The Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers played a preseason game in Winnipeg at IG Field on Thursday night, and everything about it seemed completely wrong. An NFL player player showing up the day before and wearing a t-shirt that read, 'Winnipeg, Alberta' set the tone for the mess that happened out Manitoba way. I will try to sum up the mess below, as best I can.
Really small field. The NFL should already have known that the CFL plays on a much bigger field, and should have planned ahead accordingly with the Bombers organization and IG Field. To freak out at the last moment and having to serve up an NFL field that was only 80 yards long (Yeah, you heard that right) was an embarassment in itself.
The end zones were started at the 10-yard line to make up for the chunks of turf that were needed to cover the holes in the ground for the CFL uprights. The fact that an entity as big and organized as the NFL failed to take this into consideration ahead of time is a joke. This was never an issue when the Buffalo Bills played home games in Toronto some years ago, as the logistics were planned out ahead of time.
You get benched, you get benched, everyone gets benched! Both teams sat two thirds of their starting rosters, including the QB's and other key players. I know it's preseason and all, but when you're trying to make further inroads in the Canadian market, sitting all the known players isn't exactly what you'd call a 'good idea'. No one wants to pay to see backups and third stringers, and this was evident in the low attendance in the stands.
At least put the star players in for the first quarter, and then pull them out for safety's sake. Give the fans a taste of the real action first and foremost, or did the NFL forget that without the fan, they are nothing?
As big as the NFL is, they could learn a lot from the CFL and how we do things up here. I've been a fan of all three major leagues (CFL, NFL, NCAA) since I was a kid, and let me say that no one puts on a better game than the CFL. Let this be a lesson for the No Fun League.
I for one, hope they learn from it.
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