With all of the snow and talk of snow removal, it’s easy to forget that the 100th Grey Cup is on Sunday.
Or maybe that’s just me. Since I’m such a diehard Saskatchewan Roughriders fan, as soon as we’re out of the playoffs I stop paying attention. Sure, I’ll hear who wins what games, but I don’t watch them.
Sometimes I’ll tune in to watch the halftime performance, but I won’t even be doing that this year simply because of who’s performing. The performers are Carly Rae Jepsen, Marianas Trench and Justin Bieber. Bieber is being billed as one of the biggest names in music today. Yes, I’ll admit it. I am not a Justin Bieber fan.
The centennial-year Grey Cup game will be held in Toronto, and the Toronto Argonauts will face off against the Calgary Stampeders. Yet, there doesn’t seem to be a large buzz about it in Toronto. Oddly enough, most of the recent articles pertaining to the Grey Cup were not actually in Toronto, with the exception of The Globe and Mail.
In fact, when I was searching the term “100th grey cup” on Google on Thursday, the number one news item that came up was from The Ottawa Citizen followed by the CBC. You’d think that with such a significant anniversary of the championship game in the CFL, there would be more news hype in Toronto.
I realize I don’t live in Toronto, so I cannot and will not attempt to perceive how excited people are or aren’t getting in Toronto. (I’ve never actually been outside of the Pearson International Airport.)
I’ll give them their due credit. There have been articles about the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto papers, not just The Globe and Mail. I just don’t understand why there hasn’t been an exceptional amount of coverage for such a milestone.
I know from watching many Rider games versus the Argos in Toronto on television that their stadium has been filled with green. I’ve been to home games in Regina in freezing weather where there have still been either a sold-out or close to sold-out crowd of fans out to watch the game.
That is the type of excitement I expected to see or hear about from Toronto hosting the Grey Cup, particularly after the Argos beat the Montreal Alouettes last week. I realize a lot of people aren’t football fans and that’s perfectly fine, but considering how big the CFL is, I expected, well, more. (Even though the Riders aren’t in it, which would’ve made the game far, far better in my personal opinion.)
The very first Grey Cup game was held when the league was a lot smaller and nowhere near what it is today. In fact, Canada’s then-Governor General, Albert Grey, commissioned the trophy in 1909.
The games were suspended from 1916 to 1918 because of the First World War and in 1919 because of a rules dispute. What’s more is that the Toronto Argonauts have 15 Grey Cup championships, the highest in the league.
Even though my personal interest is not ignited because there are no Riders in the 100th game, it is still a significant game that deserves more celebration to commemorate 100 years of playing a game in Canada.
