More things change the more they stay the same in the Northern Football Conference

I played for the Sault Ste. Marie Storm, now the Steelers, as a wideout, kick, punt and missed field goal returnman during the 2000 and 2001 seasons, in both the provincial Northern Football Conference of Ontario and Canadian Senior, today Major now, Football League as it has become since, a quality league that had younger but fast Canadian university football and older but experienced Canadian professional football players all playing together in the summer, from late May to late August. Way back then, the Storm and now Steelers were just starting to grow into the likely dynasty program it currently is up north there in the Soo, we had a hot little hand at 5-3 throughout our playoffs, just before getting stomped on in the 2000 NFC championship final game 38-3 down at Ivor Wynne Stadium against the 7-1 Burlington Oakville Longhorns. So a plan was hatched that we young turks of the Sault would roll straight through into the playoffs with reckless abandon without cause to fear anyone, right past everyone and this same time next year win that championship outright from the Longhorns, boy did we have another thing coming.

After starting off the 2001 playoffs on the right foot, by smoking the 3-5 Spartans of Sudbury 41-0 in the quarterfinals, we expected to hear that 8-0 Oakville would be ejected from the playoffs, thus giving us the automatic semifinal win and thus a free ride into the NFC championship final game against the winner of the 6-2 North Bay Bulldogs at 7-1 Mississauga Wolverines semi. The Longhorns, you will see, had played all but their last regular season game with an ineligible and thus illegal American named Robb Hatchett-Foxx, a former CJFL, OFC and NFC player who according to the league, used his deliberate malicious behavior to knowingly deceived his club into those 7 games. That now said, he simply was banned for 5 years, club fined $500 without having to be forced to forfeit those ill won games that kept them in the playoffs, which allowed Oakville to spank us again on their home turf 31-0.

Advance forward seven years later, while just two years ago, the 2-6 Mega City Maddogs were penalized two games for using an ineligible player named Dave Brown on the eligibility issue of not reporting his playing status, but the Maddogs remained in the playoffs as the 3-5 Quinte Panthers did not meet financial obligations, I still decided to stay out from the game due to illness, but also this back of the head feeling that games were decided in boardrooms and not on the field where they belonged. Now, both the 6-0-0-1 Sault Steelers and 1-6 North Bay Bulldogs are involved within a fiasco that a player of theirs named Todd Seely was ineligible as he played a year with the Bulldogs, then played in the Alberta Football League for 6 years before rejoining the NFC with the Soo, then a decision as well that 2-4 Toronto Raiders were late with their players fees and had become ineligible for the playoffs with North Bay replacing them instead, both fiascos may I add could result in a playoff boycott this year then split up of the provincial conference next into a North and South for a real football civil war. For the love of the game of football, I hope cooler heads prevail to make the NFC and the CMFL itself quickly into a better on field product tomorrow, rather than slowly into a worse than bush league quagmire it has sadly become today.