Boomer Esiason’s three-year-old commentary that annoyed a lot of CFL fans, and apparently players, is still making waves in Canada.
The comments in question occurred while Esiason was calling a Jan. 2021 game between the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams for CBS. During the first half of the game, then-Cardinals quarterback Chris Streveler threw an interception in the middle of the field, prompting Esiason to remind him, “This isn’t the Grey Cup, this isn’t the CFL. you can’t just take chances and throw the ball down the middle of the field and expect somebody not to come down with it.” Streveler was a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 2019 when they won the Grey Cup.
So why are we talking about Esiason’s infamous “this isn’t the CFL” comment more than three years after the fact? Streveler, who played for the New York Jets in 2022, is back with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and was asked about Esiason’s apparent CFL insult.
“If those guys could play in the NFL they would be playing in the NFL. They’re not. They’re playing in the CFL.” – Boomer Esiason defending his CFL take from three years ago… pic.twitter.com/NExSmZYFwb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 2, 2024
“Let it go, boys,” Esiason said on his Friday morning WFAN radio show. “What snowflake asked him that question?”
John Hodge of 3 Down Nation asked the question, and it garnered the following response from Streveler, “I never had a chance to talk to him about it. I would have just asked for clarification as to what he meant, but I’m not going to press him. You’re on the air, you say something, comes off. It’s not personal, he’s just doing his job just like I’m trying to do my job.”
“Obviously, it ended up being a pick-six and an unfortunate play, but I think that that’s a really unfair shot at the CFL,” Streveler added. “I have so much respect for the game and the players that are up here, I don’t think that’s fair to the league at all.
“There’s a lot of really talented quarterbacks and I don’t think [the three-down] game is based on just throwing the ball up by any means. It’s unfortunate that that’s maybe the impression of the CFL that’s given to people because of that comment and me making a mistake at a critical point in the game.”
There might be a lot of talented players and quarterbacks in the CFL, but Esiason maintains that the league pales in comparison to the NFL.
“If those guys could play in the NFL, they would be playing in the NFL,” Esiason said. “They’re not. They’re playing in the CFL. So, maybe you take chances in the CFL because the athletes aren’t quite the athletes that are playing in the NFL.”
“Let me just tell you something, everybody up there, look, if your guys were good enough to play in the NFL, like Streveler played in the NFL,” Esiason continued. “And if he was good enough to stay here he would stay here, he wouldn’t be signing with the Canadian Football League. It’s just a different brand of football…it’s an entertaining game for sure…but it’s not the NFL, I’m sorry.”
Esiason’s initial comments on the CFL garnered a lot of backlash, with the Ottawa Senators radio announcers even comparing him to old spaghetti-stained Tupperware. One can’t even begin to imagine the comparisons Esiason will encounter now that he’s not backing down from his CFL slander.
