Through some magical luck on my part, you've somehow made it here. My guess is, you're a Canadian sports fan with some web-saavy, just like myself. Maybe you found me through Blogger, or maybe you came across the official @CanSportsBlog Twitter account. No matter how you came to this post, on this blog, I thank you for checking it out, and I hope you'll check back as I plan on updating often.
My motivation for starting this blog is the culmination of a few factors:
I spend a lot of my time following, reading, listening to and discussing Canadian sports.
Seriously. I'm pretty obsessed with sports. It's the best drama there is: it never ends, it has a near-unlimited number of characters, story-lines, and you never have to look far to find someone who's willing to discuss and debate with you. Why spend your time watching anything else?
It's not just the actual games that are interesting, either. To me, everything about the sports world is genuinely enthralling. The business decisions that go on behind the scenes, where money and politics have just as much importance as what happens on the field. The media that covers Canadian sports, despite being somewhat homogenous compared to our American brethren, creates engaging discussion points, and many media members often become entertaining characters in their own right. Everything from Collective Bargaining Agreements to Amateur Drafts to new stadium developments is just downright exciting.
So, why Canadian sports? I'm really not one of those "Rah rah, Canada is the best, USA sux!" patriots. In fact, I think being overly proud of the accomplishments of your country (a.k.a. "nationalism") is kind of silly. But being a sports fan is also silly. It's fun to cheer for someone, even if they were born on the other side of the continent and have very little in common with yourself. And as I'll explain below, I believe that for a relatively small country with relatively little emphasis on sports, we're on the precipice of a "Golden Age" of Canadian athletes and professional sports.
The Canadian sports media, in my opinion, does a pretty poor job covering professional sports leagues that don't have the letter"H" in their
Straight up: in the past, the Canadian sports landscape has been too hockey-centric. You all know the story of hockey, it's place in our culture and the importance to our people. The Canadian Sports Media Conglomerates (TSN a.k.a. Bell and Sportsnet a.k.a. Rogers) know this, and make sure to produce plenty of hockey-related content and shovel it down our throats whenever possible.
Now, I do not dislike hockey by any means. It's a fantastically entertaining game whose emphasis on teamwork, cohesion and toughness is wonderful to watch. But it really is just a small piece of the sports pie (Mmmm, sports pie.) And when there's so many awesome story-lines happening and so many Canadian athletes doing well in other leagues, it's frustrating to hear the Canadian sports media spend an hour talking about how the 5th D-man on the Leafs got a half-million more than they're worth.
But through a combination of multiculturalism and new media technologies, I think this tide is changing. Previously, a Canadian watched hockey to "assimilate" into the culture. It was what we played, so it was on TV, so that's what you watched. Now, through the POWER OF THE INTERNET, we can watch whatever we want. And it is starting to show in the Canadian Sports Media Conglomerates (CSMC's for short.) Personalities like Tim & Sid, Cabral "Cabbie" Richards and others are bringing the other leagues to the forefront, and I think that's awesome.
Canadian leagues, teams and athletes are doing EXTREMELY well in the world-wide professional sports landscape, and I want to discuss that with some like-minded fans.
You may not have heard, but this is the summer of the Canadian athlete.
Andrew Wiggins has been the 2nd biggest story in the NBA this year. He was drafted 1st overall in the NBA Draft a few weeks ago, joining last years #1 overall (admittedly disappointing) pick, fellow Canadian Anthony Bennett, on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now that some native Clevelander has rejoined the team, many are speculating Wiggins may be moved to Minnesota for more mature All-Star Kevin Love. But between guys like Wiggins, Bennett, Sacramento sharpshooter Nik Stauskas and Steve Nash prodigy Tyler Ennis, the future Canadian basketball is promising to say the least.
But it goes beyond the NBA. Eugenie Bouchard has become the darling of Women's tennis, with her work ethic, good looks and anglo-speaking-ness making her a favourite around the globe. Milos Raonic's powerful serve is shooting him up the Men's tennis rankings. Graeme DeLaet is having more sustained success than Canadian Golf legend Mike Weir did. Canada has turn into a scouting-hotbed for the NCAA Basketball world. And a Canadian actually started for the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl (Although it is unfortunate that Rob Ford jinxed him.)
It's not just individual athletes, either. With the loss of the Alouettes and Grizzlies, the Blue Jays and Raptors have almost become Canada's Teams by default (the two greatest words in the English language.)
We're seeing a resurgence in the popularity of CIS sports (Or I guess, just a surgence, since I don't know if they've ever been popular) thanks in part to the dominant run of teams like the Carleton Ravens in Men's Basketball, who've managed to hold their own against D1 NCAA schools, or the Laval Rouge et Or in Football, whose 2011 Mitchell Bowl double-overtime match against the McMaster Marauders was perhaps the best and most entertaining Football game in CIS history,
There's a ridiculous amount of awesome, hilarious, adorable, heart-wrenching content on the web that I come across that many Canadian sports fans just don't see, and I want to share it with them.
I'm constantly finding awesome Canadian-sports-related-things online, and I want to share them. Unfortunately I think it's beginning to tick off my Facebook friends. So this platform will give me the opportunity to share all this neat stuff I find to an audience that will appreciate it a little more. I hope.
Well, that covers it. I guess this has sort of turned into a CanSportsBlog manifesto. I hope you like what I had to say, there will be more coming.
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