BC Lions - The New Champions of the CFL

In case you didn't know it Canada has its very own football league.  It is called the Canadian Football League (duh!) or in musical sounding French the Ligue Canadienne de Football.  I admit I did not know this until I landed here.  I thought in football, like in hockey, Canada shared its major league with the US.

Yesterday the BC Lions won the 99th Grey Cup and British Columbians couldn't be happier.   My husband is one of them.  I don't think he is ever going to let me forget that we could have gotten tickets for the game a few months ago (when they were very affordable) but I assured him we would get them later because we had other financial priorities at the moment.  Unfortunately, tickets were going for $1500 a few days before the game.  I know I am going to be hearing about this for a long time.  

This win comes in a great moment to lift the spirits of British Columbians who are still heartbroken about their hockey team not winning the Stanley Cup in hockey.  Even I was cheering for them and I don't understand the game very well!  

Football is big in Canada.  Not as big as hockey of course, I mean nothing is as big as hockey here, but it comes a close enough second.   The CFL is an easy to follow league.  The football played here is supposed to be slightly different from American football.  The CFL has 8 teams divided into the East and West divisions.  Interestingly, the CFL expanded to the US for a few years in the 90s but that wasn't very successful and  in 1996 it became again an all-Canadian League.  I like it better that way.

See the game highlights directly from the CFL website here

My nephew posing with coach Jim Sandusky, a former BC Lions player