Toronto Perspective: Buffalo Bills Go Home

by Michael Smith, Sports Editor

	Thumbs down to the Buffalo Bills, as the latest attempted colonial assault of corporate America against Canada.

According to Rogers Communications owned Citytv, we Torontonians should be elated about the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers would ever dream of playing in "Rogers Centre". After all, as Canadians, we are just a bunch of glorified "Eskimos" up here in the Great White North. According to this line of reasoning, as Canadians, we should therefore be grateful about anything that corporate America throws our way. Y'all invited to the Samsung Bills Toronto Kickoff Party on August 13, from 4 to 10 PM at Dundas Square. BuffaloBillsinToronto.com indicates that "This is going to be one serious party: the 2008 Buffalo Bills, Bills and Steelers alumni." And even Jim Kelly is going to be coming. Wooppee!

I think not. Compared to the storied franchise of our Toronto Argonauts, that has won multiple Grey Cups, and has a history that spread into three different centuries, the Buffalo Bills are truly "Johnny come Lately" upstarts and losers. The Buffalo Bills claim to fame has been to squander its Superbowl chances, amidst an ego-driven management. Remember that debacle with Doug Flutie a few years ago -- what a joke that was, eh.

Citytv sinks to new lows under new owner Rogers Communications through its crass promotion of alleged venal ambitions to moving the Buffalo Bills to Toronto.

While our Canadian brand of football offers distinctive rules that support an exciting game, with community-driven franchises, the National Football League (NFL) offers us superficial glitter, loudmouth commentators, arrogant coaches, and multimillion dollar players, who often appear to be more interested in drawing attention to themselves, than to the game itself.

If Americans in Buffalo don't want them -- and it is easy to appreciate why they would not want the NFL Bills -- why should be want them? Because we are just Canadians -- hewers of wood and drawers of water? Should we therefore "jump for joy" that Jim Kelly is coming to town, to civilize us as football fans? The CFL was a league long before the NFL ever existed.

	26th Grey Cup was held on December 10, 1938 at Varsity Stadium. Toronto Argonauts 30, Winnipeg Blue Bombers 7.

The NFL is a prime example, of what can be accomplished in America if you have enough corporate backers. You can get people to see similar franchises that have become stuck-in-a-rut like the Arizona Cardinals, and a long list of other NFL franchises. The failure of NFL Europe, showed that Europeans were not content to take the crass corporate Americana, that the NFL Bills is trying to sell to us in Toronto. The apparent association of the Buffalo Bills with Rogers, is actually quite fitting. Buffalo Bills is arguably a franchise with no great tradition, compared to every team in the Canadian Football League. Rogers, is arguably a corporation with no respect for Canadian tradition. Having acquired the Skydome, that was named that way by a public contest, Rogers changed the name to the rather pathetic name "Rogers Centre".

Toronto Argonauts is an over 130 years old Canadian cultural institution. Buffalo Bills was founded in 1960.

Having acquired the World Championship Toronto Blue Jays, Rogers then proceeded to delete the Maple Leaf from the Blue Jays Logo, and in general, completely altered the team uniform, and its multi-ethnic composition. Now, which corporation that can call itself smart from a marketing standpoint, destroys a winning look of a championship team, and symbolically deletes an association that such a team has had in relation to a national symbol?

	Do you remember Skydome, that was chosen from a name contest among Toronto taxpayers who helped fund the project? Do you also remember how great the World Championship Blue Jays was before Rogers took it over, that promptly amputated our Canadian Maple Leaf that had been a historic part of the Blue Jays logo?

The NFL Bills, is yet another example of corporate America seeking to destroy the cultural traditions of other societies for the crass pursuit of commercial profit. If we as Canadians seek to affirm our independence from the cultural conquest agenda of corporate America (with the support of apparent collaborators like Rogers Communications), then we must protect our cultural institutions, which include our own brand of football, and our sports related traditions like the Canadian Football League (CFL).

We should also not simply be sold on apparent mercenary institutions in Canada like Rogers Communications, that would have us believe that anything that is American, is better, and that we should not seek to protect our communities from America's elites. Canadians, who are concerned about defending their nation from mass communications and other interests that seek to "prepare" us psychologically for a fascistic "North American Union" (NAU) agenda, ought not to consider the NFL Bills game as simply a "game of football". Indeed, the same alleged backers of the NAU, also seem to be at the forefront of using the NFL Bills as another wedge to use American corporate dollars to break down our national identity and survival.

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