The Happy News thread

[Alelou]

The rest of the world only calls it that cause they don't have REAL football with touchdowns and fat guys falling on one another like us North Americans.


It's pronounced "soccer". SOCCER.

Canadians play football? I thought you were restricted to hockey, baseball and curling. <<runs>>

[Pitseleh]

Yeah, well... We are pretty passionate about our football down here, maybe 'cause it's the only sport we're not that awful at. And I think most kids down here have a favorite football team before they choose a favorite ice-cream flavor. In my high school, they actually used to sync the mid-year holidays with the World Cup, for crying out loud! But then again, footy isn't my fave sport...

[enterprikayak]

Canadians play football? I thought you were restricted to hockey, baseball and curling. <<runs>>

HEY!

Actually, the US and Canada have identical-looking football games, and yet the rules are quite different. The yanks think our rules are stupid and we think their rules are stupid. Actually, we're both wrong: football itself is a bit stupid. I mean, the typical injury rate is like 99% and careers only last a couple of years for many players since it's so stupidly brutal.

Canadian football is played on a longer, wider field with larger end zones. The ball is a bit larger. There are 12 men on the field per team instead of the Americans' 11. In the CFL all wide receivers/running backs can be in motion prior to the snap of the ball. In the NFL, only one man can be in motion. The CFL lets you have 3 downs to move 10 yards, while the NFL is 4 downs to move 10 yards. The CFL also awards a single point for missed field goals or a punt that does not get run out of the end zone.

The season is June-November with the playoffs and Grey Cup (championship game) played in late November. There are two divisions in the CFL - West and East. The West has BC Lions, Calgary Stampeders, Edmonton Eskimos, and Saskatchewan Roughriders. The East has the Hamilton Tiger Cats, Toronto Argonauts, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and Montreal Alouettes.

In the 90's the league tried expanding to the USA and had teams in Baltimore, Las Vegas, Birmingham, San Antonio, Shreveport, Sacramento, and Memphis. But all of the American teams we let into the CFL are now dead.

I was at the 1st ever CFL Grey Cup that allowed a US team to play. We kicked their asses, naturally. It was awesome. I was, like, 12.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

"I just think it's rather odd that a nation that prides itself on its virility should feel compelled to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just in order to play rugby."
-Rupert Giles (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) on American Football

[enterprikayak]

probably due to the national litigation rates.

[Alelou]

How many catastrophic head and neck and spine injuries in rugby? I'd guess plenty.

These are all absolutely crazy, semi-suicidal sports.

I did not know that about the Canadian rules. Interesting.

And now... Go Gators.

[justTripn]

The school can't deprive the world from the boy's football ('cause it is called football by the rest of the world, ya know?) forever.

You can call it football. One of the boys club soccer clubs is called Pittsburgh Football Club. We wanted to sound kind of international, because international players are usually pretty good. One of the compliments my son J. gets at college is people who meet him on the field will ask him where he is from, and when he says "Pittsburgh" they are surprised and say they thought he was from another county. LOL

[Pitseleh]

Yeah, see? Playing football (the one you play with your feet, a round ball, and goalkeepers) makes you really interesting and internatinal and sophisticated and stuff--that is if you live in the States, of course. Down here, you'rejust one more kid with a round ball of some sort. I haven't played in a while, and I miss it terribly. Luckily, one of my classmates asked me to join her team one of these days, so that might mean I'll get to play at least once a week.

Meanwhile, I'll join Alelou in a Go Gators! cheer. My high school days in Florida really affected me, as you can see...

[Alelou]

Where in Florida? (Clearwater High School for me.)

[Pitseleh]

Lighthouse Christian Academy

[Alelou]

Where's that?

[enterprikayak]

Sorry to interrupt the highschool reunion here, but.....


*ahem*


..........I'VE BEEN SPRUNG!!!!!!!


*waits 62 seconds for husband to arrive, before becoming impatient and leaping through the window (baby in hand) and onto a passing pterodactyl to fly off into sunset*

sunrise. whatever.

..........I'VE BEEN SPRUNG!!!!!!!

(and I didn't even kill anyone! I'm so proud! {of course there was that one unconscious orderly I shoved into a supply closet, but....})

[Alelou]

Congratulations!!! It's been nice here having you so bored, though...

[Asso]

Congratulations!!! It's been nice here having you so bored, though...

Just like that.

[Pitseleh]

Those are great news, EK. I'll miss having you around for long periods of time, though.


L.C.A. is in Largo, Fla., but if I'm not mistaken, they moved around a year ago or so.