Bob Ackles stands on guard for thee

Normally the President of the B. C. Lions would concern himself mainly with the Lions fight song, but these days he's thinking larger than just his team on the Pacific coast. In fact it's the salvation of the entire CFL that is on his mind as he winds down his many years in all versions of North America's football scene.

As the Blues brothers might say ,



A mission to save the CFL.

It may seem like a silly concept these days, for in the last few years the CFL has seemingly never been stronger, as the eight teams for the most part seem to be functioning without the normal state of panic that we've know in the past.

Attendance this year is beyond anyone's wildest dreams, repeated sell outs in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, healthy crowds in Calgary and Edmonton despite significant injury problems.

Ontario has been fairly steady with Toronto's crowds edging upwards as the team returns to health and just as things turned bad for the Cats on the fied, their fans found still another reason or two to stop by Ivor Wynne for a football game as the excitement over Casey Printers gave new hope in the land of broken dreams.

Ackles own team continues to bring in the large crowds at BC Place regularly passing the 30,000 mark.

While Montreal's only problem is seats, there aren't enough of them, the 20,202 currently at McGill are filled on a regular basis.

And there is once again hopeful talk that Ottawa will soon rejoin the league, bringing back a flood of memories of the days of Jackson, Stewart, Adkins, , Clements, Holloway, Gabriel and host of other names that once made Ottawa one of the CFL's great cities.

So where does Mr. Ackles find the troubling signs that need our attention.

From the south and the always present whispers of an NFL franchise for Toronto.

Ackles has taken on a holy crusade of sorts to try and send the idea to the sidelines on a permanent basis.

In fact he's so concerned at what an NFL franchise may do to the CFL, that he's enlisting Canadians in his efforts to keep the NFL away and to help keep the CFL as a living unique entity above the 49th parallel.

An excerpt from his book TheWaterboy, sums up his feelings quite nicely and sends out a message that Canadian football fans should take to heart and take up the battle with.

But to have 70,000 people enjoy an NFL game in Toronto, you will murder eight CFL franchises, Ackles writes in his book. Other than for a few people and one city, what is the advantage of a franchise -- except, as I say, for a few greedy people to turn $1 billion into $6 billion, while screwing the rest of the country.

Grab your copy of the Ackles song sheet and join in, raise your voice with like minded Canadian football fans to join the cause.

And since every good cause deserves a theme song, we suggest that he take advantage of that good old fashioned wheatland soul. They have the perfect sentiment for the cause!