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In the CFL, the best defence has always been a good offence. So far, so good, in what feels like a watershed season for the three-down game.
Scoring is up, excitement is up, and even the negative storylines, like the Toronto Argonauts' quarterbacking mess, at least spur good, healthy, football conversations. All of the preseason hand-wringing over the NFL's arrival in Canada is, for the moment, a bit beside the point.
If you want to talk survival/co-existence strategies, there's the one that should have always been at the forefront: Give the people what they want.
Put a good product on the field and sell it. Try to operate from a position of confidence and strength. Then let the chips fall where they may.
The alternative — playing the nationalist card, putting yourself at the mercy of politicians — implies weakness, as though the league was some kind of cultural hothouse flower that couldn't survive in the full light of day, rather than one sports entertainment product among many with a history and distinctiveness that ought to have been selling points.
(A belated note on the passing of Bob Ackles, who was leading the CFL's nationalist charge to the barricades, and who did so from the heart. There may be brighter, better read, more gentlemanly, more competent, more decent folks in the world of professional sport, but not a single one springs to mind. It's hard to imagine anyone else working for a similar collection of egomaniacs and bullies — Jimmy Johnson, Jerry Jones, Vince McMahon, David Braley — and emerging from each situation smelling like a rose. What Ackles had, what he brought to the CFL, the NFL and even the XFL, simply can't be replaced.)
The problem was that in recent years, the CFL actually had ceased to be what its greatest loyalists claimed it to be, which made it a lot more difficult to confidently sell the game on the open market.
Acknowledging that they didn't get first pick of the best American football talent, and that the quota system meant that even the best available players regardless of nationality weren't on the field, CFL fans would point to the fact that their favourite game required a different kind of athlete, and that in any case, its rules made for a more exciting product.
The CFL was all passing all the time, the NFL three yards and a cloud of dust — except that wasn't even close to true any more.
Offences in the NFL had long ago become more wide open, the game there more high scoring, while in Canada, defences, for a variety of reasons (strategic shifts to neutralize the passing game, playing an extra import on that side of the ball) had begun to dominate.
Combined with a kick-return game neutralized by new, confusing blocking rules, it was a real stretch to argue that the average CFL game was sure to provide hellzapoppin' spectacle, or that the average NFL game would finish 9-6.
Stagnancy was also an issue in an eight-team league — great new quarterbacks weren't turning up with any frequency, coaches were being endlessly recycled, so, not surprisingly, things started to seem a bit stale.
The 2008 season already has seen the introduction of what appear to be bright coaching minds in Montreal and Calgary, the debut of an exciting young quarterback in Saskatchewan, the long-awaited emergence of a homegrown offensive superstar in Hamilton, Jesse Lumsden (fingers crossed that he stays healthy), and as much action and suspense by mid-July as in almost all of last season.
Sure the Argonauts are a ball of confusion, but a fascinating one that the rest of Canada can enjoy. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are unexpectedly floundering, but at least they've got those cheerleaders.
There will be plenty of people paying attention when the Buffalo Bills kick off at the Rogers Centre in Toronto next month, and a lot more people will be watching when the Bills play their first regular-season NFL game there come the fall.
Some people are going to love it and some people aren't, but that's a consumer's decision. All of the economic forces conspiring to bring the NFL full-time to Southern Ontario still exist — and there's still precious little the CFL can do to stop them.
But rather than argue what's bad and dangerous about that, let the CFL make a case for itself. It's not the Museum of Canadian Football. It's not a duty or an obligation of citizenship. It's not something you should need to be told is good for you.
It's an afternoon or evening at the ballpark, and so far this season, it is worth the trip.
