Global Grief

It's been 4 days since the news of Kobe Bryant's death and that tragic accident broke.  Even though this is a page dedicated to football and the CFL and Roughriders in particular I can't help but be moved by the outpouring of emotion from athletes world wide.  This was a shocking event that a lot of us are going to remember for a long time in a way that we might talk about it years from now and include the question where were you.

The CFL has a global initiative coined CFL 2.0.  From my perspective it's a movement to sign football players from around the globe and gain viewers (TV Contracts) and popularity world wide.  Combines have been held in a few European countries already in 2020.  In 2019 each CFL team had to carry global players on their roster.  Very few actually saw playing time.  I am told that this will take time.  The global players have to get up to speed with CFL football and it will also take time to see the fruits of the television labours.  

CFL fans and Rider fans in particular are not the most patient group of people.  We want to see a difference and we'd like to see it now.

One of the biggest criticisms of CFL 2.0 is that many feel issues should be fixed on Canadian soil before setting abroad for greener pastures.  Both Toronto and Vancouver have low game day attendance.  The Argonauts and Lions struggle in a market that seems to prefer NHL and NFL over everything else.  Just this week in a news article it was stated that Toronto could host an NFL team and the NFL was interested in that prospect.  

Is it possible the CFL has given up on "fixing" these two CFL teams?

These aren't the only teams seeing a downturn.  Attendance has slumped across the nation.  Many fans complain about the cost of attending games.

Regardless, the CFL is focused on the global community.

Or is it?

On Sunday when we all found out about the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, friends and team mates condolences poured in from every corner of the world.  The CFL Twitter account wasn't quiet and tweeted CFL related news all day but never once issued a statement like the NFL, NHL and even Nascar did.  It wasn't until the evening that Randy Ambrosie tweeted a message and it was the next day that the CFL quietly retweeted it.

No he wasn't a football player but Bryant was a sports ambassador for many athletes and the very least the CFL should have done was join in the sporting community to share in the grieving process.  

I was very disappointed in the lack of response.

If the CFL wants to lead the way with expanding the game worldwide then they also need to learn to play with the big boys.

They dropped the ball big time on this one.