Flashback to the Proposals for the CFL/XFL Alliance

In what seems like forever ago, there was a moment where CFL fans were worried that the league was on the edge of falling into the abyss when the paper tiger that was XFL 3.0 came courting.  Now that we see that the reality of the new league was all bark and zero bite, it's kind of fun to go back and read the old articles about that time. 

I was one of those guys during those days that was open to the idea, because, let's face it, the CFL is far from out of the woods as the Montreal ownership situation has shown us. But unlike all of the outdoor spring American gridiron leagues, the CFL has survived the other things that would have killed a similar American league. What follows is now pure speculation and fantasy, but hey, perhaps in a parallel universe the leagues did merge and are the dominant gridiron league.

L’émission Spéciale Blue Light des Alouettes de Montréal

Attention aux acheteurs de Kmart. La vente des Alouettes de Montréal a maintenant commencé. L’offre de départ, c’est un dollar Canadien!

This lone hat represents all that is wrong
with the CFL, for it was the only one I
could find in the entire city during my
vacation there in November 2022.

Free agency began on the same day, ironically, that the news of the owners of the former Baltimore Stallions had given back the keys of the front office and ownership to Randy and the league office, As noted by the Ottawa Sun, "You have to admire Randy Ambrosie’s sense of comedic timing..."

It is Still "Our League"

(Originally published on March 15, 2021) As one of those few Americans who follows the CFL religiously but also lives in a country where anything not "NFL" is deemed inferior, the last week in Canadian football news has been, by all accounts, a very surreal one.  It began with the death of a beloved player and one who unfortunately, due to my lack of access to the Canadian airwaves 40 years ago, I never got to see play. The remembrance of him reminded me of the days after Walter Payton's untimely death here in the home of American pro football, Chicago (sorry Canton, but that is a fact).  We as fans both north and south love our heroes of the past. However, it abruptly turned when news broke about where the Canadian pro game is heading.

A Fascinating Look Inside the CFL’s Oddest Era

There are a lot of CFL history books out there (of which I think I have most), and this one, along with Ron Snyder's book on the Baltimore Stallions, is one of the few that talks solely about the league's ill-fated expansion into the United States.  As the league moves forward with talks with the XFL, I am hopeful that the CFL Commissioner and the owners of the franchises, along with the XFL leadership all read the history books and learn the lessons of the past. If they don't they will only have themselves to blame.  

The blueprints for how NOT to run a league are on the shelves of their local libraries.  The saga of CFL USA is one that was filled with a lot of misplaced hope and only one success story. Had the Browns not left Cleveland, perhaps the Stallions success would have led to success in Texas with San Antonio, and in other markets like Portland, El Paso, Salt Lake, St. Louis, to name just a few. I recommended every fan of the XFL and CFL to read this and the numerous other books out there on the history of professional football, for they all tell the story of how to avoid the pitfalls of failure.