The return of the Grey Cup game to Toronto after a 15 year absence is one of the very strong storylines underlying Sunday’s Winnipeg vs. Saskatchewan match for the CFL championship.
Stephen Brunt, in his usual excellent fashion, has written a piece on Hogtown’s curious relationship with the Grey Cup game. In addition to making many salient points concerning Toronto’s persistent ambivalence about the Grey Cup, Brunt captures in a few paragraphs the very essence of the Rider fans:
At its heart, the appeal of spectator sport is a celebration of kith and kin and community. But long ago, because of cargo-cult loyalties built over great distances by television, because of professional athletes being freed to ply their trade where they want, the whole notion of rooting for the home team was often reduced to an abstract.
For the ‘Riders, for their fans in the province, and for the great green diaspora (Saskatchewanians in exile run head-to-head with displaced Newfoundlanders in this country, and both places belong in any discussion of distinct societies), the relationship remains intact, remains as real as any in sport, anywhere.
To be in the company of ‘Rider fans is to be reminded why you ever gave a damn about a team, about a player, about a uniform, in the first place. Not sports marketing or game presentation or brand loyalty, but our guys versus their guys, joy and agony experienced in the company of those who share a place, a background, and a passion.
Brunt has managed to say exactly what I was trying to get at (on the subject of the sheer awesomeness of ‘Rider fans) in my previous post on the game. I guess that’s why he writes for The Globe and I just hack away at my computer, spewing stuff into the anonymous ether.
The point is that it is going to be tough for anyone without a direct fan affiliation to either team to root for the Bombers; yes, they have a compelling “win one for the Glenn-er” kind of angle going for them, and an inexperienced but aw-shucks kind of quarterback desperately and valiantly trying to fill the hole when his teammates need him, but come on. To root for the Bombers is to root for the disappointment of an entire seething green mass of people to whom this game matters, and to whom it has mattered since long before they ever got here. I don’t think I can, in good conscience, participate in hoping that all those great fans – a throwback to a mostly bygone era in the world of professional sports today – go home as glum as they are green.
All of that aside, I still think Stephen Brunt’s bit might have been improved by a reference to Gainer the Gopher.
I think YOU should write for the Globe & Mail. That Brunt guy might be okay, but I have no doubt you’d be way better. You just hack away at your computer, spewing stuff into the anonymous ether because the Globe & Mail hasn’t discovered you yet.
That’s what I think and I know I am right about it too!
Maybe I will take an intermediate step and write TO the Globe and Mail.
That sounds like a step in the right direction.