Ricky Williams and The Canadian Inferiority Complex League

After signing with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, it turns out that flaky Ricky Williams is a topic of hot debate on Canadian sports radio these days. Why not? A legitimate NFL running back addicted to joints is heading up here and that can only mean good things for a league starving for attention. Then again, a big name in Quincy Carter was mysteriously cut by the Montreal Alouettes and Onterrio Smith is close to the same fate with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Everyone has an opinion. Including Joe Theisman (star of Brokeleg Mountain) who considers this to be a cynical stunt to sell tickets. He also has publicly stated he is embarrassed ( I would too) to have worn a Toronto Argonauts uniform.

True, Williams violated the NFL's drug policy and owes millions of dollars to the Miami Dolphins. On the other hand, this can only be good for ticket sales and the Dolphins may be happy that at least he's playing pro ball somewhere in the hemisphere instead of searching for himself in Kenya rolling up dope next to a lazy zebra.

So, is the CFL that desperate to sign such athletes despite the flaws they come with? You bet there are. This is not the first time a bad boy from the States plays up here. The Montreal Alouettes signed Lawrence Phillips a few years back and he helped them to their first Grey Cup since 1977. No one complained about him.

From a business standpoint and a purely marketing angle, Ricky Williams is the best thing to happen to the CFL since Doug Flutie. Not only that he'll be playing in a wealthy city that absolutely adores imported stuff. Toronto is Little New York of the North and there isn't a glitzy entertainer this side of Lake Ontario they can't or won't refuse.

The Williams Show, however, won't stop in T.O. He'll probably jam and pack 'em in all over the 8-team league suffering from yet another franchise closure when the Ottawa Renegades closed up shop earlier this year.

But the Ricky Williams signing brings to the forefront another less obvious reoccurring theme in Canadian culture - that of the odd need to have Americans give the sign of approval in everything we do and create. Personally, I happen to think the CFL is a great league. It's run like a second-rate operation but we love it. Hey, that's an improvement from the third-rate parochial operation it was not so long ago. While it lacks the vision and impressive dedication by its owners that marked the history of the NFL, the CFL has a long and proud history worth supporting and preserving.

The CFL is like a small-cap stock in that it is highly volatile in its make up. Some years are great and others are terrible to the point of people wondering when it will crash. Presently, these are good times - Ottawa notwithstanding.

This sort of debate cuts across many different areas of the national conscience. Canadians rarely support their own products or local talent unless, as I pointed out, it has Americans involved in some capacity. It's as if we feel we have credibility with it.

These are the paradoxes of living in Canada. We ignore and sometimes turn our backs on our athletes and artists but worship them when they make it big in the U.S. or elsewhere.

Owen Hargreaves, to cite one example among many, was inexplicably ignored by the Canadian Soccer Association when it came to the national team. Despite playing for one of the world's great clubs in Bayern Munich! When England came knocking (he holds a dual citizenship) suddenly Canadian officials woke up and wanted him back.

Sadly, it doesn't stop there. Canada's most successful and decorated swimmer Alex Baumann was allowed to leave and go work for the Australians. When Canada flopped (and has sinced got back on track) in Sydney nationalists wondered why Baumann was not working for good 'ole Canada. Well, being asked and getting paid would have been a start. Brett Hull was chastised when he jumped ship and took USA Hockey's invitation to play for them in the early 1990s. Team Canada was stacked with talent and he knew he would never crack the line-up but when he became one of the greatest goal scorer in National Hockey League history he was considered a 'traitor' for not reconsidering playing for the land he and his legendary father Bobby was born in.

As I satirized a while ago, if Canada's two great retail treasures - The Hudson's Bay Company and Canadian Tire - were ever sold to American corporations a pitchfork mentality would race across the nation screaming for the Yankees to 'go home' (despite ironically already being a branch plant economy). The anger would subside once they realized how much they were saving on Swiffer's. Heck, ever notice the parking lot at Wal-Mart next to a Canadian Tire (a company that does do well)? I rest my case.

I only scratched the surface here. Let me end by saying that Ricky Williams represents something that is very new in one sense but at the time time something that is old and tired. He is the latest figure who happens to be caught in one of Canada's finest traditions: Navel gazing.

We've been at it so long it's become a habit. Too bad. The CFL is a Canadian gem worthy of more.