Video Transcript:

Canadian football is remarkably Canadian — despite all those U.S. players.

Like Sunday’s Grey Cup game in the snow, on the same weekend that many Canadians observed Black Friday — a totally U.S. appendage to their Thanksgiving. If we’re gonna do Black Friday, can we at least do it in October? But Canadian football remains clearly ours.

It has a bigger field and fewer downs, therefore more risk-taking. I like the sloppy human look of CFL players versus the smooth Lego figure look of NFLers.

They play with military precision, against a kind of ‘Everybody go long’ quality in Canadian football.

And it’s rife with human fallibility, like that 109-yard fumble return Sunday.

Now, U.S. football is in trouble, partly due to the concussion issue. Even players don’t want their kids to play. Plus, the rage of some white fans at the kneeling protest of black players has exposed a deep social rift.

The gladiators are fighting back and everyone’s angry. We don’t have that problem here. Sunday’s Grey Cup started by acknowledging Aboriginal right to the field they were playing on.

Unfortunately, CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie screwed up the week before the game by downplaying the concussion problem — though it might all be moot. Football may vanish, as Bob Costas says. But if some version of it survives, in highly modified form, I hope it’s Canadian — even if that means even more U.S. players fleeing north for refuge, like characters from The Handmaid’s Tale.

Rick Salutin’s video commentary appears on Tuesdays.

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