(7 September 2000) –– What a bunch of confusing talk lately! All this talk of sharing players and mergers with the CFL. Where is all this coming from?
Answer: The media.
Media sources have been rife lately with stories about the CFL merging with the XFL, the CFL sharing players with the XFL and the XFL creating franchises in Canada.
None of this seems to have any truth. The scary thing is that most of these stories have been created by the Canadian media itself.
The story first broke that the XFL would share players with the CFL. The truth is that the CFL President and COO, Jeff Giles, who recently handed in his resignation, commented that the two leagues may decide to share players in the future. The problem is that the media took this one step further. When the story made it to print, it was reported that the CFL had proposed to share players with the XFL. You got all that out of one comment, right?
One good story twist deserves another! The next thing you know the story is all about a merger between the two leagues. Then one eager reporter creates his own scoop by saying that the recently cancelled Ottawa franchise would be replaced by one purchased from the XFL. This is also far from the truth, the main reason being that the XFL does not sell franchises.
The truth is that the CFL is concerned about the XFL. They should be. The XFL is probably going to walk away with some of the Canadian league’s finer players. But in the long run the CFL will survive. It has survived the rise of the USFL, the Arena League and NFL Europe (World League), and it will survive this also. The future of three-down football is as long and wide as the CFL field itself.
So forget about the CFL – it will survive. Let’s focus on something new and different – the XFL.
