Salmon!

We are coming out of the theatre and see hoards of people on the street. After a moment we realize that the Grey Cup (Canadian football's superbowl) has let out. We ruled out taking the skytrain home since it would be madness at the station right by the stadium so we opt to walk home. The thing is, the most direct route to get from downtown to our place is by the stadium so we are walking against the traffic of thousands of people pouring towards downtown. One clever joe yelled "Lookout! Salmon!" as we wove our way in and out of the crowd.

Since neither of us follows football at all, we had no idea who was playing in the Grey Cup. I had seen a bunch of cowboys waving Calgary Stampeders flags the night before so I deduced that they must have been one of the teams. (I knew that BC wasn't playing, they were just rotate the venue and this year we had it) We were trying to identify by the clothing that the many, many fans were wearing who the other team was. This proved to be more difficult than you'd think.

Within the first couple blocks I saw a guy fully dressed in Saskatchewan Roughriders gear (or is is Rough Riders? and why are there two teams with essentially the same name?). I said to Theovis that it must have been Saskatchewan that they were playing. Next thing I know, though, a ton of people walked by wearing Hamilton Tigercats stuff, and waving Hamilton flags. Now I am really confused. How many teams were playing anyway? How would they divide the field for more than 2 teams? Had they changed the rules to try and make it more exciting? Is this a new thing because of the approaching pseudo-millenium celebration? (in announcer's voice) "Grey Cup '99. Once in a millennium comes a football game no-one will forget. Three teams in a battle for dominance. Only one can come out on top. Never before in CFL history, a Grey Cup Triple-Threat matchup."

As we continued our adventure upriver to spawn, um, I mean, as we fought to head home, we saw a squad of Saskatchewan cheerleaders in full on Roughriders (Rough Riders?) warm-up suits and pompoms. Then more TiCat fans. Then a bunch of people walking in the middle of the road with an Edmonton Eskimos sign hollering at other Edmonton fans. One of the few teams that no-one was cheering for was BC (probably because they are lousy). Who the hell had been playing?

We were actually having a great time walking against the flow of people even though, as most of our friends would attest, we don't like crowds and will avoid going places we know will be filled with people. It was just so bizarre having no idea which of these many teams had actually been playing. I really wanted to stop someone and ask, but I was a little afraid of being lynched in the midst of rabid (and arguably confused) fans. The crowd thinned out as we reached BC Place Stadium itself and I took it upon myself to ask someone who'd won, thinking that question made me seem less idiotic than "who was playing?". "Not Calgary" was the response I got. Damn it. Calgary was the one team I actually knew. Someone else in the group must have seen my confused expression and answered that Hamilton had won. I thanked them and kept going.

Now, I understand having a favorite team, but does it make sense to cheer for them even when they aren't playing? Well no, it doesn't. Theovis says that you buy your tickets before you know who the competing teams are, but I'd think that you would pick your favorite team of the two teams actually playing to cheer for at the game itself. Were the Saskatchewan fans shouting out, "Go Roughriders" (Rough Riders?) everytime either team made a touchdown? I don't get it. Alas, I am not a sports fan, so I guess I'll never understand the dedication necessary to cheer for your favorite team. Even when they aren't playing.