Glowing reviews for inaugural CFL Week
Lions’ Buono among those impressed with off-season exposure of league
1. Message received
For decades, CFL players have grumbled about the league’s refusal to market the stars of the game. Those complaints should abate — at least temporarily — after the inaugural Mark’s CFL Week in Regina where the league flew in 50 top players for extended media interviews and mingling with fans. With traces of snow still on the ground, big personalities such as Odell Willis, Nik Lewis and Chad Owens mugged for the cameras and bared their souls for articles that will go way beyond the clichés like “We need to play smashmouth football,” and “We have to take it one game at a time.” Pithy slogans like “Our balls are bigger,” won’t sell the three-down game. The best bet rests with the players themselves.
2. Call to the Hall
The 2017 Canadian Football Hall of Fame class is absolutely stellar, led by the game’s all-time leading passer in Anthony Calvillo and all-time leading receiver Geroy Simon. They are joined by arguably the CFL’s most consistent running back in Kelvin Anderson and Canadian linebacker/Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea in the player category along with Stan Schwartz, the behind-the-scenes saviour of the Calgary Stampeders, and University of Saskatchewan coaching legend Brian Towriss in the builder category. The CFL hit a home run by officially announcing the names of this year’s inductees at a celebration event held at the new Mosaic Stadium. So much better than burying the news in an out-of-the-blue press release.
3. King Wally: The 67-year-old Wally Buono is not only the general manager/ head coach of the B.C. Lions. Buono is also the dean of the CFL coaching fraternity and the sage voice of reason when it comes to the past, present and future of the game. The league should take heed of his advice, for he won’t be around forever. “The CFL cannot exist just in the months from June to November,” Buono said while on stage with the other West Division coaches in a media conference. “We’ve got to keep the focus on the CFL all year round and things like this will go a long, long way to help that. Hopefully this will help us engage the younger generation, which we definitely need again … Obviously, you want the fans involved and the media here, but the fact that the players see this as tribute to who they are and what they do was very, very, very positive.”