This is where it will be a little complicated. For this, I can pick a regional area as I’m now in the Midwest / Central zone. I’m going to lean on the Minnesota Vikings for this one. With St. Paul and Minneapolis, there is no comparison on the size of the population. St. Paul’s Minneapolis has an estimated population of 3.28 Million, as opposed to Winnipeg at 749,000. There is a Winnipeg to Minnesota connection that begins and ends with the legend of Head Coach Bud Grant. Bud Grant is one of the very few that are inducted in both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Modern: Kirk Cousins, Warren Moon, Daunte Culpepper, and Rich Gannon.
Historical: Fran Tarkenton, and J
oe Kapp.Football was not invented in Saskatchewan or Green Bay, but it should have been. Both small cities could not be so similar in which they are most likely are Sister Cities in football. Both have football roots going back to the late 1800s.
Modern: Aaron Rogers and Bret Fav
re.Historical: Bart Starr.
British Columbia Lions
Geographically I can pick a lot o
f teams on the West Coast. However, Vancouver is not Oakland, and it’s not like Los Angeles. I mean it is a city where it is the most expensive property in all of Canada. They produce a lot of movies and TV shows out of Vancouver. However, I’m not going to go on that. I’m going to base it on the beautiful West Coast views, along with the cost of living. Therefore, I’m leaning towards San Francisco for this one.Modern: Joe Montana, Jeff Garcia, and Steve Young.
Historical: Y.A. Tittle, and John Brodie
It all comes down to both Alberta Teams. Alberta with a rich history of oil, gas, oil sands, agriculture, and the cattle industry. It is very similar to what Texas is to the USA. However, the Western Alberta part has the Rocky Mountains similar to a Colorado when you factor in the climate. Texas does not have a Mountain Range like out west. So, I’m going to look towards Calgary as Denver since they are closer to the Rocky Mountains, while Edmonton is more flatlands.
Modern: Peyton Manning
Historical: John Elway
Edmonton ElksEdmonton has such a winning history. Their Grey Cup total is only 2nd to the Toronto Argonauts. My pick will be similar to the Winnipeg pick. I’m choosing Dallas for the sole purpose of the flatlands, and the winning history.
Modern: Dak Prescott, Troy Aikman
Historical: Roger Staubach, and Don Meredith
Well, there you have it, everyone. Have your say of your Quarterbacks that should be on a certain CFL team.
Well, I guess the Manning family
made the list.Continue the CFL Football discussions on our offical CFL Discord Channel
David Tress
January 21, 2022 at 1:10 pm
The big issue here is money. The CFL would have to pay a lot more for the stars mentioned to play up north. If they would pay more, then bigger crowds would lead to more money and bigger stadiums, along with more teams. The whole thing above is far fetched without consideration of what is needed to draw stars north.
Dino Sepe
January 21, 2022 at 1:49 pm
Hello Mr. Tress,
Thanks for reading the article, and I appreciate your comment.
Everyone knows that the NFL is a beast in revenue on its own. No other pro league in North America comes close to the annual revenue it generates. It can rival just about any other league in the world for that matter.
The whole idea is the what if?
The NFL did not pay its player’s big money till about the late 1990s.
When the NFL did its 1st salary cap year, roughly 1994, it was only like 34 million per team. A far cry from what it is now between at times 180 million – 200 million range at times.
The TV contracts were a couple of hundred million per season as opposed to the billions annually as of now.
Your best players were making between 2 – 5 million per season.
To put it perspective at times, when Angelo Mosca was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, he was offered $13,000 per year for his contract.
When he came to Hamilton, he was offered a salary around the $24,000 range. For him it was a no-brainer as the Canadian Dollar superseded the American Dollar at the times both currencies fluctuated to at par, or slightly above.
Fast forward to 1991 when the Toronto Argonauts ownership of Wayne Gretzky, Bruce Mc Nall, and John Candy, made a splash that shook the football world in signing Raghib “Rocket” Ismail to 4 million per season. Rookies were not making that salary back then in the NFL. The Argonauts went for the jugular to bring it a big name and outbidding the NFL.
Those days are far over now.
Thanks,
Dino