Maverick Lynes, Staff writer
Feb. 4, 2018, New England was devastated by the result of the Super Bowl. The New England Patriots fell 33-41 to the Philadelphia Eagles. A majority of the New England area were fixated on their television as the Patriots and the Eagles battled for football supremacy.
New England was heartbroken by the loss to the Eagles. While I sympathize with all of the Patriot’s fans around the area, as a Canadian I couldn’t help but not care about the outcome.
I am sure a lot of students were brought up as Patriots fans and Super Bowl Sunday has become a holiday for them. While I watched the game with people who live and reside in the area, I couldn’t help but feel guilty for not sharing the same passion as them.
However, I could relate to how they felt, I know that if the Edmonton Oilers were playing in the Stanley Cup Finals, I would be at the edge of my seat all night. The Edmonton Oilers are the professional National Hockey League team from my hometown. The Stanley Cup is the equivalent to the Super Bowl in the National Hockey league, for those of you who did not know.
With that being said, Canada does have a professional football league. It is known as the (Canadian Football League (CFL). Usually, this is shocking news for most U.S. students that I tell, but trust me, I am not lying. My hometown team is called the Edmonton Eskimos; people usually get a laugh out of that name. There are nine teams in the CFL and they all compete for the Grey Cup. The Grey Cup is Canada’s super bowl without the funny commercials.
According to an article from Sportsnet, there has been a total of 57 Canadians drafted into the NFL since the Super Bowl era of 196/76. With the draft being seven rounds and all 32 teams getting a pick in each of those seven rounds, there are 224 players selected every year. For 51 years there have only been 57 Canadians chosen, I believe that speaks volumes to how prevalent football is in Canada opposed to the United States.
Even though Canada has its football league, I would still confidently say that Canadians care more about the Super Bowl than the Grey Cup. However, we do not get to see all the high-quality commercials America receives because we watch it from a Canadian broadcast. I was delighted with the commercials this year.
Canadians still throw Ssuper Bbowl parties and there are still die-hard fans of the NFL. We also have Grey Cup parties and people who were raised to be fans of certain CFL teams. I would go out on a limb to say that most Canadian Grey Cup parties, do not measure up to most American Super Bowl parties.
I asked some of my Canadian counterparts on how they feel towards the Super Bowl. John Kyte a sophomore here at USM said, “I thought it was funny watching it with committed patriots fans.” He said how he didn’t care about the outcome but enjoys the experience of watching the Super Bowl in New England. Kyte also added a comment that some Patriots fans may not take kindly to, he said, “after the Patriots lost on Sunday, then it was a gloomy day on Monday, I couldn’t help but laugh.”