three-down football for a week. The on-field product didn’t disappoint either, as the expected Saskatchewan blowout of a Blue Bombers team without their star quarterback failed to materialize and a thoroughly enjoyable closely-contested game appeared in its place.

The success of this Grey Cup speaks volumes about where the CFL is at. The league continues to produce an enjoyable, distinctly Canadian product and has shown with this Grey Cup they can stage events with the best of them. In fact, according to Houston, the TV audience was only slightly smaller than the 3.37 million who watched last year’s Super Bowl. It was a thrilling conclusion to a great season.

What keeps this from being a complete success, however, are events external to the league, closely related to the aforementioned Super Bowl. As the Globe’s Stephen Brunt commented on Monday, “Bringing the great celebration of pigskin nationalism back to the country’s largest market after a 15-year absence was always going to be a referendum on the health and relevance of the Canadian Football League here at a time when threats loom to the south.” Those dangers to the CFL, namely Buffalo Bills’ owner Ralph Wilson’s plan to bring his team (and by extension, the National Football League) north for eight games over the next five years, have never been so clear and present.

It seems obvious that Wilson’s plan is only the tip of the iceberg, or perhaps the NFL’s ploy to get its foot in the door of one of the few large North American markets without its presence. In fact, in the prelude to the Grey Cup, Mark Cohon became the first commissioner in CFL history to directly address the threat of an NFL team relocating to Toronto on a permanent basis.

“All of the tea leaves are indicating that it’s shifting,” Cohon told the media in a press conference last Friday. “You have guys like Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum and Phil Lind, very powerful Canadians who are interested, you have an owner in Ralph Wilson in Buffalo who has said, ‘When I die, my estate will sell the franchise,’ you have the Bills interested in marking Toronto as part of their territory, which I believe is indication that, ‘Hey this our territory, we don’t want another NFL team coming here.’ So I think there’s all these things lining up as an indication that it could happen. So, I’m not sticking my head in the sand, that would be the worst thing for the CFL commissioner to do. ”

Cohon deserves applause for taking so bold a stand. The threat is imminent and is greater than it has ever been. As a Nov. 23 Canadian Press story stated, “Talk of the NFL coming to Toronto has existed since the 1970s. But the combination of Wilson’s statement, the Bills’ playing regular-season games at Rogers Centre, the strength of the Canadian dollar and deep pockets of the Toronto NFL group headed up by Rogers and Tanenbaum has many believing the NFL’s arrival here is inevitable. … The overwhelming belief is that if the NFL does come to Toronto, it will not only spell the end of the Argos and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, but ultimately the CFL.”

B.C. Lions offensive lineman Rob Murphy—recently named the CFL’s top lineman—didn’t go quite as far in his comments on TSN’s Off the Record show Friday, but still made it clear that the NFL coming to Canada would severely damage Canadian football.

“It will definitely be a detriment to the CFL,” he said.

Murphy added that trying to stop the NFL would be a difficult task.

“The NFL is the big bad brother on the block,” he said. “If they want to come here, they will come here, no question about it.”

Some have suggested that the CFL could survive as a regional entity if it abandoned the Southern Ontario market to the NFL. However, this logic is highly questionable. Without Toronto (and to a lesser extent, Hamilton), the league loses its national TV exposure, most of its sponsors and a significant portion of its fan base. As unfortunate as it is for westerners who are sick of hearing about the “Centre of the Universe,” you can’t hope to exist as a high-profile sport in Canada without a franchise in Toronto.
In his press conference, Cohon stated that maintaining these markets is vital for the CFL.
“I’m not going to preside over a league that has a Grey Cup just out west,” he said. “That’s not what I was hired to do. Any type of relationship that we have [with the NFL] has to make sure that the eight existing franchises are strong, growing and healthy. I think southern Ontario is critical to this league and I’ll make sure I protect it and grow it.”

Cohon has the right idea in mind here: taking on the NFL head-on is a recipe for disaster due to their massive supremacy in resources, but it’s absolutely un-Canadian to fly in the face of American invasion. It’s necessary to try and make accommodations, but there are certain concessions (such as giving up Ontario) that cannot be made. If the NFL is willing to ensure the CFL’s survival and continued growth, fine, but otherwise, in the words of Canadian cultural heroes Bob and Doug McKenzie, “Take off, hoser!”

