South of the Border : CFL Will Expand to San Antonio, Sacramento, so Who Needs Hockey?

The Canadian Football League, which has been busy bringing us such features as a field that is too wide, a receiver who is too fast and a quarterback who is too small, may have gone too far this time.

Canada’s football league announced Tuesday that it is adding franchises in San Antonio and Sacramento, cities that were still located in the United States the last time somebody bothered to check.

How are we supposed to feel about this? Maybe it’s natural progression. First a team from Toronto wins the World Series. Now, those same Canadians want to branch out in football, eh? Aren’t they satisfied owning the rights to hockey?

But lest someone say a Canadian league that includes teams in Texas and California but not Montreal borders on ridiculous, it ought to be pointed out that no one, no matter the nationality, has the right to deprive North American football fans of that natural budding rivalry of Saskatchewan and San Antonio.

When the expansion vote was taken, the addition of the two teams was approved, 7-1, with the Winnipeg franchise dissenting. This may have caused a ripple in Sacramento and San Antonio, where sports fans probably once thought that the Blue Bombers were some kind of Roller Derby team.

Actually, it might be wise to not regard the expansion of the CFL south of Minnesota as a one-shot deal. You may come to regard it as a natural occurrence. Think of it as a gaggle of geese on their migratory way to new nests. CFL to the USA, better get used to it.

“There will be more, without question,” said Roy Mlakar, president of the Kings and a top aide to Bruce McNall, who owns part of the Toronto franchise. “It’s good for the public, it’s good for all of us.”

And he was talking about expansion, not wheat germ.

It’s important to remember one important fact, Mlakar pointed out. “The only thing Canadian about football is the name,” he said. “Rocket Ismail isn’t Canadian. Doug Flutie isn’t Canadian.”

According to Commissioner Larry Smith, who is Canadian but never coached football at USC, there are still a few details that have to be worked out. Little things, like how in the heck do you get from San Antonio to Regina, Saskatchewan? Do they have chicken-fried steak there and do they remember the Alamo?

The San Antonio franchise will be ready to tee it up once two important matters are settled. They have to finish building the Alamodome so they have a place to play and they have to get a name so people know what to call them.

In Sacramento, the yet-unnamed team will play its home games at Sacramento State University’s Hornet Field, which seats 22,000, with anybody named Brian Mulroney getting in free.

But there is potential trouble moving in, like a chinook. What are they going to say up north if San Antonio and Sacramento play for the Canadian Football League championship? They’re not Canadian? The CFL has got to know that this Canadian club will never be the same.