Canadien Crisis of Identity

Canada has been perpetualized as second tier to the U.S.  We have a great relationship together by trading and being neighboring countries.  Although we are great trading partners and neighboring countries, the U.S. has been seen as superior because of our capitalist economy and outstanding sports teams.  Hockey is the most popular sport in Canada and players like Wayne Gretzky put hockey on a pedestal for Canadians.  The Edmonton Oilers became the best team in hockey and Gretzky became "The Great One".  Gretzky led Edmonton to a Stanley Cup and Canada viewed him as a saint.  It was a sad day for Canadians when Wayne Gretzky got traded to the L.A. Kings a couple days after Edmonton won the Stanley Cup.  This was a devastating blow to Canadian hockey fans.  It also led to a crisis of identity.  Wayne Gretzky was the one thing that put Canada on the global market.  He brought people to Canada single handily and then he came to L.A.  Another event that led to the Canadian identity crisis was the marriage of Gretzky and an American woman.  This was a sign that Gretzky was losing all connections to Canada.  Canada also began losing global attention because they lost the best hockey player in the world.  If Wayne Gretzky would have stayed in Canada with the Oilers then Canada would have been a global sport power. The fact is Gretzky came to the U.S. and caused a major identity problem for Canada.  Maybe there will be another phenom to rise up for Canada some day.  Right now it looks like Sidney Crosby could be it, at least for the Olympic team.

Group Post 10/4/10

When comparing the websites of the NFL and Independent Women's Football there are a number of noticeable differences which is to be expected between the leagues. In terms of pay the average NFL salary is just under 1.8 million whereas in the IWFL players most likely see little to no play. When comparing teams schedules NFL teams play 16 regular season games from September to January whereas the IWFL plays 10 regular season games from April through June. Also in terms of visibility of players the NFL has some of the most well known athletes in American and the IWFL is made up of women who play football for fun than fame or money.
When viewing the IWFL's (Independant Women's Football League) website it is apparent that it is not nearly as developed as the NFL's.  There are some advertisements found on the IWFL's website but the advertisements were not like the ones found on the NFL's.  One thing I also noticed on the website was that there was a link for tryouts.  Although I do encourage tryouts for a smaller league like to IWFL to grab some random attention, I have never seen the NFL do this with exception to the Philadelphia Eagles as it was seen in the movie "Invincible".
 In Christopherson's article the critics are mentioned when they are talking about how men are complainers and how women do not complain or fall as much as men in the sport of soccer.  Christopherson also points out the contradictions the critics show as well.  Christopherson also mentions the sex appeal in sports, and sex appeal in the NFL would easily be the cheerleaders, however they do not play in the game they simply cheer.  Sex appeal has made itself in football though currently there is a Lingerie Football League which is obviously only to attract men to watch them, because lets be honest what man wouldn't want to watch a beautiful woman in lingerie playing football?
Finally, we look at gender in the NFL and IWFL. There could be a couple of things done to solve some of the gender problems in the NFL and the IWFL.  Starting with the NFL there could definitely be more women involved.  We don't necessarily think that a woman could be a successful head coach in the NFL, but we do think that they could be used as assistant or position coaches.  We also believe that they could be used in the front office.  As for the IWFL they should use as many women as possible for coaching and operational positions because it is great experience for them and it increases their possibility of making women more involved in the NFL.