Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

CFL ushers in a new football season

I’m no fan of the boardroom side of professional football, and don’t know many people who are.

**Scott Adamson writes about alternative pro football leagues because it makes him happy, Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl**

I realize it’s a business, and business has to be taken care of before the focus turns to fun and games. Still, it’s boring stuff, especially when you’re an outsider looking in (and by “outsider looking in,” I mean fan).

That being said, I’m glad the Canadian Football League and CFL Players’ Association have taken care of business by ratifying a new collective bargaining agreement.

The deal was struck on Wednesday.

“Our new agreement speaks to positive growth for our League and a renewed investment in our players,” CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie said in a statement. “We have an exciting future ahead of us and people around the world will see us build it together. I want to thank our players, teams and fans for their patience and let them know that I share their enthusiasm for the start of football season.”

The “football reflex” isn’t triggered for some people until August, but mine comes much earlier. The start of summer means the start of the CFL, and to me that always officially marks a new football season.

With the first preseason game set for Sunday, “my” football is here – and thanks to the three-year agreement between the suits and the players, the CFL is good to go at least through 2021.

“I would like to thank all CFL players for their commitment and diligence as we worked together toward a fair agreement,” CFLPA President Jeff Keeping said. “I would also like to thank the fans for their support and understanding throughout this process. This new agreement moves us forward as partners in the future of the game.”

Even though I live in the United States, the CFL is a huge part of my fandom and has been since the 1970s. It’s not a placeholder league until the NFL begins play; I follow it closely from Week One through the Grey Cup. Now that I have a viewing choice (thanks to ESPN+), I’ll sometimes choose to watch a CFL game on Sunday when it’s up against a clash from the bigger league.

But for a time I was worried there might be a lockout, strike or some other bad scenario that would result in a case of gridiron interruptus in 2019. I dreaded the possibility because this is a league I want to see get stronger and thrive.

Hopefully, the new CBA will help that cause.

While all the details have yet to be released, each team’s salary cap is expected to rise $50,000 each year over the next three years.

That’s money found between couch cushions in the NFL, but it’s forward progress in the CFL and every Canadian dollar counts.

The prospect of players receiving a 20 percent share of future TV and media revenue is also big, as is a higher rookie salary scale and improved medical benefits, among other things.

Neither side got everything they wanted, of course, but they both got enough to keep the train running on time.

Thus tomorrow at 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the BC Lions will be in Edmonton to take on the Eskimos in the CFL’s first dress rehearsal for the 2019 season.

The regular season starts on Thursday, June 13, when my team of choice, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, host the Saskatchewan Roughriders at 7:30 p.m.

I’ll be as excited for that one as some people are for the first big college football weekend or opening day of the NFL.

The Canadian Football League has talented players, quality coaches, and a style of play that’s unique and extremely exciting.

Football season is here again, and I’m glad the CFL is bringing it back.

A kid, a Carpenters album, and a mystery

According to dictionaries, Wikipedia, other tionaries and alternate pedias, a repressed memory is, “… a condition where a memory has been unconsciously blocked by an individual due to the high level of stress or trauma contained in that memory. Even though the individual cannot recall the memory, it may still be affecting them consciously.”

**Brain Farce is a humor column written by Scott Adamson. It comes out basically whenever he feels like writing it. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl**

If that’s the case, that’s not what I have because the memory I’m about to share is one I do remember, but wish I could repress.

You see, the first album I ever purchased with my own money was “Close To You” by the Carpenters.

Five decades later, I still have no clue why on earth I would lose my LP virginity to Karen and Richard Carpenter and an album named after a song that – when I hear it – makes me want to take hostages and then barf on those hostages.

The album was released in August, 1970, so assuming I bought it when it first came out, I was 9 years old. And, we can also assume that since I bought it, I must’ve also listened to it.

I distinctly remember walking into the W.T. Grant store at Roebuck Shopping City in Birmingham, Alabama, selecting the album, paying for the album, and exiting the premises with the album.

Things get a little fuzzy from there.

Now, the age factor can be a legitimate excuse for my actions given that 9-year-olds aren’t necessarily known for their decision-making skills. It’s why you don’t see kids that young operating heavy machinery or removing gallbladders.

But, I was already into music by then, and none of that music was anything like what the Carpenters put out.

When my brother went off to college he left behind albums by the likes of Jim Hendrix (I absolutely wore out “Are You Experienced”), the Animals (I used to sing “House of the Rising Sun” to my dog, Ringo), and the Monks (kind of a 1960s version of punk).

I was rock and roll through and through at a very young age.

That being the case, it would stand to reason that in 1970 I would spend my hard-earned allowance on something cool like, say, “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” by Derek and the Dominos or “Led Zeppelin III.”

Nope.

