The Canadian Football League (CFL) boosts some of the oldest teams in professional sports. The Toronto Argonauts for one was founded in 1873, making that team the oldest franchise in North America and with 15 Grey Cup wins makes them one of the winning-est teams in pro-sports.
The CFL was actually founded in 1958 when the IRFU (Inter provincial Rugby Union) and the WIFU (Western Inter provincial Football Union) merged to become the Canadian Football League. The CFL over the years has had its ups and downs. With the Popularlty of the NFL the league had a reputation of being bush league. However it is far from that. Many big names have played in the CFL - Joe Thiesman, Warren Moon, Rocket Ishmail and of course Doug Flutie who won numerous outstanding players awards. In the Mid 90s the CFL expanded to the United States. The first teams awarded were to Sacramento and San Antonio. San Antoino backed out due to budget constraints and the Sacramento Goldminers began the 1993 season as the lone entry from the United States. In 1994 Las Vegas, Shreveport and Baltimore joined the league. Baltimore becoming the model franchise for American Expansion, selling over 25,000 season tickets and held a season high average for attendance in their first year, as well making it to the Grey Cup in Vancouver in their first year, only to have lost the the BC Lions in one of the most thrilling contests in Grey Cup history. In 1995, Las Vegas folded and Sacramento moved to San Antonio to become the Texans, teams were also placed in Birmingham and Memphis, making a south division consisting of 5 American teams and the Canadian teams in the North division, thus guaranteeing a American team would play for the Grey Cup. The Baltimore Stallions would go to win the cup against the favored Calgary stampeders, but the celebration would be short lived.

The Cleveland Browns relocated to Baltimore. As well the teams in Birmingham and Memphis had terrible attendance as the American fans had trouble adopting to the rules of the Canadian game.

With the NFL coming back to Baltimore the Stallions rather then compete with the mighty NFL, moved to Montreal after a 10 year absence of football in that town. With Baltimore moving to Montreal and with the folding of the Birmingham and Memphis the League decided to end its experiment in the U.S.

Today the Montreal Alouettes as they are now called have become the sweetheart team of Montreal fans, with every game sold out for the past 8 years. Today another threat has come to town, with the Buffalo Bills playing some of their home games in Toronto. Many fear that this might be a pre-cursor to the Bills moving to Toronto and thus the end of the CFL. This is very doubtful though, while the NFL has a huge fan base in Toronto, the CFL is a part of Canadian culture and it is highly unlikely that the league will let this happen. But then again you never know.

Learn more about this author, G.E. Robbins.
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