The last time Americans tried to push into what’s now Southern Ontario, they were repelled by heroes of the War of 1812 such as Tecumseh, Laura Secord and General Isaac Brock. Hopefully Cohon, the rest of the CFL’s leadership and our current government will follow in that proud tradition and continue to stand up to the Americans. In the 1970s, the federal government passed legislation to stop the just-formed Toronto Northmen of the World Football League from operating in Canada, forcing them to relocate to Memphis before ever taking a snap. Cohon said such measures aren’t needed yet, but he may discuss them with the government if the NFL is unwilling to co-operate.

The ultimate summary of this year’s Grey Cup came during Lenny Kravitz’s great halftime performance. To strong applause, he cranked out his jazzed-up version of the Guess Who’s Canadian classic, American Woman, the words of which still resound as strongly as they did when the song was released in the Vietnam era. The coloured lights of the NFL can continue to hypnotize, but with any luck, they’ll be sparkling in someone else’s eyes. An invasion from their league will be no good for this country. Canada still has our rules, our teams, our cup and our pride, and the American league should stay away from us.

On Oct. 30, FIFA announced that Germany won out over Canada in their bid to host the 2011 Women’s World Cup. For FIFA, it was perhaps an easy decision. The German women’s team were re-crowned as world champions in September’s tournament, while Canada bowed out at the group stage thanks to a late equalizer from the Australian team. The women’s exit was only the most recent heartbreak this year for the long-suffering Canadian soccer fans, who saw their men’s team fall in the CONCACAF Gold Cup to some suspect officiating and their U-20 team achieve the ignominious mark of being the first hosts not to score a goal.

Germany also has proven facilities and a tremendous track record from staging the 2006 World Cup, while Canada appears to have somehow found a way to lose money on this summer’s U-20 World Cup despite shattering the tournament attendance record, according to Angus Barrett, a director-at-large of the Canadian Soccer Association. More details of this sordid financial affair should come out in the near future, but it is yet another event demonstrating the complete and utter disarray of the CSA, responsible for organizing everything relating to soccer in this country.

The CSA is without a president, technical director, or chief operating officer. They only decided on an interim president—Dominic Maestracci—on Oct. 20, almost two months after the resignation of Colin Linford. They haven’t had a chief operating officer since Kevan Pipe was fired on Nov. 2, 2006.

The straw that may have broken the CSA’s back came this summer when their board shot down the appointment of Fred Nykamp, who was successfully lured from Canada Basketball, as chief operating officer. Nykamp was hired, but never allowed to start work, and eventually let go Aug. 26 after the CSA board voted not to ratify his hiring. He’s now claiming wrongful dismissal and suing the CSA for more than $1.75 million, 14 per cent of their annual budget of approximately $12.5 million.

The Nykamp saga is only the latest to mar the CSA. Their carefully crafted facade of competence began to crack last November, when chief operating officer Kevan Pipe resigned. Pipe had a long and perhaps checkered career with the CSA for over 25 years, achieving great success at times but frequently by rather dubious methods. The next thing to go wrong was in the hiring of a national coach. Linford favoured Brazilian Rene Simoes, and thought he had a deal worked out, but the board intervened in tried-and-true political style to insist on Canadian content, which led to the promotion of Dale Mitchell instead.

At the time, Mitchell appeared a solid choice: he had led the men’s U-20 team to the quarter-finals at the 2003 World Youth Championships, and had also done well with the team in the 2005 tournament. However, some doubt was cast on whether he was the right man for the job when the Canadian U-20 team he coached through the U-20 World Cup this summer not only failed to win or draw a game, but also couldn’t even score a goal. Meanwhile, interim coach Stephen Hart—who had been in the job since Frank Yallop vacated it in June 2006 to go coach Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy—was achieving spectacular success with the senior team at the Gold Cup, advancing to the final against the U.S. and only losing after a linesman prevented an Atiba Hutchinson goal by noticing an imaginary offside. Fortunately for Canadian soccer, Hart put his ego aside and agreed to stay with the senior team as an assistant to Mitchell.

