More On Calvillo

Calvillo makes it to ESPN. Sorta. Nice article.

Makes you realize just how off the radar the CFL is in the USA but Americans exposed to it do come to at least appreciate it.

Part of it is the league's own inability to market itself, and part of it just plain not of the same quality as the NFL. The CFL is a quirky, charming league that has stood the test of time. Somehow, despite all its remarkable imperfections, mediocrity and poor marketing (the CFL website needs some work, while its main broadcaster TSN also needs to work on its CFL webpage - for example, standings are not updated fast enough. Sometimes you want to shake someone out of their slumber), the league has not only survived, but improved over the last decade. Heck, as any Canadian knows, the Grey Cup final was superiour in entertainment value to most Super Bowls for a period in the 1980s and early 2000s. It still is a fascinating event.

It's not surprising the league attracted Kramer. There's a Krameresque feel to the entire operation and we love it for that. I mean, the league, the joke went, had only nine teams but two with the name Rough Riders. They were only differentiated by the fact one team, Ottawa, used it in two words and the other - Saskatchewan - one. And, to make things all the more uniquely Canuckian, there's nothing Canadian in the name either as the term Roughrider is actually American.

I don't even know why this is so.

It's a good league with a rich history; longer than the NFL in fact. It has produced wonderful football players like Ron Lancaster, Joe Theisman, Doug Flutie, Warren Moon, Angelo Mosca, Peter Dalla Riva, Milt Stegall and Tony Gabriel and unforgettable dynasties with the Edmonton Eskimos (outdated name forgiven) yet it remains an obscure fixture on the Canadian psyche and even more so to Americans despite there only being two real pro leagues on the continent.

With the enormous amount of players in the U.S. and now increasingly in Canada (Quebec in particular), it makes perfect sense the CFL is now gaining some amount of traction. It should be a viable option for football players as it adds eight more chances (the league used to have nine teams but Ottawa continues to be a basket case) for kids to try their hand at pro football - and in some cases a last chance to get to the NFL. Everyone - NCAA, Canadian university football, NFL, CFL, even NFL Europe) has (or should have) a vested interest in keeping the CFL game alive and healthy.

That all being written, it doesn't diminish Calvillo's record in any way. Sure the CFL has traditionally been a "passing" league but 72 000 plus yards is a lotta yards in any league. Period.

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MNF with Chris Berman mentioned it. Berman, who goes as far as to actually string together a couple of sentences in French, really seems to respect the CFL.