NFL Toronto

Many Canadians believe that the NFL's plans to play regular-season games in Canada -- and possibly move a team there permanently -- are a threat to the Canadian Football League's very existence. In response, the CFL has launched an ad campaign reminding Canadians, "This is our league":

The commercial itself is cool, but I really don't understand why so many Canadian football fans are freaking out, to the point where elected officials are trying to pass laws to keep the NFL out. Is the CFL really so weak that putting one NFL team in Canada would put the entire league out of business?

Via Sports by Brooks.

On Sunday, MDS pointed out that Canadian national treasure, Mike Vanderjagt, had accepted a full-time job to play professional football in the motherland, and in his very first game honked three field goals. Not to worry, though; Vanderjagt managed to convert two attempts, and also had a fine day punting.

And come to find out, the three misses weren't even his fault. Vanderjagt's Toronto Argonauts coach even says so.

[Rookie head coach Rich] Stubler believes the Argos have done Vanderjagt a disservice by not practising on a field fitted with uprights, an oversight that will be addressed.

"We had two days all of camp where we went some place that had goalposts," Stubler said. "That's a coaching fault and I'll take that."

Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty big oversight. Luckily, the Argonauts appear to be in very capable hands; Stubler not only takes the blame, but the situation will be rectified. That's leadership, people.

I guess the sight of Vanderjagt taking a nap in the stands during every training camp practice didn't seem unusual to Stubler. Of course, this is the same guy who said of Vanderjagt's three misses (two "wide rights", and one "woefully short"): "In the NFL, those kicks are right down the middle", based solely on the fact that the CFL hashmarks are six yards wider than NFL hashmarks.

Made-up laws of physics aside, Bill Parcells vehemently disagrees.

Hat tip: Hashmarks. Naturally.

Former Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt was finally back on a football field Saturday after a nearly two-year absence. It took him some time to shake off the rust.

Playing for the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Vanderjagt missed his first three field goals. He did, however, finally straighten out and hit a 49-yarder and a 44-yarder in the game's last four minutes to help the Argos to a 23-16 win.

Vanderjagt also punted for the Argonauts, and he did it well, averaging 48 yards and at one point uncorking a 60-yarder after his protection broke down and he was nearly tackled.

All things considered, it wasn't a disastrous outcome for Vanderjagt, who previously played in the CFL in the 1990. But it also wasn't particularly impressive, and it was a reminder that Vanderjagt, who was once among the NFL's best field goal kickers, will never be that kind of player again.

Hat tip: PFT.

Although some fans in Buffalo are concerned about the fact that the NFL is now scheduling Bills games across the border in Toronto, the NFL's decision is good news for Buffalo fans for several reasons. Case in point: Season tickets are now a better deal.

One of the big rip-offs in sports is that NFL season ticket holders can't buy the eight regular-season home games without also buying two preseason home games. Since NFL preseason games are dull exhibitions featuring a whole lot of playing time for guys with no shot of making the roster, fans don't particularly like it, but they put up with it because they want to see those eight regular-season games.

But now that the Bills are playing one regular-season game and one preseason game in Toronto, a typical Bills season ticket only requires fans to pay for eight games, seven regular-season and one preseason.

Bottom line: If you were a Bills season ticket holder last year, 20% of the games you were paying for were meaningless. If you're a Bills season ticket holder this year, the meaningless percentage has gone down to 13.5%. One of the many reasons for fans in Buffalo to be glad to share their team with fans in Toronto: Sharing the costs of preseason games.

Bills have fewer home games, best ticket prices [Rochester Democrat & Chronicle]

You have to give it to the Buffalo Bills' owner Ralph Wilson ... one way or another. At the news conference to announce that the Bills will play eight home games in Toronto over the next five years, he tried his best to keep the citizens of Buffalo from fretting that this is the beginning of an eventual relocation:

"What am I going to say to the fans of Buffalo?" Wilson asked in response to a question. "I'm going to say, 'Hey, I can't speculate. I can't speculate what's going to happen in the future. But don't worry. Don't worry right now.'"

Well, that should put everyone at ease. When Wilson was asked if this move was leading to the relocation of the team to Toronto, he rationalized, "Buffalo is dwindling in population, in jobs. People don't have jobs, and they move out of Buffalo, they move out of Western New York" (you can read the long, rambling statement here).

I see what he's trying to convey to fans. Buffalo is getting smaller and it has gotten harder to be economically viable in today's NFL. Bringing in the Toronto and southern Ontario market does make sense and it isn't like the NFL hasn't seen a team split home sites during a season. The Green Bay Packers played some home games in Milwaukee until 1994.

You might have noticed a lot of chatter lately about the possibility of an NFL team moving to Toronto -- and how many believe that an NFL team in Toronto might end up killing the Canadian Football League. Well, CFL officials quietly let everyone know their stance on an NFL team in Toronto -- by hiring Lenny Kravitz to perform at the Grey Cup Final halftime show on Sunday.

This had me scratching my head when I heard about it. After all, Kravitz is definitely not Canadian, not to mention hasn't been particularly relevant since the 1990s. Why was he playing the CFL halftime show?

