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Published Sep 25, 2025 • 4 minute read
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CFL fan Matthew Campbell wants spectators at the league’s games this weekend to wear black — like this Calgary Stampeders supporter in 2018 — to deliver a message of resistance to announced rule changes. Photo by Gavin Young /Postmedia NetworkArticle content
Matthew Campbell is on the line from Houston, but the distance doesn’t distill the passion he feels for Canadian football.
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Originally from Hamilton but a died-in-the-green-wool Saskatchewan Roughriders fan – he hoped we wouldn’t hold that against him here in Manitoba – Campbell watched the CFL’s game-changing news conference on Monday and immediately sprang into action.
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Creating a group called Concerned Fans of Canadian Football, Campbell began an online petition for like-minded followers of the three-down game.
Their concern: The league’s plan to erase two things that make the CFL game unique – the 110-yard length of the field and the position of the goal posts on the goal lines.
More than 1,100 fans signed up on the first day.
By early afternoon on Thursday, the petition had some 2,250 signatures, from all three Canadian coasts and virtually all points in between – including 68 from the U.S.
The Winnipeg Sun’s Daily Headline News
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A few fans even weighed in from places such as Australia, Iceland, Mexico and Europe.
“The passion with which I’ve seen people respond, that’s taken me aback a little bit,” Campbell said. “That it’s been so quick to take off.”
He gets it, though.
A former employee of one of the big banks in Toronto and on the verge of getting his certification as a chartered professional accountant in the States, Campbell worries he’s seen this before with Canadian institutions.
“I understand business,” he said. “My concern is very much like what we’ve seen with some of the department stories like Eaton’s and Sears back in the day. I understand the league is in a bit of trouble right now with attendance. So I get that.
“But sometimes you can overdo the rebranding and cut the loyalty for the fans who have stuck with the brand through thick and thin.”
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That’s already happening, with fans threatening to cancel long-held season tickets over this two-step Americanization of their game.
Campbell doesn’t want to see fans abandon ship – yet.
But he’s calling for them to send a clear message to rookie commissioner Stewart Johnston and the nine governors who approved the changes.
“I’m going to try the most Canadian thing I can think of, which is let’s have further consultation,” Campbell said. “We don’t need to rush into this.”
He’d like fans to deliver that message to stadiums over the next two weekends. Not by leaving their seats empty, though.
“I have an alternative. Instead of wearing your regular jersey, wear all black,” he said. “Or if you want to wear your jersey, just black out the logos with some tape or something. Still show support for the team and players … but just visibly show the CFL, the board of governors, the commissioner, that we need a pause on this until there’s some sober second thought.”
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The commissioner claims the game will be higher-scoring and more entertaining with the changes. But he didn’t consult with fans, players or coaches, many of whom are baffled.
If he had, here’s some of what he would have heard.
“Garbage,” is how B.C. Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke, a Canadian and arguably the CFL’s marquee player, described the plan.
Hall of Fame player and two-time coach of the year Mike O’Shea had similar feelings.
“If we’re going to be altering the game and removing uniquely Canadian items from the game, I would never be in favour of that,” the Winnipeg Blue Bombers boss said. “Because it’s ours. Uniquely ours.”
At a time when Canadian elbows are up when it comes to dealing with the U.S., the CFL’s supposed big thinkers are letting the country down.
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Why not a trial run, first?
And what the hell could be next?
Watching Monday’s news unfold from Texas, Campbell was struck by the commissioner’s soft response to a question about whether the three downs could also be on the table, eventually.
Johnston didn’t say no.
“In my Bay Street experience,” Campbell said. “That means we need to get through this change and it’ll probably be something for consideration in 2028, if I had to predict it.”
Instead of throwing Canadiana away, he says the league should be taking advantage of the increased flag-waving in this country by flooding social media with messages about the uniqueness of the Canadian game.
“Especially in the context where national pride has really been a thing this year.”
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The seeds for Campbell’s three-down pride were planted at Ivor Wynne Stadium in the 1980s, when his grandfather would give his dad tickets to Tiger-Cats games.
Going into the 1989 Grey Cup, he made a bet with his dad that put some of his household chores on the line. When Saskatchewan beat Hamilton in one of the best Grey Cups of them all, he won the bet – and the Riders won his heart.
With kids of his own now, Campbell wonders what will be left of the game by the time they’re old enough to be fans.
“I’ve grown to really love the league,” he said, calling this season the most exciting in years, with last-minute craziness that could only happen in the CFL. “It’s just very organic and something that’s very special these days. I’m not against change … but it was just too quick and not quite considered properly. People need to feel like they’re being heard at least, if that’s going to happen.”
He hopes thousands will be heard, and seen, in stadiums across the country, beginning this weekend.
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia
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