Kamau Peterson
CFL.ca
November in the CFL has several struggles for a team built in to the month itself. It marks the last week of the season and beginning of playoff football which means that teams are usually playing the best football of the year, the weather is officially a factor that must be considered at most CFL venues and injuries have usually taken their toll on most if not all teams at this point.
Each of these factors individually could spell disaster for any given team, on any given day but this time of year brings about another issue that has teams reeling throughout the league currently, and could pose even more problems in the future – flu season.
The outbreak of the H1N1 virus has successfully spooked the masses into a mild hysteria. I don’t consider myself an easy scare and I honestly didn’t pay the swine flu talk any mind until two days ago when I came down with flu symptoms myself.
It wasn’t myself that I was worried about however; my concern was with the high number of the same symptoms that I saw present in the locker room this week. More than a handful of players were sent home from our team this week with flu symptoms and I know that the situation was quite similar with the Lions – our opponents this week.
In a game like football which involves so many working parts in order for one play to be successful, to have multiple starters out from practice due to illness can severely hinder a team’s functionality.
Much has been made in both Alberta and Ontario regarding pro athletes receiving preferential treatment in the way of vaccinations for this virus. The Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Toronto Raptors apparently were issued the vaccine while the general public was turned away. While I can certainly understand the outrage that comes with knowing that those in privileged positions are getting preferential treatment, with as much money invested in these athletes as there is – I’m actually kind of surprised that more teams haven’t jumped the line. I mean am I the only one that remembers the Magic Johnson HIV instance?
So many people stand to lose so much money should these players miss games due to illness, I would have thought that the powers that be would have slipped the vaccine out to the in season entertainment prior to the first news of the virus hitting the media airwaves. I do truly think it’s a shame that our society prioritizes the way that it does, at the same time though… I’m not surprised.
Excluding the other leagues as they clearly operate in much higher tax brackets, it’s easy to see how the potential of this particular flu season can do severe damage to the quality of the CFL post season. The B.C. Lions sent home Geroy Simon, JoJuan Armour and Korey Banks from practice this week. Saskatchewan has been battling the flu as well and in Edmonton Tristan Jackson, Maurice Mann, Efrem Hill, Calvin McCarty and myself have all been battling temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit as well as the symptoms that come with it.
At some point in this CFL post-season, it is highly likely that at least one team will be forced to play without some impact players do to the 2009 flu season – and in doing so could cost themselves a playoff game… or even a Grey Cup.
Teams across the league are no doubt taking every precaution to protect their players from large scale infection. Isolating players from the rest of the team, distributing flu shots liberally, handing out hand sanitizer to all who will take it and even passing out breathing masks help prevent the spread of the flu.
The fact is however, that in this particular sport the chance for infection is greater than most due to the close proximity with which everything is done in football. In meetings, locker rooms and showers players are all aligned side by side, often in small rooms. Players often ride to and from work together in this league as carpooling is perhaps more frequent than others do to so many players traveling so far from their homes to come and play here. Not to mention the very nature of the work that we do calls for a constant invasion of one’s personal proximity.
Offensive and defensive linemen, for example, spend all day pushing and pulling each other less than an arm’s length away from each other. Needless to say, being breathed on by the opposition is probably not the issue most prevalent on a player’s mind in the heat of battle.
Players and coaches certainly have their work cut out for them this particular November as they try to rise above the green bacteria cloud that seems to be hovering over many CFL cities. It will be interesting to see which teams can find ways to avoid being crippled by influenza or H1N1 and which succumb to the symptoms associated with these viruses.
Ironically, losing in the playoffs and the flu seem to have similar symptoms – both will leave you feverish, (or at least feeling hot and bothered), body aches are common in both cases as are the chills and fatigue, not to mention once you have to watch the team that beat you standing where you feel that you should be… you’ll feel like vomiting. Swine flu or not.
Kp8
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