Is Canada a country without a purpose?

Heh. I'll say this: when the CFL's salaries were competitive with the NFL's up until about 1985, that was some GOOD football, and the remnants of that lasted until about 1998. But after that, the player quality declined dramatically. The CFL just could no longer compete with the NFL's out of control salaries and therefore couldn't attract top talent anymore. But the CFL on CBC gave me some of my greatest sports memories ever, I was so sad to see that partnership go. Things were just never the same after that and my interest steadily died off. I don't think I've seen an entire CFL game since 2007

 

No they weren't. I can remember lots of years were being a CFL player wasn't even a minimal living. Plenty of guys worked in factories all through the off season and got leave when the next one rolled around. They had families. They had to. I can remember some player's salaries being like $35K in the late 70s. Don't tell me NFL'ers made that kind of low money back then.

I live in a CFL town - two blocks from the Stadium and I've NEVER seen any part of a CFL game. Hate ALL pro sports. Money-sucking madness. US College sports, too.

 

They were and it was player-dependent as it always has been in pro sports. In 1957, Jim Brown was offered the biggest contract ever to play in the CFL much more than he was being offered in the NFL, but he turned it down because in his own words he "... wanted to play in the best league."

George Reed in 1963 turned down big offers from the NFL to play in the CFL because the CFL was giving bigger offers, and this was a common reason during that time that some guys would pick the CFL over the NFL, it just paid more money. Some players like Tobin Rote even used it as bargaining chip. An NFL team wouldn't give them what they wanted, they'd threaten to go to the CFL for more, and he was one of a number of guys who did it. The accounts of it usually say he was going to be released in the NFL but they don't say why, but being an NFL Films junkie in the 80s and 90s I saw an interview he had about it: the reason as he stated was because he refused to play for the low amount they were offering, so he said "Fine, I'm off to Canada!"

They thought he was bluffing. He wasn't.

He went to the CFL, got more money, and tore the league apart, and that got the NFL including his former team calling again, he said 'no' and stayed in Canada to make more money. It wasn't until the AFL came around and offered more that he decided to come back to the United States to play and that was a good decision because he came down and went nuts on the AFL in '63, too, which made him even more money the following season.

In 1985, NFL salaries exploded catalyzed by the first strike in 1982, and the strike that was brewing to happen in 1987, and once that happened the CFL had a hard time keeping up. No surprise that in 1985 , the very year the NFL salary explosion happened, the NFL snagged a CFL starting QB and future Hall of Famer, Dieter Brock, with a multi-million dollar deal that he wasn't getting anything close to in the CFL before.

In 1991, Rocket Ismail got the biggest contract in the history of professional football (not hyperbole) from the Toronto Argonauts despite having a big contract on the table from an NFL team as he was locked to be the #1 pick in that year's NFL draft. The Argos won him over because they were able to financially compete and best what the NFL was projected to offer. When he signed there, it sent shockwaves through the sports world. I remember seeing this live:

It wasn't unheard of for players in the NFL and CFL and every other league to have second jobs back then, because unless you were a premiere player, or a better-than-average player, you made closer to the base salary and that usually wasn't enough to support a family and take care of other expenses.

I won't, but Career Trend will tell you a number much lower:

"The Players Association finally won recognition in 1970, and the owners agreed to a $9,000 minimum salary for rookies and $10,000 for veterans. The minimum salary crept higher through the 1970s."

https://careertrend.com/nfl-salary-history-13670918.html

And "crept" is a perfect word to describe the progress. This of course, as I mentioned earlier, was all player-dependent. While an average player might have been making $10,000 or a little more, a better-than-average or highly popular player like Joe Namath or a great player like John Unitas was making a lot more, but most players made closer to the low base salary.

 

Okay, LA. You obviously win. I'm truly humbled - really. Know where I can get a good plate of crow, these days? For this faux pas, I deserve the best crow in town! You know this stuff. I obviously don't. I'll try to stick to things I know. Unfortunately, that's a pretty narrow range. Thanks for the much-needed correction.

 

We love it. NBC bounces it around so much, it does not catch a foothold.

 

I think everyone would agree just from reading your posts that you're far too well read for that to be the case. I can't count how many times I've had to research a quote, point, or phrase you've posted over the years because I had no idea what it was from.

 

And you (gasp!) thought I KNEW? Wow!

 

Canada's "purpose"? Does a country have to have a purpose?

It's undoubtedly true that the U.S. has thought throughout our history that its purpose was to be "a light unto the world". We thought that even during the decades of slavery. Kind of a mixed message there, I think.

But Canada's purpose, if she has one, is to be Canada. Nothing wrong with that!

 

Thinking about it...countries with a "purpose" can be pretty scary for their neighbors.

 

B.W. Powe in his book A Canada of Light (1993/1997):

 

With the common thread that Canada ISN'T the United States and Canadians AREN'T United-States-ians. Given the intense similarities, the "family resemblance" perhaps? Canada has had to work pretty hard to maintain its individuality. English Canada, perhaps I should say. French Canada is in no danger of being sucked up into the all-embracing Vision of Uncle Sam. But one fact I find to be telling; the legal requirement for a minimum of "Canadian content" in Canadian television.

 

I think that's as much an economic thing as it is a cultural one. They want Canadian TV production to have a market. Plenty of good stuff there - wise choice.

I remember when we made other stuff here -- like clothes. They were good then. Asian stuff is um.. "uniformly" poor. But I settle for Italian and British. They're horribly expensive in stores (and I'd have to go to Toronto) but I get them for almost nothing in the Salvation Army stores. Every time a rich lawyer my size dies, and his duds are given away --- I'm there! Looks like a doctor was giving his Italian jacket away a while ago. I got it home (for $7) and found three or four of his cards still in the pockets! Perfect fit! Men don't notice. Women do... and they say such nice things. A pleasure to smile and thank them. Good feeling.

 

Some good American stuff too - old school. A couple months back, I got a Hathaway shirt. Brand new in the cellophane wrap, etc. $8. Hathaway ceased production after 154 years, in 2002!

 

Canada is a stopgap solution for US broken immigration system. That's it, that is it's purpose.

 

Abbot has bused a few thousand immigrants from Texas to Washington DC. Washington DC should maybe ship them the rest of the way to Canada? Just a bad joke, shipping them to Canada part, the Texas to Washington DC part of the story is real.

Actually though folks in Canada are much nicer and more friendly than folks here in the USA. The immigrants might like Canada better? Maybe we could even get Ted Cruz on that bus back to Canada?

 

IN YOUR DREAMS, BILL!

 

They do. Right from the get-go. I hear it from them all the time. Even more now, than I used to. And even if I eavesdrop, on a language I understand a bit - like Spanish - they're saying it to each other. So it's real. Lot of happy Colombians, Mexicans, Central & South American folks here. I'm sure the others are too - e.g. Syrians, Iranians, Nigerians et al. They say so in English , and give me no reason to disbelieve them.

 

Not perfect - not paradise - but a whole lot better than what they had, it would seem. Whether they arrived here with a fair chunk of money - or virtually none.