Shut Up And Enjoy The Game

I happen to be a big fan of the Calgary Stampeders and the Calgary Flames. They’re my hometown teams. I have always and will always back these teams, through thick and thin, win or lose. Knowing this, it is absolutely no surprise how excited I have been to watch the local NHL team perform so well – so far – this season. It could not ever be a shock to anyone who knows me that I’ve been excited for the success the CFL Stampeders had this 2014 season, either. It’s easy enough to imagine my feelings last night as the Stampeders won the venerable Grey Cup.

Various posts around the internet following this victory served to piss me off and get me to thinking. If you don’t like or appreciate something, what the hell compels you to post your negativity? Seriously, are you attention whores or just a fat bunch of trolls with nothing better to do?

There is a huge fanbase for the CFL not only in Canada, but relatively speaking in the U.S.A. and a few other countries around the globe. Those of us who watch the CFL like the CFL. Most of us will pick a team to root for, while a select few others will watch simply for the entertainment. Either way, we enjoy the game, the teams, the players and the league and do what we can to catch a game, on T.V. or radio. I would describe us as passively passionate. the operative word is passionate.

After the Stampeders won the Grey Cup, I went hunting for all the write-ups and reports on the game as the night progressed. I read several comments under these posts mainly from CFL fans and Stampeder fans: Those who cheer for other teams posted congratulations and kudos to Calgary’s ball club, while avid and rabid fans of the Stampeders praised the team and players’ efforts in bringing the 115 year-old trophy to Calgary. Scattered and sprinkled in and amongst all this, people were posting about being glad the season was done. They were calling it a joke, not a real sport, an inferior game with inferior athletes, and a host of other disparaging comments. Needless to say, this set me off.

Canadian football has been around since before the 20th century came about. The first documented game occured all the way back in 1862. the CFL is the derivation of several leagues and federations between then and 1958. By comparison, the NFL has been in existance since 1920, fifty-eight years later.

What kind of insecure, self-loathing, elitist snob would troll Twitter, comment boards and forums just to run down something others care about? In this particular case i happen to be talking about the CFL but let’s face it, there are ignorant, arrogant assholes who do this sort of thing over numerous different forms of entertainment, from sports to movies to movie genres to “sports entertainment”. I suppose its the feeling of superiority they misguidedly have or the need to feel superior over others that drives this trolling.

I happen to be a Stamps fan, and I happen to like the CFL. I find it less boring, to me, than the NFL. I’m tired of the comparisons between the two sports: They may be derived from the same game but they are not the same game! The CFL is not inferior, it’s different. There are several former NFL stars who came up to Canada in the past to play the Canadian game only to discover that they couldn’t keep up. One example: Former New York Jets player at the time derisively called Mr. Brigitte Nielsen AKA Mark Gastineau. He came up to Canada and played a couple games for the B.C. Lions after leaving the NFL, only to find he couldn’t hack it up here. Meanwhile, the CFL has turned out some incredibly impressive players who went on to claim all-star status in the NFL. Among these luminaries are such names as Harald Hasselbach, Jeff Garcia, Doug Flutie, Warren Moon and many others. It’s the height of stupidity to say that the CFL is full of NFL rejects when its closer to the truth to say its the other way around.

If the CFL is not your game, then don’t watch it. If you mouth off about it, make damn sure you watch several games of it first so you know what you are talking about. Otherwise, shut the hell up! There’s nothing wrong with having an opinion, just don’t be an ignorant ass when expressing that opinion.