Rogue Points

The 100th Grey Cup was today.  As the old joke goes, it was a nice game, too bad the Stampeders weren't there for it.  Actually, it wasn't that great of a game: the Argos dominated the first half, then played it conservative for the second half. Overall we saw one team play one good half.

I skipped over the half-time show.  It was a controversial choice of Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, Marianas Trench, and Gordon Lightfoot.  Even if you accept the blatant pandering to young audiences that wouldn't normally watch football, you have to admit that's an odd group.  The league could have been a little more subtle in their tweens-and-token-old-guy strategy; say throw in Buble as a bridge between generations.

But it wasn't all fun, games, and demographics.  I followed the game on twitter, and I was disappointed at how negative people were.  Obviously there were complaints about the officiating, criticisms of underperforming players, and a bit of discussion of the half-time performers.  Also, I hope Eric Tillman - the former Edmonton General Manager who traded Ricky Ray to Toronto - got all his stuff out of the city after being fired, because he should really never show his face there again.

What disappointed me about the Grey Cup tweets was how dismissive everyone was of the game and the entire league.  Certainly, football - or the Canadian rules - are not for everyone.  But at least criticize it for what it is instead of making up reasons.  I found the first see-how-boring-the-CFL-is tweet ten minutes into the game.  This was after two scores, two turnovers, and as much action as you would expect at that point in an NFL game.  I wish people would finally realize that every sport is boring if you don't know what's going on.

And of course there were the usual outdated criticisms, no one's watching, the league is about to go bankrupt, there are two teams named "roughriders."  In a way, the twitter negativity is proof that the league is doing well.  Most of the topics I follow on Twitter are small enough that they don't attract that huge underbelly of Internet bullying.  Congratulations, CFL, you've made the big time.