The CFL announced some rule changes today. And I’m kind of sad about it.

It’s been a tough month for some of us die-hard Argos fans who are realizing that we aren’t that important. 2026 home games moved to Hamilton and Winnipeg and Saskatchewan, a partnership with an NFL team that seems to involve promoting the NFL in toronto more than the CFL, advertising at the games seemingly based on gambling more than anything else, and now these rule changes, including moving to a 100 yard field with goal posts at the back of the end zone. Just like the NFL, but with a slightly wider field and slightly deeper end zones.

I have to think that once they get these structural issues out of the way, a move to 4 downs won’t be far off.

This is what makes me sad: Call me a dinosaur but the reason I like the Argos games is rooted in the idea that it’s my Canadian home town team against yours, that I can gloat about the result to my brother-in-law in Regina or friends in Hamilton (and vice versa), that it’s fun to get to a relatively inexpensive event shared with tens of thousands of others where we all get to cheer and sing Go Argos Go and share in victories and defeats, and Pull Together. (And meeting thousands of fellow dinosaurs who travel to the Grey Cup every year regardless of where it is or who’s playing, because of our love for our great shared interest.)

Why doesn’t this work? Why can’t we make it work?

I guess there just aren’t enough people who feel that way. We gotta make the game more like the NFL. Maybe the problem is that the tickets are too cheap.

Explain me this though: Why is Australian Rules Football a big success down under? Somehow THAT works, it inspires a great sense of pride in your city, and it gets people out of their couch, down to the games. (I suppose it helps that Australia doesn’t have a much larger country right on its border.)

I wish we had that Aussie spirit with Canadian football, but today feels like yet another in an endless series of waves of American media and American football hype washing over what used to be a great Canadian league.