Soon after, the women’s national team was off to China for their World Cup tournament. However, a foreboding air above and beyond the Beijing smog hung over their trip from the beginning. Head coach Even Pellerud blasted the CSA—legitimately, in this writer’s view—for failing to arrange sufficient pre-tournament games for the team and also bowing out of a bid to host the Olympic qualifying tournament in 2008. According to the Globe and Mail, the CSA said they couldn’t afford the $300,000 to $400,000 it would cost to stage the tournament. Pellerud said the CSA had become so focused on the U-20 World Cup that they were ignoring the women’s team, and even offered to chip in money from the women’s team budget to host the tournament. Also, the CSA apparently failed to notify Pellerud that FIFA had suspended him for the team’s first game at due to an ejection in a Gold Cup match the previous November against the United States: he got the news less than a week before Canada’s first match from reading a paper in his home country of Norway.

The ominous atmosphere appeared justified when the women’s squad, historically the greatest strength of Canadian soccer and ranked ninth in the world as of October, narrowly crashed out of the tournament’s group stage following the late draw with Australia. It seemed as if Pellerud’s words about the lack of preparation handicapping the team had indeed come true.

Things came to a head on Sept. 12, “Black Wednesday,” when a badly promoted international friendly between the men’s national team and Costa Rica took place at BMO Field in Toronto. The early timing and weeknight scheduling of the game, combined with the CSA’s lackadaisical promotion, led to many empty seats at a venue usually packed to the rafters with enthusiastic soccer fans: only 9,325 people attended, less than half the stadium’s capacity of 20, 500. However, many of those present (including noted soccer columnist Ben Knight, who recently joined the Globe and Mail’s sports section) made a profound impression by their attire, dressing in black “Sack the CSA” T-shirts made by the Canadian Soccer Supporters United group.

The protest and the events leading up to it led to deeper scrutiny than usual of the CSA by the mainstream media, including an appropriately titled piece by famed Globe columnist Stephen Brunt called “Storm the barricades, it’s time for change.” Many, including Brunt, suggested getting rid of the CSA entirely and replacing it with a new federation, similar to steps taken in Australia a few years ago. National team striker Tomasz Radzinski even lent his support to the cause, telling the Toronto Star’s Cathal Kelly, “If I’m in the stands next time I’m going to wear a black shirt as well.”

To their credit, the CSA appeared to finally get the message that they couldn’t continue to operate in a manner more suited to a pub soccer league than a government-funded body responsible for overseeing the world’s most popular sport in a country of more than 33 million people. They finally got around to appointing Dominic Maestracci as interim president on Oct. 21. Their representatives also attended a protest meeting held by the North York Soccer Association and tried to address some of the concerns raised. However, it’s still obvious that fixing the CSA will be a painful, drawn-out process.

The timing of the CSA’s unraveling is unfortunate. Canadian soccer has made so many strides forward in recent years: the building of BMO Field in Toronto, the introduction of Toronto FC into Major League Soccer and the record-breaking attendance shown for the U-20 World Cup this past summer. World-class clubs from the United Kingdom such as the English Premier League’s Aston Villa and Sunderland and the Championship’s Cardiff City have all played friendlies in Canada in recent years, with the David Beckham-led Los Angeles Galaxy joining the trend Wednesday in a match played against the Vancouver Whitecaps before 48, 172 fans at B.C. Place. More Canadian players are joining high-class teams all the time, such as U-20 goalkeeper Asmir Begovic who plays for Portsmouth in the English Premier League. As mentioned above, both the men’s and women’s national teams have made large strides recently as well.

Hosting the Women’s World Cup, which Canada would be ideally suited for given the amount of national interest in the women’s team, the success they have enjoyed recently, and our proven ability to stage international soccer competitions would be a logical next step on the path to becoming a true player on the international soccer stage. However, the current state of the CSA leaves us in no position to host anything larger than a world championship for eight-year-olds (and even that might be a stretch).

