GREY CUP SUNDAY

I'm a big NFL fan, and unfortunately the games are available only sporadically on our local cable system (Eastlink.)

But screw all that - Today is championship Sunday for the CFL!

The CFL is down to its ultimate showdown, the GREY CUP. The Grey Cup has been around far longer than the Super Bowl, in fact - this is the 104th. The NFL has barely had half as many "Super Sundays."

Befitting that proud history, Grey Cup Sunday is EXACTLY like Super Bowl Sunday…but with a Canadian sensibility.

The glitzy parties include pancake breakfasts:

Celeb appearances at said parties have a local touch:

From the Toronto Star: "Mayor John Tory came by, commissioner Jeffrey Orridge, actor Kal Penn, and retired Stampeder Jon Cornish with the Grey Cup. Great fun. That was terrific."

The media attention is not quite as fawning and feverish:

Unlike the Super Bowl, controversies at previous Cups do not seem to include PEDs or gunfire...

….although the 2016 kerfuffle seems to include poop. Again from the Star:

Well, at least the horse pooped in the lobby of a Holiday Inn…… in 2012 they let Marty the horse in for a second, and then shooed him away. This time, the Holiday Inn on Carlton invited Marty and Calgary’s travelling troupe in, and wouldn’t you know it, Marty did what horses do. Kablooie.

Oh, Canada.