Customer Reviews

The Canadian Football League: The Phoenix of Professional Sports Leagues, Revised Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mr. O'Brien's book is an excellent analysis of how the CFL has been able to sustain itself over the years. Ultimately, though, this is a book about how the league has been able to define itself as an indelible piece of Canadian culture.

I was already a fan of the CFL when I picked this book up, but I came away from my reading of it with a new depth of respect for and awareness of the league's complexities.

I definitely commend Mr. O'Brien for his painstaking research and can't wait for his next installment on the league's history.

The book is designed to present a behind-the-scenes account
of the various peculiar business decisions made by the modern-era CFL ...
with particular attention given to the expansion experiment into the USA.

The CFL exists today
because of -- or in spite of --
these decisions.

If you're interested in delving into that sort of thing,
then this book is a very interesting read.

If you're looking for player stats and/or game highlights,
then this is probably not for you.

The reading of this book was incredibly hard, I purchased it wanting a good history of the CFL (being interested as an American) but I did not want to read a "thesis" about the CFL. It is obvious the author has done his research on the subject but I would not recommed it to a casual fan wanting to know about this League. I also do not like its' cover with the grave markers beind that two of the leagues represented are technically still around (the AFL and AAFC).

The very good painstaking research that
Mr. O'Brien did on this fine (but some-
what flawed) book, was done to get his
History degree at the University of
Maine. The low rating and critisms of
the character B. Maitland are uncalled
for. I for one think, as being an Amer-
ican Sports Writer, who attends the Grey
Cup every year (for 13 in-a-row!), that
the CFL's expansion into the US was the
greatest thing that ever happended to
Pro Football! I was a season tix holder
for the two-time Grey Cup Baltimore Stal-
lions. We were the only team THAT WILL
EVER win the Grey Cup and am very happy
to have supported the League during it's
1993-95 US expansion. We Amer-I-can fans
probably saved the League (along with our
Canadian CFL fans)! Mr. Maitland, who cares
what the cover is like. I also disagree with
your synopsis that the book is mostly about
the 'ill fated US expansion'. Baltimore lead
the League in attendence for two years in a
row! Sacramento, who lost to Balt. in the So.
Final in 1995, probably would have won the
Grey Cup if they had not lost to the Stallions
then. There was one other US team that broke
even and didn't lose money. I wished the best
Pro Football League on planet earth would come
back to the US! Long live the CFL! And can't
wait for Steve's next book...Oh, the mistakes
Steve has are minor but don't take away from
the contents or context of the book's thesis.
Steve, when he reads this will know what we
talked about back in Nov. '04 in Ottawa, Ont.

First of all, Mr O'Brien's book is truly informative about the last couple of decades of the CFL's long history. Thus, if you are familiar with the league's early years, the text supplies an excellent (though sometimes "heavy" in details) history of the venerable Canadian institution. Quite a few questions and hypotheses about the social and national elements associated with the sport are offered always in an intelligent and well documented manner. It is unfortunate a prequel book (especially for the years following WWII up to Mr O'Brien's study) does not exist although the author includes a condensed history of the sport in the first chapters.

However, it would have been nice if a number of pictures had been included in the book. I suspect marketing/price reasons must have prevented the author to do so.

I highly recommend the book and hope that much more titles regarding the CFL would be available.

For those who want to know the history of football in Canada this book might be for you. It borrows from Frank Cosentino's two books ("Canadian Football: The Grey Cup Years" and "A Passing Game, A History of the CFL"). However, there is enough original research to make this book worth the buy. I heartily recommend it.

As a previous reviwer mentioned this is somewhat of a hard book to read. I did not know that the CFL per se was not formed until 1958. I did not know that until the last couple of decades that all the western teams (smaller cities) except Vancouver were community owned teams.

I watched the Grey Cup growing up in the 60s on ABC Wide World of Sports. I remember the 1962 Grey Cup which was fogged out. It was between Winnipeg (Bud Grant's team) and Toronto. Through the years I've always followed the CFL whenever I could get it on cable.

For a football fan the first 6 or 7 chapters are the most interesting. There much emphasis on the American expanison in the mid-90s. The last six chapters or so would be enjoyed more by a Canadian, as it talks more about their culture.

Apparently there was a lot of mismanagement by the league & owners. The books provides a lot of recall about the promoters and charlatans who bought franchises in new sports leagues or expansions. They had balls, though more often than not very limited funds.

I visited Canada several times, but never picked up on the psychology of their citizens. Canada basically has an inferiority complex when thinking of itself compared to the U.S. The BoSox Yankee rivalry, as is most rivalries, is due to Bostonians self-perceived inferiority to New York.

Being a collector of books on team histories, I bought this book expecting to see a year-by-year history of the CFL, team by team, along with many great photos. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. After browsing through this book and not finding what I was expecting, I returned the book for a prompt refund.

All due respect, the cover is the worst. This is supposed to be a book about the CFL. If you want to sell a book about football, even if it's a discussion of the backroom dealings of such a sport/league, put an action pic on the cover. Brutal marketing!

Next the focus seems to be mainly on the foolish expansion into the States. OK, maybe this is a book marketed at Americans but even so...talk about a too narrow focus.