2011-07-11

One Of Montreal's Greatest Athletic Son

Before I get into Anthony Calvillo a word on the Montreal sports scene.

Montreal is a lousy sports town. Lousy.

No disrespect to F1 or UFC.

You won't hear it from most, especially those who let their pride overtake their objectivity, but you'll hear it here. We're a neat sports event town but to support a sport all year round? Nah. Useless except for hockey. And we're a Montreal Canadiens city at that.

Toronto. Now that's a hockey town. My buddy lived in London for a while and another in Toronto, that much became immediately clear to them. Not only could it support to pro hockey teams if needed, the city supports a dozen junior hockey teams.

Montreal can't even sustain one. Not even the large suburb of Laval - Montreal's Mississauga - manages to hold a team.

The one good thing about fans here is they're a lot less likely to get into a fight. Out of town visitors can safely wear their colours around here.

***

Now it's being reported the Montreal Alouettes are not selling out as they claimed despite expanding their facilities to 25 000 seats from 20 000.

Imagine that. A city with a metropolitain population of roughly 3.8 million and still it can't get behind a storied professional football league like the CFL and a team with a rich tradition for a lousy nine games.

20 000 is minor leagues. This city should draw 35 000 at minimum.

Compare us to Boston. A city similar in size, stature and sensibility. Go ahead. No comparison can be made.

I digress.

***

Als QB Anthony Calvillo is on the verge of breaking the all-time passing and TD passing records. The passing record in particular is rather astonishing. He's fourth all-time when both the NFL and CFL are combined. When he's done, he may be well past Damon Allen. 73 000 plus yards is a remarkable achievement in any league - even though the CFL is a "passing" league.

Once he gets to 394 TD passes (as soon as this week), only Brett Favre (464) and Dan Marino (420) will have more.

His record is probably the single greatest body of work this city has ever seen including our hockey players.


Yet, the city is hardly noticing.

If his name was Paquette, I reckon it would be a different story. One may not want to believe it but this may indeed be the case.

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