It was disappointing to see Canada lose out to Germany, but the decision was not only logical, but probably best for our country in the long run. There will be other chances to host in the future, and hopefully by that time our national association will be in competent shape to handle an international event. As famed TSN and CBC soccer commentator Dick Howard, who is also a member of FIFA’s Technical Development Committee, remarked in an Oct. 30 cbc.ca article on the failure of Canada’s bid, “It’s quite honestly a blessing in disguise.” It says a lot about the tragic state of a country’s soccer association when losing is a victory on its own.

There are many disturbing aspects of the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills proposal Thursday to play two annual games in Toronto. It makes perfect sense for the Bills, who have had trouble attracting corporate support in recent years, and it works well for the proponents of Toronto as an NFL town who stand to rake in the cash from this venture, but it could be an early omen of doom for the Canadian Football League as we know it.

The plan itself doesn’t seem too harmful at first glance, as two NFL games a year wouldn’t be likely to catastrophically wound the Toronto Argonauts or the CFL. In fact, CFL commissioner Mark Cohon told the Associated Press Tuesday that he doesn’t object to the plan if it doesn’t hurt the viability of the Argonauts or the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

“The one thing I want to be crystal clear about is that for the CFL to continue to be successful, we need to have our two southern Ontario franchises be successful,” Cohon told the Associated Press. “It’s an issue critical to our business.”

Cohon’s right to take a stand here about maintaining both franchises. The CFL could certainly still operate without teams in Toronto or Hamilton, but it would be in a barely recognizable form. The Toronto-based media would certainly reduce their coverage of the league, and most games probably wouldn’t be shown on national television. The league would become a regional entity, and attendance and revenues would both drastically drop. Ex-commissioner Tom Wright said Monday on The FAN 590’s Prime Time Sports radio show that 95 per cent of the league’s advertising revenues come from southern Ontario.

Without these revenues, the remaining CFL teams would be forced to offer even smaller salaries and thus would be likely reduced to fielding rosters composed of arena football’s castoffs. Additionally, the league would become narrowly regional, and would have a tough time claiming to be a sport that represents all Canadians. As Prime Time Sports host Bob McCown said Monday, “Without Toronto and Hamilton, the wheels fall off the kiddie cart.”

On their own, two NFL games a year wouldn’t kill either CFL franchise. However, the plan becomes far more problematic when the bigger picture is considered. It’s difficult to argue that the Bills’ owners would be in a rush to stay in the small Buffalo market after a taste of the vast, NFL-hungry GTA.

It seems far more likely that this is only the first scene in a five-act tragedy, with the inevitable conclusion being an NFL team based in Toronto and the beginning of the end for the CFL. As former CFL commissioner Tom Wright said on The FAN 590’s Prime Time Sports radio show Monday, “They’ve put their toe in the water, and we all know what happens when professional sports franchises encroach on another franchise’s territory.”

Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice-president of corporate communications, told the Associated Press this is merely a step to help the team boost its revenues in its current location.

“They do need to further regionalize both fan and corporate support in their home territory,” McCarthy said. “So this would help the team further successfully operate in the future in western New York.”

McCarthy added that the NFL supports the CFL.

“Canada has a football-rich history and we hope to help it continue in making it wildly successful,” he said.

On the surface, McCarthy’s comments aren’t too disturbing for CFL fans. However, as Wright said, “The words have always been, ‘We’ll never hurt the CFL.’ I believe that, but that’s different from saying we’ll help grow it. If you sit back and do nothing, you will hurt the CFL. My honest opinion is that the NFL will do what’s in the NFL’s best interests.”

As Wright pointed out, having this news released to the CFL through media reports rather than a direct communication from the NFL is another indication that the American league isn’t too concerned about what’s best for its Canadian counterpart.

“It was a complete blindside, and that speaks volumes,” he said.

Maybe there’s a chance for the CFL to hang on. Maybe it can continue to offer entertaining, three-down Canadian football even with the elephant not only in the room, but lounging on the couch and leaving stale pizza crusts and beer bottles strewn all over the floor. As The Globe and Mail’s Stephen Brunt pointed out in a column Friday, “[T]here have been other times in history when American interlopers expected to be greeted with a scattering of rose petals, and instead were met with a nasty surprise.”

For fellow unapologetic fans of the CFL, I sincerely hope that history repeats itself.