The second song in his three-song set revealed all:

American woman, said get away
American woman, listen what I say
Don't come hangin' around my door
Don't wanna see your face no more
Coloured lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else's eyes

There is no possible way that was an accident. Message sent, CFL. You realize, though, that you just made Roger Goodell even more determined to destroy your 12-man, 3-down, 110-yard gridiron game before decade's end. Good luck fending off the impending invasion.

Lots of pro sports teams play outside the city that bears their name. The New York Giants and Jets both play in New Jersey. The Washington Redskins play in Maryland. The Dallas Cowboys play in Irving. And so on.

So although the talk that the Buffalo Bills could move to Toronto has been greeted by fans on both sides of the border as potentially cataclysmic, could it be that it really wouldn't be such a big deal at all? Richard Florida writes in the Globe and Mail that Toronto has become the nerve center for a huge region, and that what he calls mega-regions are the real drivers of the global economy:

A glimpse of this new reality came earlier this month when The Globe and Mail revealed that Canadian Football League owners were negotiating to bring an National Football League team to Toronto, and that the most likely and logical choice of available teams was the Buffalo Bills. The Bills are now seeking permission to play two games at the Rogers Centre next season. The move makes sense because the market for American-style football in Toronto is huge, but even more so when you think of the Buffalo-Toronto corridor in a way that was fashionable before 9/11 but has gone mostly unmentioned since: as a single economic entity – a mega-region, in other words.

The team could still be called the Buffalo Bills even if it starts to play regularly in Toronto. I don't think the Bills are going to move permanently to Toronto any time soon, but I could definitely envision a scenario in which they play games in both cities every year, like the Packers used to do with Milwaukee. And although some Buffalo residents would be upset, I think it would be good for fans, good for the Bills, good for the Buffalo-Toronto region and good for the NFL.

Hat tip: Data Janitor.

We noted this week that Canadian Football League officials were talking about the possibility of an NFL team moving to Canada, and that at least one executive is concerned that the NFL moving up north would kill the CFL.

Now comes word from the Globe and Mail that David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski, owners of the Toronto Argonauts, have outlined a strategy of actively pursuing any NFL franchise that might be a candidate for relocation to Toronto. Cynamon and Sokolowski would apparently view that as a step toward a future in which the NFL and the CFL coexist peacefully in Canada.

The report continues:

While the NFL has no current plans for expansion, several existing teams are believed to be potential candidates for relocation, including the Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars and New Orleans Saints.

Of those franchises, the Bills seem most likely to move in the short term, given that 89-year-old owner Ralph Wilson has publicly declared the team will be sold to the highest bidder after his death and that the Buffalo market might be too small to satisfy the revenue demands of an NFL franchise purchased for current value.

I don't think any team is going to move within the next year. But I do think it's reasonable to believe that one of those four teams will move within the next five years. And although the NFL insists that putting a team in Los Angeles is its top priority, Toronto might turn out to be a more attractive destination. There's a real chance of this happening.

Hat tip: Pro Football Talk.

There's long been talk that the NFL wants to have a team in Toronto. Whether that means moving a team there (Buffalo Bills?) or an expansion club down the road is unclear, but there's little doubt that the league wants to expand beyond American borders, and that Toronto would be one of the most attractive options.

But what would happen to the Canadian Football League in that scenario? According to British Columbia Lions President Bob Ackles, the CFL would go under:

"No question in my mind a team could be successful in Toronto," Ackles told Sun Media. "But it would take southern Ontario and immediately kill Toronto and Hamilton and therefore it would kill the Grey Cup and the CFL. I don't think there's any question about that."

I don't think the NFL will have a team in Toronto any time soon, but I do think it'll be there eventually. And I find it hard to believe that one team going to Canada would kill the entire Canadian league. Especially considering what a bad PR move that would be for the NFL. If anything, having the NFL move to Canada would probably be a good thing, at least in the short term, for the CFL, because the NFL would pump money into it to keep from looking like American imperialists.

But saying the NFL could kill the CFL is a good strategy for keeping the NFL out, if that's your goal.

Via Fark.

Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is likely to spend at least one NFL season in prison and at least one more sidelined with a league-mandated suspension, and there has been some speculation that while suspended from the NFL, Vick could play in Canada.

But the Canadian Football League says that's not going to happen. Rick Matsumoto of the Toronto Star reports that although CFL officials wouldn't address Vick specifically, they made clear that they do not want to be the outpost for players who are banished from the NFL.

A CFL spokesman reiterated Tuesday that a league rule instituted last spring bans any CFL team from signing a player under suspension in another league. That rule came about when the Toronto Argonauts signed Ricky Williams, who was suspended by the NFL for repeated violations of the league's substance-abuse policy.

So Vick's options, assuming he is suspended for at least a full season after he gets out of prison, will be limited. His best bet may be the UFL, the startup league that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and a few other billionaires have said they plan to form next year. That's assuming the UFL calculates that the publicity it gets from Vick is worth the boycotts and protests -- far from a safe assumption. Vick might never play organized football again.