It was “Close to You” – an album so syrupy you couldn’t listen to it without a short stack and pat of butter.

I’ve wracked my brain trying to figure out what possessed me to buy it.

I guess it could’ve been to impress a girl, but the only girl I wanted to impress at the time was Yvonne Craig, who played Batgirl on TV. Ours was a May-December romance that I still don’t like to talk about because it was unrequited.

I will, however, talk about it long enough to say she could buy her own albums due to the sweet “Batman” residuals she raked in.

Could it be that maybe there was a song on the album that, for whatever reason, I liked?

No … it could not be that.

At all.

Karen Carpenter had a wonderful voice, Richard Carpenter was a great composer, and they were brilliant at their craft. But their kind of music was not “my” kind of music.

No, this will likely remain a mystery for the rest of my days – one that can’t be solved or resolved.

Over the years I’ve spent a lot of money on music yet – except for that one time – I stayed true to my roots.

I bought all the early KISS stuff and was even a member of the KISS Army (I never saw any action, though, because I was stationed stateside).

As time went on I stocked up on albums and 45s by the Ramones, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, the Clash and the New York Dolls – just about every band you can think of that didn’t sound anything remotely like the Carpenters.

But I’ll have to live with the fact that – as I lay on my death-bed, surrounded by morbid people who want to see me die – one of my last thoughts as I take the Big Sleep will be that my first music money was spent on “Close To You.”

I’ll probably be given a posthumous dishonorable discharge from the KISS Army.

And I’ll deserve it.

A7FL offers up bare-bones football

Remember those thrilling days of backyard football?

No helmets, no pads – just friends and frenemies getting together for good, old-fashioned games of tackle that featured grass stains, torn T-shirts, and the occasional bloody lip.

All these years later, my favorite play remains a post pattern where I made my cut at the dogwood tree in the next-door neighbor’s yard.

Flowering plants, in case you didn’t know, can be quite effective when utilized as downfield blockers.

Last weekend I got to take a trip down memory lane thanks to a happy accident courtesy of my Roku streaming player.

I was playing around with it in search of free sports programming (I’m cheap) when I happened upon a channel devoted to highlights of the American 7s Football League.

And if you don’t know what the A7FL is, well, it’s basically 7-on-7 backyard football. The difference between it and the kind I used to play, however, is this league (founded in 2014) features some talented football players.

And it’s really fun to watch.

A quick glance at game play and you might think you wandered into a rugby sevens match. Then you see receivers go in motion, quarterbacks roll out and unleash forward passes, and plays end in one-on-one, wrap-up tackles.

You don’t have to worry about helmet-to-helmet contact because while there is plenty of full contact, there are no helmets.

And just like in the backyard days when we took liberties with the official rules of football, A7FL has a unique set of its own.

Without getting too deep in the weeds, here’s the CliffsNotes version of rules:

* The field is 100 yards long and 37 yards wide, and there is no kicking of any kind.

* Each game begins with a “throw-off” in which three players of the throwing team line up at their own 35-yard line while one chunks the ball to a lone receiver on the opposing team.

(Back in the day we called these “pass-punts”).

The ball has to travel a minimum of 40 yards and once it gets past the receiver’s 25-yard line, it’s live. And the throw-offs I’ve seen have been pretty exciting … a lot of speed and a little brawn sometimes results in a TD.

After that play, which starts each half and follows each score, things begin to look a bit more like the “normal” gridiron game.

* Touchdowns are worth 6 points, with a 1-point conversion coming from a successful run or pass from the 5-yard line, and a 2-point conversion attempted from the 10.

* The QB can line up in the shotgun formation or behind the linemen, and he can’t be deeper than five yards from the line of scrimmage when in the ‘gun.

Obviously this is a pass-heavy league, although from time to time you will see a back plunge into the line or take a pitch. QB runs appear to be fairly common, too.

Currently the circuit has 16 teams concentrated in the Northeast United States (seven clubs are based in Baltimore) and the season runs from April to July.

One of the reasons I enjoy this league so much is that I’ve come to appreciate rugby more in the last year. As I mentioned earlier, you don’t have to watch much of an A7FL game to see the similarities.

But in a time when we’re being bombarded with new spring pro football leagues, the A7FL is a nice change of pace.

The players don’t make a living doing it, the league isn’t relying on packed stadiums and big-money TV contracts for survival, and it’s not a springboard to the NFL.

It’s simply American football stripped down to its bare necessities.

It’s a lot more advanced than the backyard football I used to play – players don’t have to worry about dogwood trees – but it’s fun and familiar.

Even if you aren’t a weekend warrior anymore, it’s good to know there are guys who keep the battle going.

And A7FL players do it in an entertaining way.

For more info on the league, go to www.a7fl.com.