Best Football On TV

Hey, it's football season.

Years ago, Knuckles wrote some advertising and marketing material for the Canadian Football League. The league had recently expanded to Baltimore and Las Vegas in the hopes of tapping into the American market. As a result, Knuckles started following the league, usually during the play-offs.

Let's face it. While the NFL is best live (like any sport) it is marginal on television and just plain fucking horrible on radio.
Okay, while we're at it...
•Baseball is okay on tv but great on radio.
•Basketball is like football. Fine on tv. Boring on radio.
•Hockey works on tv (without the blue glow around the puck) and, like baseball, excellent on radio.

The CFL is great on TV with the league's wide open, backfield-in-motion mayhem. Seeing the recievers and tight ends starting before the snap so that they are hitting the line of scrimage at a dead run is amazing. The three downs and high turnovers are annoying at first but then most plays are for long yardage. To mix a metaphor, the teams are constantly swinging for the fences.

Also, there are no "fair catches" when receiving a punt. While the opposing team must stay 5 yards away from the kick receiver until he catches the ball, it's timed so that when the ball is caught they are 5 yards away...but at a full run. Overcoming huge point deficits in the last quarter of the game is not unusual. Still, Knuckles was a bit unsettled watching the CFL. Then he realized that that uneasiness could actually be described as excitement.

Anyway, the CFL's American franchises folded but the league chugs on. If there's a favorite college player you thought would go on to the NFL (usually a smaller quarterback who could move) but sank out of view, he's probably playing in the CFL.

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Well, that was boring. Next time Knuckles writes about sports it will be about doing a line of coke off Anna Kournikova's ass.