Lionbackers.com

This is a piece from a newspaper in Baltimore called the "Baltimore Sun". It was a "Q&A" session with Ex-Lion (and current Baltimore Raven) Brendon Ayanbadejo. This is a quote from that article...

Q: You spent two seasons in the Canadian Football League. What was that like?

A: It was like being paid to play junior-college football. Junior college was fun, but it was definitely not as serious as Division I, and the CFL is definitely not nearly as serious as the NFL. You get paid to do it, and you have fun and travel around Canada and learn about other people and other customs.

Article here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/foot ... 8860.story


Comparing the CFL to junior college football? I find that disrespectful. Players like Warren Moon, Doug Flutie and Jeff Garcia were overlooked by the NFL. They all started off in the CFL and THEN were noticed by the NFL. If Brendon never played in the CFL, where would he be right now?

Ouch. At least Baltimore still has some CFL fans that hopefully will hold him accountable to that. What a dumb thing to say in public!

Well he did stop just shy of calling it a joke... but yeah, pretty disrespectful.

That's a pretty dumb statement to make. I hope people are giving him the benefit of the doubt. I think I would question the reporters "editing" of a quote. Reporters ARE SOOO honest , especially when you can take a boring interview, and make it into a controversy. I would like someone in this league to phone him up and ask if he actually said that. I'll bet he'll say BS.
What I think of Politicians and reporters...

I don't find that to be overly disrespectful. All I think he was trying to do was make some sort of analogy for a Baltimore audience to compare NFL vs CFL. He used college football and equated NFL to being like Div I and thus the CFL was more like Jr College. He could've just as easily used Div II. He's probably not too far off in that regard when one compares the economies of scale between NFL and CFL then Div I vs Jr. College or Div II.

Some CFL games wish they could get the attendance as some of those college games.

Hambone wrote:I don't find that to be overly disrespectful. All I think he was trying to do was make some sort of analogy for a Baltimore audience to compare NFL vs CFL. He used college football and equated NFL to being like Div I and thus the CFL was more like Jr College. He could've just as easily used Div II. He's probably not too far off in that regard when one compares the economies of scale between NFL and CFL then Div I vs Jr. College or Div II.

Yeah, if there's anything in that interview that would get him raked over the coals by the locals, it's dissing seafood in Baltimore, which is only like, the crab cake capital of America. That would be like someone from the Grizzlies dissing BC Bud!

The CFL product is a lot better than the NFL, IMO; however, in a sense he's right. Outside of Saskatchewan, the CFL isn't really taken as seriously as the NFL. Yeah there are a lot of people who like it and watch it, but if someone had a choice of attending a CFL game vs. attending an NFL game I'm sure most would take the NFL game (not me, but I'm trying to speak for the rest of the people).

Still, Ayanbadejo didn't need to dump on the CFL like that.

Would Ayanbadejo be playing pro football if the CFL didn't give him an opportunity ? Classless statement.

I don't think this is supposed to be a slight. Many ex NFLers who come north say how it is fun to play in the CFL, but the NFL is a joyless job. Things are a little more relaxed up here - more free time, smaller coaching staff, more independence, less media and fan scrutiny, generally.

As for the juco comment, I am sure that Ayanbadejo was exposed to a bigger operating budget when he was a Bruin as opposed to a Leo.

sounds like to me that he enjoyed getting paid to play football in Canada while having fun and traveling around Canada and learning about other people and other customs, compared to the 'No Fun League' and comparable up-tight, high-stakes NCAA football. CFL/Junior College = fun NFL/NCAA = up-tight serious
That's what I get from his quote.

uncle leo wrote:sounds like to me that he enjoyed getting paid to play football in Canada while having fun and traveling around Canada and learning about other people and other customs, compared to the 'No Fun League' and comparable up-tight, high-stakes NCAA football. CFL/Junior College = fun NFL/NCAA = up-tight serious
That's what I get from his quote.

I thought the part about other customs etc. showed that he took some time to look around up here and appreciate the differences, instead of just grumbling about funny coloured money and no ESPN.

Tighthead wrote:

uncle leo wrote:sounds like to me that he enjoyed getting paid to play football in Canada while having fun and traveling around Canada and learning about other people and other customs, compared to the 'No Fun League' and comparable up-tight, high-stakes NCAA football. CFL/Junior College = fun NFL/NCAA = up-tight serious
That's what I get from his quote.

I thought the part about other customs etc. showed that he took some time to look around up here and appreciate the differences, instead of just grumbling about funny coloured money and no ESPN.

I don't take his comments as a slight. You are correct Tighthead - I believe Brendan enjoyed his time up here. In fact, I recall seeing both he and his brother Obafemi (formerly with the Dolphins) in Yaletown's Bar None and if memory serves me, it was after his time as a Lion.

DH 8)

zark wrote:Some CFL games wish they could get the attendance as some of those college games.

There are 4 college stadiums in the US with 100,000+ seats, 8 more over 90k and 11 more over 80k.... NFL teams wish they could get those crowds, they have 2 over 80k.

zark wrote:That's a pretty dumb statement to make. I hope people are giving him the benefit of the doubt. I think I would question the reporters "editing" of a quote. Reporters ARE SOOO honest , especially when you can take a boring interview, and make it into a controversy. I would like someone in this league to phone him up and ask if he actually said that. I'll bet he'll say BS.
What I think of Politicians and reporters...

Not to just counter your statement Zark, but a few others here as well. What he was doing was placing the difference between the two leagues in a context that the US fan could understand. Much like saying the BCJHL is more like the AHL compared to the CHL being on par with the NHL in their approach to the sport being more business like. Funy how people read what they want to, not always what is written.