By Amy Husser
The Canadian Football League is a sinking ship, but its fans and players will continue to hold on, if only for the love of the game.
Ask any Canadian sports fan who follows the NHL almost religiously, and the 2004 – 2005 lockout remains a painful memory. Rick DiPietro’s 15-year, $67.5 million contract with the New York Islanders is the longest contract ever tenured to an NHL player.
No doubt DiPietro is a talented goaltender, but one has to question with such inflated salaries, are big-league players playing for the love of the game, or for the love of money?
This question doesn’t concern itself with CFL players, because the organization is, as clichéd as it sounds, in a league of its own.
The CFL has seen its share of turnover since its creation in 1958. The Montreal Alouettes went under in the early 1980s while teams in Calgary, Ottawa and British Columbia were relying on private funding. The 1990s saw a failed attempt at expansion into the United States. In 2003, both the Toronto Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger-cats declared bankruptcy halfway through the season.
Ottawa is no stranger to the economics of hosting a CFL team.
The Ottawa Roughriders folded after just one season, and when the Renegades returned in 2002, they couldn’t boast a winning record. Losing almost $4 million in the 2005 season, it didn’t come as a shock that owners Bernie and Lonie Gliberman wanted to sell the team and cut their losses.
NFL games sell-out quickly, while CFL games host crowds as small as 2,000. NFL games regularly top television’s ratings, and are watched by millions of fans. CFL ratings stand at only a fraction of their American counterpart. The best CFL players earn the same amount as the worst NFL players. A rookie salary in the NFL sits at $275,000 while a first-year CFL player will earn a meagre $38,000.
Yet lesser-paid athletes have much more incentive to prove themselves because they really need to prove themselves. The shelf life of a pro-athlete’s career is volatile to say the least. It’s not unheard of to have CFL players taking second jobs.
That is why there is little doubt that CFL players play for the love of the game, and ONLY the love of the game. One can’t help but note the passion and the drive they bring to the game.
CFL players don’t use injuries as bargaining chips. Drama doesn’t follow their every move, on or off the field.
With only eight teams and 22 games per season, CFL players know their competition, know their game and bring a strong and smart style to the table. It’s obvious that they are playing with respect for one another and with respect for the game in its purest form. Strictly out of necessity, every game counts.
It’s doubtful that CFL franchises will ever be big business and few of its players will ever be rich. Still, other leagues should take a page from their playbooks. The CFL and its players play the game, simply, the way it was meant to be played.