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David Menzies

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Why I Am Boycotting the Grey Cup

Posted: 11/26/11 11:55 AM ET

This Sunday, Canadians are supposed to huddle en masse in front of TVs and watch our home-grown version of Super Bowl Lite, a.k.a., the Grey Cup.

I shan't be among them.

Indeed, I'm actually calling for a boycott of the Canadian Football League's big game -- and for the CFL in general.

This has nothing to do with the Argonauts missing the playoffs or my desire for Toronto to acquire an NFL franchise.

My beef is this: The CFL is an illegal sports league.

Oh, it's true.

Why is that we must report temperature in Celsius; sell bananas by the kilo; measure speed and distance by the kilometre; and purchase petro by the litre?

And yet, when it comes to the CFL, the field isn't marked out in Systeme Internationale-approved metres.

Even in 2011, the CFL clings to defunct old Imperial yards. And without repercussions to boot! It's a double standard.

If your friendly neighbourhood Imperial Oil station sold gas imperially by the gallon, there'd be hell to pay via Ottawa's measurement mandarins.

So how is it that football clubs don't have to play by the same set of rules as everyone else?

When I first contacted the CFL about this many moons ago, a spokesman said sticking with yards is all about "tradition" and the fact that all of the league's records have always been measured in Imperial increments as opposed to metres and centimetres.

What's more, he said if the government ever forced the league to go metric, the CFL would simply mark off the field in 110 increments measuring exactly 91.44 centimetres (in other words, 36 inches.) And each 91.44-centimetre increment would officially be known as something called a "yard."

Isn't that special?

If anything, the CFL has a perfectly legit reason to go metric. After all, a CFL field between the end zones is 110 yards. Think about that -- 110. What a dumb number. Yet, by happy coincidence, 100 metres fits almost perfectly into a 110-yard footprint.

But no. The CFL continues to illegally flaunt metrication.

That's not right. After all, Canadians -- that is to say, those who aren't professional football players -- have suffered enough. Used to be that if a car got 28 miles to the gallon, that was a fuel-efficient vehicle. But now we must contend with litres per 100 kilometres. Really, does anyone say their car consumes 8.9 litres per 100 kilometres? (There was a solution to this, by the way: we could've measured fuel consumption by adopting a system of kilometres-per-litre. But that was way too logical for Ottawa's measurement minions.)

And let's be honest: Does anyone measure their tire pressure in kilopascals as opposed to pounds per square inch?

By the way, what was the point in going metric in the first place given that our largest trading partner, the U.S., is still firmly rooted in Imperial?

Either we have one measurement standard for everyone or we have complete measurement freedom of choice. The fact remains, the CFL enjoys privileged status in this land for no valid reason. Put another way: if you operated a grocery store and sold fruit exclusively by the pound, you'd be fined or even shut down.

Even though I love the Grey Cup, come Sunday, my TV set will be a CFL-free zone. And it will remain CFL-free until measurement liberty finally returns to our grand Dominion.

Won't you please join me in this endeavour for measurement justice?

 
 
 
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01:13 AM on 11/28/2011
Anyone who says "shan't" probably shouldn't be watching football anyway...
11:25 PM on 11/27/2011
David : Please go back to square one. You haven't a clue !
11:24 PM on 11/27/2011
The government may say we are metric, but our proximity to the US says otherwise.

Think not? Go to your local Canadian Tire, Rona, or Home Depot and ask for a set of metric drills.
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Daniel Kilgallon
Calgary Heavy Oil
08:43 PM on 11/27/2011
What a waste of time writing this article. Other articles by David are very ill informed and based on stereo type.

For example the non-compete clause the CFL has with the NFL means that there will never be a Toronto NFL team.
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08:07 PM on 11/27/2011
I think the author was kidding, but the point is, as an american, we were taught metric system in junior high and told the country was adopting this standard.

We were taught metric system in junior high and told to help teach our parents, guess that was first exposure to gov't. double-speak, that was in 1974! Today I can't defend our position as the only country not using metric system. who won the grey cup?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
SayBlade
This micro bio intentionally left blank.
11:39 PM on 11/27/2011
Lions 34-23.
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Paul Stacey
Kill guns, not children.
01:39 PM on 11/27/2011
For anyone in Red Deer who could care less about the game, my band is hosting a jam session/showcase at Local's pub this afternoon.
12:07 AM on 11/27/2011
My love for the CFL extends to my preoccupation for the half time snacks. I use this proud prominence of Canadian sporting history to produce half time masterpieces that put all my buddies wives to shame.

Tomorrow will allow the following :

Turkey meatballs marinated overnight in a spicy ginger sauce, rolled in a cracked pepper/cranberry panko crumb coating and baked.

Puff pastries ( perogie size) filled will a beef/pork mixture with BBQ/chili verde sauce

Turkey bacon ( sweet/chili glaze) with long strips of Long English cucumber and cantaloupe rolled and pinned.

Sporting events are my excuse to cook :-)
06:44 PM on 11/26/2011
Hope you never go to a lumber yard, you will be so disappointed, no 50mm by 200mm, lots of 2x4s.
06:24 PM on 11/26/2011
I still like the three down system which makes them throw the ball more. The metric thing is a non-starter. I would like the comparative economies problem to result in a reduction of the US monetary advantage as they relatively decline.
04:07 PM on 11/26/2011
Wasn't funny. I know you tried, but you just didn't make it.
03:01 PM on 11/26/2011
The whole question of metrication is not simple. In Canada, Trudeau started the ball rolling in what was supposed to be a joint Canada-US effort. In the '70s, the left in the US complained that metric units weren't natural, i.e., the medieval French measurements used in the US (pounds=livres, feet=pieds, inches=pouces, etc.) were in their minds somehow natural and metric units were not. So the US pulled out and Trudeau went ahead, not wanting to waste the money already spent, pissed off with the US.
Mulroney after some screaming in English Canada, froze metrication. So in Canada, we still are stuck with pounds, ounces, inches, feet, cups, teaspoons and tablespoons and our stoves still have Fahrenheit. The young have no idea how these measurements are related to each other.

Just in case you are wondering even in Europe, people get a chopine (pint) of beer and babies in Holland are weighed in ounces (an ounce=100 grammes).

As for your comment re gas consumption, using make-believe Canadian units like km/l are not the way to go. The international standard for measuring gas consumption is indeed l/100km.

So methinks you do protest too much.
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Whistlejackett
Hey stop doing that
12:25 PM on 11/26/2011
That was a tough read. I really do not know why my wife buys white paper towels when I like yellow ones.