NFL hype may be hard to resist but good old CFL games are better to watch.
Canadian football is simply more exciting than National Football League brand and rule differences make it easier to watch and understand, even if one knows little about the gridiron game.
An extra player, one less down, a larger field and no man-in-motion rules dictate that CFL teams stress speed and the passing game.
A more exciting kicking game and stop time in the final minutes also make CFL games high-scoring shootouts that encourage last-minute comebacks.
But besides having a more exciting game, the Canadian Football League offers a significant compromise to the religion that is the National Football League.
The CFL allows us to share the odd game without having to paint our faces orange or roar like a Lion on command. My wife and I sometimes go to a Lions game but she won't submit to unrelenting NFL Sunday hype, especially when NFL hysteria can almost smother the Christmas season.
Our beloved Lions sucked in Sunday's western final, pounded and bounced from the Grey Cup playoffs by Saskatchewan.
But we're over that already. We would be excited had the Lions won but the CFL makes fans appropriately philosophical. Nine teams, a summer start, a November finish - not exactly a football odyssey. We can be fans without being disciples.
The Rider Nation gets to go nuts for a week about a Grey Cup in Regina. And while they try to figure out how to get green smoke to puff out of a green hard hat, the rest of us are blasé about the whole thing - "Call me when the Grey Cup's on, we'll come over for some munchies."
And that's a healthy attitude towards sport. The CFL doesn't produce football widows or devour every Sunday afternoon for six months.
Don't get me wrong, I also like watching NFL games. But it's often two yards and a cloud of dust. Were there equal hype surrounding it, I think many would prefer the wide open, CFL game.
The CFL plays a more thrilling game and is a healthy downsizing of football hype and schedule.
And the season culminates with the Grey Cup, a wonderful, somewhat hokey afternoon when Canadians get together, eat junk food and intermittently watch a football game.
