Tonight belongs to you, CFL fans

We finally made it, folks.

The Canadian Football League will play its first game in 620 days tonight when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at IG Field.

Coming out of an eighteen-month pandemic, the 2021 CFL season will bring a sense of normalcy to fans across the country. In a period of death, illness, job loss, stress, and anxiety, the CFL’s absence has robbed Canadians of a much-needed distraction from the darkness that surrounds us on a daily basis.

This past year has been by far the most challenging of my life, which is wild considering I’ve had amazing luck throughout the pandemic.

None of my close family members or friends contracted COVID-19. Very few missed a paycheque and those who did were able to collect CERB. My wife and I have a fully detached home in which we were able to distance ourselves from the outside world comfortably.

These are all remarkable gifts millions of deserving people have had to do without for the past eighteen months. I recognize how fortunate I was and continue to be throughout this awful time period.

Photo courtesy: Ticats.ca

In a perfect world, tonight’s game would reintroduce the world to CFL football in style. It would be an instant classic featuring electric returns, jaw-dropping catches, and a half-dozen lead changes. There’d even be overtime!

But that doesn’t really matter. Tonight’s game could be extremely sloppy — and let’s be honest, following a cancelled campaign and no preseason games, it probably will be — and it would still be a celebration of the league we all know and love.

Penalties. Missed field goals. Two-and-outs. They’re not the most exciting parts of our league, but we love them, too.

The CFL was under threat this off-season in way that it hadn’t been since the U.S. expansion era of the mid-1990s. There was a reasonable chance the league was going to partner with the XFL, in which case it would likely have shifted to playing four-down football with a limited number of Canadian roster spots.

It’s also probable that the league would have folded had the 2021 season not been played. A cancelled season was tough enough to endure, but the thought of losing the league altogether? That’s almost unbearable.

The CFL wasn’t formally established until 1958, but its roots can be traced back as early as 1873 with the formation of the Toronto Argonauts. Losing a league that is so strongly woven into the cultural fabric of our country would have been a crime. I hope the CFL is never faced with such a degree of uncertainty again, which is why we must unapologetically hold its leadership to a high standard.

This league has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can’t imagine the person I’d be without it, nor do I want to. It’s provided a vehicle to connect with family, forge friendships, travel, and meet people I never imagined getting to know.

The CFL is like an old car that should have broken down years ago but somehow just keeps running. You’d never think of getting rid of it, either, because no car on the market could truly replace it. There are newer cars, fancier cars, bigger cars, and sexier cars, but none that can compare to the old classic. They simply don’t make them like they used to.

There’s no cheering allowed in the press box, but I’m not sure of the policy on crying. If it’s against the rules, I’m prepared to break them tonight. If you shed tears this evening — at the stadium, at the bar or in your home — know that I’ll be doing the same.

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a fan of the CFL, how many jerseys you own, how many tickets you’ve purchased or how many Grey Cup parties you’ve attended. If you’re a CFL fan, tonight belongs to you.

It belongs to you.

It belongs to me.

It belongs to all of us.

Enjoy it. I know I will.