Today is the big day for Canadian football fans, the annual Grey Cup championship game.

Unlike our cousins to the south, we don’t get all fancy and use Roman numerals to describe the game. We don’t need to add artificial gravitas to it – our trophy has been around for more than a century, something I am sure doesn’t sit well with those newcomers in the NFL who I think this year celebrated their XLIXth championship game.

Making this day special for me is that the team I have been cheering for the past couple of years, the OTTAWAREDBLACKS, are representing the East, taking on the Western Champion Edmonton Eskimos. Yes, the REDBLACKS have probably the worst team name in professional sports, a name chosen to offend the least number of people. For better or worse though, they are my hometown team.

It wasn’t always the case. I grew up in Montreal and for decades was a fan of the Alouettes, even after I moved to Ottawa. When I attended games at what was then Lansdowne Park, I went to cheer for the visitors.

Times do change though, and football in Ottawa has suffered some setbacks over the years. A series of disastrous ownership moves led to the folding of the Ottawa Roughriders in 1996, after more than a century. A successor team, the Renegades, also folded due to ownership issues. But now a new team, in a rebuilt stadium, has captured the city’s imagination.

We were told the expansion draft used to stock the REDBLACKS with players prior to last season was designed so that the team would be competitive from the outset. That didn’t seem to work. Sixteen losses against just two wins does not seem competitive. Though I will admit the team was rarely blown out of a game, more edged out in the fourth quarter.

This year though, with mostly the same players, they found their game, finishing first in the division and dramatically winning their playoff game. It’s a Cinderella story, but not really. The seeds were planted last year. This year the breaks have gone their way.

I stopped cheering for the Montreal Alouettes when I became an Ottawa Renegades season ticket holder a few years back. I’d be a REDBLACKS season ticket holder if not for the fact I always seem to be out of town when the home games are scheduled. Maybe next season. I think I made it to two home games this year, the same number as last season.

Tonight though I will be watching and cheering from the comfort of home. The game is being played in Winnipeg, halfway across the country. Like any fan, I feel good about my team’s chances. I know that’s not a logical response, I’m basing it solely on emotion not reason. Edmonton beat Ottawa in their two encounters this season. That would make them the favourites to win, I would think. The REDBLACKS though have shown they can’t be counted out in any game, no matter how much they are considered to be the underdogs.

If you’ve never checked out Canadian football, this would be a good game for your initiation. In countries with no CFL television deal (in other words most of the world) you can watch it on YouTube, or so I understand. Game time is 6 p.m. EST.