A few years ago, I decided that paying for cable TV just wasn't worth it anymore.<\/p>\n
The only thing I really thought I would miss was live sports. I used to watch quite a bit of sports, cricket, baseball, basketball, Olympics, even an occasional hockey game, if the Senators were playing.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, though, after a while, I didn't really didn't miss it all that much, with the one exception of CFL football. I have been a diehard Saskatchewan Roughriders fan for as long as I can remember.<\/p>\n
I inherited that from my maternal grandfather, who was a season ticket holder for decades.<\/p>\n
For the past few years, I have been subscribing to TSN in the fall, just so I can watch the Riders for a couple of months leading up to the Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
But a recent announcement by the league has me rethinking all of that.<\/p>\n
While Canadian football has a lot in common with American football, it is a distinct game.<\/p>\n
In my opinion, it is a superior game. You can argue until you're blue in the face, that the NFL has a larger talent pool, superior athletes, more polished production values, yada yada, but I have no interest in the NFL.<\/p>\n
I like our game.<\/p>\n
But next year, the Americanization of Canadian football is set to begin. <\/p>\n
The new CFL commissioner, Stewart Johnston started in a measured way, by modifying the rouge rule and instituting a 35-second play clock for 2026.<\/p>\n
I don't think those two changes dramatically alter the game, but it's 2027 that puts us on the path to NFL-lite.<\/p>\n
In year two, the field and end zones will be shortened and the goalposts moved to the back of the end zone (someone finally found a way to literally move the goalposts).<\/p>\n
They say these changes are going to make the game better, but I'm skeptical. If I wanted to watch American football, I'd watch the NFL, or (more likely) the college game.<\/p>\n
I want to keep an open mind, though, because I do want the league and my Riders to survive. <\/p>\n
Maybe it will be good.<\/p>\n
When they change it to four downs, though, I am 100 per cent out. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thom laments the Americanization of Canadian football<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":157434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists","category-opinion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n